A problem that has plagued the conflict prevention and peace-building community is the lack of concise and engaging information about ongoing or past genocides and mass atrocities. Practitioners and educators must often resort to scouring the internet for sources that are scattered across multiple web pages. This poses a problem for those who need information immediately, whether it be for the purposes of teaching a class on genocide or to better understand how to advocate for victim groups that are targeted by mass atrocities.
Genocide Watch, the Founder and Coordinator of the Alliance Against Genocide, has set out to resolve this issue with a new technology, "Timestream," which makes it easier to understand the progression of genocides and mass atrocities.
Timestream is an educational software that enables users to create detailed, interactive timelines for case studies. Genocide Watch is currently using Timestream to chronologically map events for historical or emerging genocides and mass atrocities.
"Timestream is a wonderful tool! We brought this educational platform from a private technology company to track genocidal processes around the world. Genocide Watch hopes this will be used in classrooms everywhere to educate and raise awareness about genocide," says Deanna Wilken, Senior Programs Director at Genocide Watch.
Genocide Watch has already published three detailed Timestreams on its website:
• "India's Muslims in Assam,"tracking the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment in India.
• "Myanmar's Genocide of the Rohingya,"mapping the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
• "Bosco Ntaganda's War Crimes,"illustrating the growing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The team is currently working on publishing more Timestreams, including but not limited to case studies on the Fulani and ISWAP crisis in Nigeria, China's genocide of Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims, and Somalia's civil war and genocide. Genocide Watch is excited about the potential of Timestream for practitioners and analysts in the conflict prevention and peace-building fields.
Researchers, educators, and students are encouraged to engage with the Timestreams on the Genocide Watch website: https://www.genocidewatch.com/current-alert-timestreams.
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