Triangulating Evidence

Democratising evidence-collection to fight territorial crimes in Nicaragua

justice in the anthropocene

challenge

How can we support Nicaragua’s indigenous peoples in the fight for their land rights?

designers

Kornelia Dimitrova

partners

Lottie

Shelter City

designers

Kornelia Dimitrova

In Nicaragua, illegal settlements in indigenous territories are leading to violent conflicts between settlers and indigenous tribes. This process of internal colonisation could eventually lead to a civil war. Seeking to support the indigenous tribes by creating the evidence for future court cases, Kornelia Dimitrova and Human Rights Defender Lottie Cunningham Wren designed an investigative tool and method that combines law and cultural geography.

partners

Lottie

Shelter City

Intervention needed

To prevent the conflicts erupting into a full-blown civil war, the Nicaraguan government needs to intervene and resolve the dispute. To do so, there is an immediate need for evidence of illegal settlement by third parties in indigenous lands. Lottie and several other lawyers compile this evidence. However, it is difficult and even dangerous to quantify and locate the process of internal colonisation.

Intervention needed

To prevent the conflicts erupting into a full-blown civil war, the Nicaraguan government needs to intervene and resolve the dispute. To do so, there is an immediate need for evidence of illegal settlement by third parties in indigenous lands. Lottie and several other lawyers compile this evidence. However, it is difficult and even dangerous to quantify and locate the process of internal colonisation.

In Nicaragua, illegal settlements in indigenous territories are leading to violent conflicts between settlers and indigenous tribes. This process of internal colonisation could eventually lead to a civil war. Seeking to support the indigenous tribes by creating the evidence for future court cases, Kornelia Dimitrova and Human Rights Defender Lottie Cunningham Wren designed an investigative tool and method that combines law and cultural geography.

The challenges Lottie faces

Lottie is a lawyer and the founder of human rights organisation CEJUDHCAN. Specifically, she defends the land rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast, supporting them in gaining and developing full control and governance of their ancestral territories. In 2001, her testimony for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights helped in obtaining a sentence in favour of the local community in the landmark case ‘Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua.’

Lay of the land

Kornelia developed a forensic geography investigative tool that layers various types of evidence in order to generate convincing proof. Illegal settlers use the land differently from the indigenous communities, and this distinction is visible in satellite imagery. Cross-referencing evidence from both experts and victims – the visual imagery and the verbal and digital testimonies of indigenous people – drastically reduces bias and mistakes, allowing the investigation to arrive at a common truth.