WHAT WE DO



To fulfil its mission, L’Osservatorio:


Information:

  • Compiles well founded conflict profile fact sheets, which provide key reference material on civilian victims caught in armed conflicts in a number of countries as well as analysis of their geopolitical and humanitarian context;
  • Provides regular updates on conflicts and their consequences for/on civilians;
  • Conducts ad hoc research on specific armed conflicts, echoing the voices of the victims, featuring their stories, noting their needs, and demanding accountability for past abuses.

Archive:

  • Archives memories of civilians involved in armed conflicts and ensures their global accessibility.

Network:

  • Juxtaposes past memories of Italian civilian victims of the Second World War with those of contemporary conflicts, with the aim of exploring ways to strengthen sources of resilience;
  • Translates past and present memories into learning tools to sensitise the new generations and help “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (as in the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations of 1945).

Expected output


By the end of 2016, L’Osservatorio aims to produce and disseminate at least 40 conflict-profile fact-sheets with updated information on conflicts and their consequences on civilians, as well as to publish research papers on the following subjects:

  • Rape as a weapon of war and the recognition of the status of civilian victim for women victims of sexual violence in the context of war
  • Ratification by Italy of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
  • Horn of Africa: The correlation between conflicts in the Horn of Africa and forced migration towards Europe
  • Drones and Demining in the Balcan Floods
  • Reducing the high cost of the healing of victims of war: the use of 3D printers for producing local and low-cost prosthetic limbs for civilians
  • Sierra Leone: Child soldiers and the civil war
  • From Kabul with Hope: the Journey of an Afghan Refugee to Germany
  • Jordan and refugees from Iraq, Palestine and Syria: a warm welcome?
  • Civilian casualties in Dalmatia between 1941 and 1943
  • Humanitarian visa for Refugees: the experience of Brazil with Haitian and Syrian citizens
  • DR Congo: Testimonies of refugees and IDPs fleeing Eastern Congo
  • DR Congo: Judiciary and extra-judiciary reparations for civilian victims in DRC: the case of the trial of Thomas Lubanga

Each paper will be made available in English, Italian and, depending on the local context, an additional language.