Online monitoring database launches to help protect civilians in Armenia and Azerbaijan border communities

A new database designed to track conflict incidents against civilians along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border launched today. Using Google Earth and Google Maps the database will record and map out incidents that have targeted civilians and their property, based on information obtained from the affected communities on either side of the border areas between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“This is an ongoing conflict for communities living along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border who continue to suffer the effects of lasting conflict. Shootings, landmines and escalations of conflict occur regularly, affecting communities' day-to-day lives,” said Tabib Huseynov, Project Manager for the Caucasus. “Despite the ongoing conflict to date there has been limited reporting and tracking of incidents along the border. The database will provide one place where details of incidents are held, enabling the scale of incidents against civilians to be seen.”

The first of its kind in this region, the monitoring database is part of a wider project that aims to improve the safety and security of communities living in areas adjacent to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the Nagorny Karabakh Line of Contact. The project is being jointly implemented by Saferworld and partners the Civil Society Institute (Armenia) and the Society for Humanitarian Research (Azerbaijan). It is funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

The database will be regularly updated and made available to policy-makers, civil society, media and the wider public in Armenia, Azerbaijan and internationally. Since the project began in January 2014 the database has recorded incidents of shootings and sporadic gunfire aimed at communities and incidents from unexploded landmines.

“By raising awareness and transparency about these incidents against civilians we also hope it will serve as a deterrent to the targeting of civilians, by convincing the perpetrators that their actions against civilians will not go unnoticed,” said Huseynov.

Visit the database here.

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“By raising awareness and transparency about these incidents against civilians we also hope it will serve as a deterrent to the targeting of civilians by convincing the perpetrators that their actions against civilians will not go unnoticed”

Tabib Huseynov