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important element to ascertaining the situation. IRIN is a noncommercial
venture that is totally dependent on donor government or institutional
financing. The website is http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN. 272
ReliefWeb aids decision-making through updates on disasters and the
consolidation of information from numerous sources. This information is
designed to allow relief agencies and governments to respond quickly when
needed. ReliefWeb lists reports from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
and news agencies. It has a searchable database of over 50,000 documents
dating back to 1981, updated every half-hour from locations in New York,
Geneva, and soon Asia. It was launched in 1996 and entrenched by General
Assembly resolution 51/194 on 10 February 1997. The site receives up to
50,000 page requests per day (with a staff of only five in New York and four in
Geneva), and it has handled nineteen complex emergencies and over 1,100
natural disasters. The August 1999 earthquake in Turkey produced over 50,000
hits a day on ReliefWeb’s site. 273 As the site notes
Impartiality and transparency are cornerstones of our policy and we
maintain them by meticulously sourcing and dating all documents we
put up, allowing ReliefWeb to provide balanced coverage. We post the
information as is. No editing, no rewriting, no tampering. What you see
is what the information providers give us. 274
ReliefWeb’s Internet site is http://www.reliefweb.int/. Its email site is
comments@reliefweb.int. The UN has recommended the creation of a
Humanitarian Extranet to provide global access to authorized users. This would
allow situational analysis without prejudicial input from the combatants out of
the eyes of the press. 275
IT also impacts on issues of law in international conflicts. The
“sovereign” has lost control of much of what people can see and hear, making it
more difficult to “form” the consciousness of the populace than in the past. If
the essence of sovereignty is the power to exclude others from interfering in
one’s affairs (personal or governmental), then IT is eroding that concept. In
Bosnia, for example, Villanova University developed a legal web page that had
272 Information listed here on IRIN was taken from the IRIN website on 18 October
2000.
273 Information reported here on ReliefWeb was taken from the ReliefWeb website on
18 October 2000.
274 Ibid.
275 “Information Technologies Can Help Prevent, Manage, and Resolve Conflicts
Internationally,” downloaded from the U.S. Institute of Peace website, June 1997.
156