Reference
Announcements: Aug 2015
Iraq Digital Memorial
Honouring the dead in the eyes of the living
Download PDF invitation and flyer.
.الرجاء الضغط على هذا الرابط للنشرة العربية
Iraq Digital Memorial is a project initiated and managed by Iraq Body Count, which aims to honour the individual memory of those who died violently in Iraq since 2003. Further details below.
About Iraq Body Count
Iraq Body Count (IBC) is the only organisation which has been working since 2003 to record, and make publicly accessible, casualties of violent conflict in Iraq. IBC’s casualty records are a valuable and trusted point of reference for international, politically diverse individuals and organisations. The recording and authentication process is transparent and can be traced back, through the original media sources the information it is derived from, to the individual who supplied the information.
Such records, especially with casualties and violent incidents increasing in recent years, would not be possible without the help of Iraqis inside Iraq, from journalists, medics, police personnel and other witnesses who take part in reporting casualties.
IBC aims to record individual deaths in as much detail as possible, however as this information depends on media articles, some 90% of recorded deaths remain a number, without a name. IBC believes every one of those numbers was a person with friends and family who loved them, and a unique story to tell.
About Iraq Digital Memorial
Iraq Digital Memorial (IDM) could become a means to honour the memory of those who have died through sharing their name and story, and also the stories of those who have been impacted by their loss and whose life has been changed forever as a result.
At this initial consultation phase, IDM aims to consult Iraqis on the project’s aims, and how to practically develop this memorial to honour the dead. Questions for the project include, are Iraqis ready to remember and reflect on the reality of loss, when so many continue to perish on a daily basis? Is there public interest and capacity to engage with an online memorial, in order to realise IDM’s potential?
The longer term objective for IDM, is to enable Iraqis to publicly share their own experiences of loss and survival, by uploading such information themselves on the online memorial. such sharing will be both the factual, demographic information about the deceased (name, date and place of birth etc), as well as personal stories, as remembered by their family and friends. This is a challenging undertaking, though not impossible with the help of ordinary Iraqis, both inside and outside Iraq.
In this way, Iraqi casualties of violence can be humanised beyond numbers alone. The value of this was recognised for the victims of the 7/7 London bombing and 9/11, so why not for those who have died in Iraq?
Get in touch to support IDM, so that the identity of the Iraqi dead are not ignored in the eyes of the living.
Contact IBC Outreach Worker Tara Yahya:
Download PDF invitation and flyer.
الرجاء الضغط على هذا الرابط للنشرة العربية
This project is made possible by funding from ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) with means of the German Federal Foreign Office