The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention

Description

The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention is a Canadian non-profit that works to stop mass atrocities before they happen. It was founded in 2008 in Toronto and works with communities threatened by genocide around the world. Its approach combines direct cooperation with at-risk people and the use of technology for early warning.

The organization runs a genocide risk assessment and monitoring process that tracks what it calls situations of concern, collecting data from media, NGOs, governments and contacts on the ground. It has produced threat assessments on places including Iran, Kenya and Azerbaijan, and monitors further situations in Colombia, Indonesia and Myanmar. When a threat is identified, the group shares findings with advocacy groups, policy makers and targeted communities and helps design non-violent prevention measures, including countering hate speech.

To support this work it built ThreatWiki, a data visualization platform for tracking events and actors within a situation of concern, and co-created Hatebase, a large multilingual repository of hate speech used to detect early warning signs of violence. Where active violence does occur, the group also assists communities with evacuation and emergency planning, and it takes part in peacebuilding and public education on genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Sentinel Project partners with ethnic and religious communities, human rights and anti-genocide organizations, and policy makers in North America and Europe, and it draws on an advisory council of specialists in genocide studies, conflict resolution and technology. Its team includes research, technology and operations staff, with project coordinators working in the Democratic Republic of Congo and East Africa.