“I'm certain family members have suffered tremendously (from the deaths of family at the hands of soldiers) but I'm not familiar with the techniques used to express such suffering in monetary terms.”

Merina Eduards (meh-ree-nah ed-wahrdz)

expert witness - Inter-American Court of Human Rights

IMAGE SOURCE: Merina Eduards. Facebook. 11 Nov 2020. | TEXT SOURCE: Public report to Deputy Secretary of the Inter American Court of Human Rights. 12 Mar. 1993.

IMAGE SOURCE: Merina Eduards. Facebook. 11 Nov 2020. | TEXT SOURCE: Public report to Deputy Secretary of the Inter American Court of Human Rights. 12 Mar. 1993.

QUOTE CONTEXT: In response to a question regarding the economic tabulation of the psychological and the emotional damages to family members of the beating and killing of six unarmed Maroon men by a group of soldiers on New Year’s eve, 1987.
QUOTE QUESTION: In what ways can human suffering be measured when one loses family to state violence?


IMAGE CONTEXT: Facebook profile picture.

IMAGE QUESTION: What landscape best frames your profile to the world?


MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote is from a largely unseen report to an international court. The photo is from a Facebook profile.

MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: How do you decide what to share with the wider world through digital technology?


READ THE FULL TEXT OF MERINA EDUARDS’ REPORT: http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/iachr/D/15-esp-17.html

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“Our struggle, like our grandparents’ and great-grandparents’, is to defend this land so that we can hand it over to the new generations just as it was when we received it.”

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“Our ancestors fought for and won their freedom from slavery and established autonomous communities. We fight for and won our right for legal recognition, controlling and managing our territory.”