Putting Tunisian Prisons on the Map

Sami Ben Gharbia, a Tunisian exile blogging from the Netherlands at Fikra, has made an important contribution to contextualizing and situating human rights abuses in Tunisia. Using "mashup" technology to match a database to Google Earth maps, he has produced an interactive online Tunisian Prison Map.

Ben Gharbia has posted an accompanying backgrounder on the map in both French and Arabic. He notes that the Tunisian prison system is treated as a matter of national security with few details released to the public. The list of prisons included in his map is the best he could manage, and some locations remain approximate rather than exact. Such is the mystery surrounding Ben Ali's internal security apparatus.

The mashup map will hopefully inspire human rights activists in other countries to produce similar geographic presentations. A human rights overlay to Google Earth would be a wonderful development, helping provide physical context for reports and statistics. Bravo to Ben Gharbia for this inspiring contribution. So head on over to the map and check out the prisons in Gabes, Sfax, and more...