MaGMap: The benefits and risks of mass grave mapping

MaGPIE team members Professor Melanie Klinkner and Dr Ellie Smith have recently published the outputs from MaGMap, an open-access resource for rights-informed mass grave mapping.

The aim of this project was to examine where, when and under what circumstances mapping of mass graves should be avoided or kept secret so that protection is not jeopardised. Their outputs, three separate decision-making tools and a guide to their use – Rights Informed Mass Grave Mapping – a guide to the use of mapping tools – fill this gap.

The guide offers three tools that will enable rights-informed mass grave mapping:

1. An interactive, rights-informed process flowchart outlining the considerations and steps that arise as part of a mapping exercise (the ‘Flowchart’);
2. A mass grave-mapping decision tree (the ‘Decision Tree’) outlining when and how the location of mass graves should be recorded in an open-source map, and when the publication of a site location might expose the site, witnesses, family members and affected communities to danger; and
3. A Risk Register, as a starting point for the development of structured and effective risk-mitigation strategies.

Guatemala

During April 2024, Professor Melanie, Dr. Ellie and Diego visited Guatemala, a MaGPIE case study country. To find out more about what they learnt, please read: MaGPIE Guatemala Visit

Cambodia

At the end of January 2024, Professor Melanie Klinkner and Dr Ellie Smith travelled to Cambodia to hear more about the mass grave mapping project conducted by the Documentation of Cambodia (DC-CAM), including any challenges they faced with data collection and verification. They also met with UN representatives at the ECCC, where they discussed, amongst other things, the use of mapping materials in legal proceedings and their own open source court documentation project.

From Our Previous Associated Research:

The Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation

Effective rules and procedures for the protection, maintenance and investigation of mass graves are vital. The Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection defines standards on this crucial issue by collating and clarifying international norms to progress policy and practice.

Mass Graves, Truth and Justice

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Investigation of Mass Graves

This book, edited by Melanie Klinkner and Ellie Smith, tactfully examines this sensitive topic, demonstrating how mass grave investigations can be highly complex, context-specific, lengthy and expensive processes, requiring significant planning, coordination, expertise and resources. The book analyses the various processes involved in mass grave investigation from a number of disciplinary perspectives and a variety of geographical, cultural and political contexts, including Bosnia, Guatemala, Libya, Nepal and Rwanda. Chapters feature expert contributions from voices in the fields of forensic sciences, advocacy and the judiciary, along with world-leading international legal expertise on mass graves, their protection and investigation.

Michael G. Karnavas Review:

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In just about every war and conflict, there are mass graves.

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With mass grave investigations being complex and content-specific, and with no uniform approach, identifying standards and modalities based on lessons learned in unearthing mass graves were needed. As M. Cherif Bassiouni observed in a scholarly journal in 2001, “[i]t is beyond logical explanation to find that the UN has […] no protocols for mass grave exhumation or reconstruction of events.” Out of this vacuum nearly two decades later, and after a “two-year long collaborative research project involving multiple experts”, the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation was born. MASS GRAVES, TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Investigation of Mass Graves grew out of this project. Research Fellow Ellie Smith and Professor Melanie Klinkner at Bournemouth University have assembled an all-star cast, offering perspectives and analysis on the multi-disciplinary processes involved in mass grave investigations in places such as Bosnia, Guatemala, Libya, Nepal, and Rwanda. This book punches well above its weight.

Resolution Animation

This short, non-verbal, animated film, “Resolution” gives voice to the experiences of family members of the missing, and humanises the statistical, judicial and forensic facets of mass grave recovery.