On 5 April 2013 Civil Rights Defenders announced a potentially life-saving gizmo which is a personal alarm to alert in the case of kidnapping of Human Rights Defenders. The slick promotional video clip above makes cleat what it intends to do. Civil Rights Defenders has dubbed it the Natalia Project (named after Natalia Estemirova, a leading, human rights defender in the North Caucasus, who was brutally kidnapped and murdered). The bracelet uses GPS and social media to inform of a kidnapping within seconds.
The bracelet uses a mobile signal to notify of an attack and issues a real-time GPS location of the victim directly to Civil Rights Defenders’ headquarters and nearby contacts and the alarm is also forwarded to social media followers. With the capability to alert the world in an instant, the Natalia Project will apply pressure on the attackers. The fact that the whole world will immediately be aware of an attack forms a virtual, defensive perimeter around human rights defenders, who are at risk, as these regimes want to avoid international attention and criticism. The first personal alarms were distributed at Civil Rights Defenders’ conference, Defenders’ Days, in Stockholm on April 2-5. The first stage of the project will include equipping 55 civil rights defenders over the next 18 months, contingent upon funding:
via Civil Rights Defenders – Revolutionary kidnap alarm for human rights defenders at risk.
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- Bracelet uses social network to protect civil rights activists (gizmag.com)
- Civil Rights Defenders organizes annual “Defenders’ Days” from 2 – 5 April 2013 (thoolen.wordpress.com)
April 17, 2013 at 15:42
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