Remote sensing for international human rights advocacy: Critiques and responses

In recent years the rise of remote sensing (RS) imagery in international human rights (IHR) advocacy has begun to draw significant critical attention from the academic community. This article engages with prominent critiques that emerge from this literature and highlights several areas of concern in their interpretation of the vision of RS that permeates the modern IHR community. Specifically, I identify three significant reasons that the literature has misjudged the role of RS in IHR investigations: (1) the oft-stated a priori notion of RS as a source of prima facie evidence, (2) an overreliance on published INGO imagery and analysis, and (3) a limited exploration of the ways in which RS use continues to evolve. This work is intended to engage in a rigorous debate over the practical and epistemological implications that stem from the adoption of new technologies in the advocacy and human rights arenas.