The journey of this archive originates from my practice-led doctoral research titled “In the Shadows Of UNHCR's Data-Fiction - An Inconsistency Framework And Platform For Humanitarian Counter Narratives: I'M HERE'” in Creative and Critical Practice in Digital Media at the School of Media, Arts, and Humanities at the University of Sussex between 2019 and 2023.

In my research, reflecting on over a decade-long service at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as an international professional working with data, I explore the gap between the rights outlined in international refugee law and the actual experiences of refugees in UNHCR's digital media representations. This resultant archival model indexes the inconsistencies between phenomena and their representations through the overlooked narratives in this gap by piecing together select insights from UNHCR staff, advocates, and academic publications that counter UNHCR's robust and binary representations.

Data plays a role in shaping both global policy decisions and resource allocation for UNHCR's humanitarian action, as well as the content of the organization's humanitarian communication. Each counter narrative, though rooted in a specific location, has global implications. The geo-referenced interface visually situates the errors, the simplifications, and the absences in UNHCR's data that conceal these inconsistencies as much as they reveal while moving from local siloes to their broader global implications. The archive displays not just the gap in data itself, but also the mechanics of its creation, its intended audience, and the narratives it selectively highlights or conceals within a genealogy of affiliations in UNHCR's institutional lexicon and quantification mechanisms that work towards the non-admission of these inconsistencies with continuous loss of institutional memory.

In practice, these data gaps represent the possibility of change and corrective action that the people affected by forced displacement have never experienced in the absence of public knowledge about UNHCR's direct or indirect acts of omission resulting in the violations of their rights. My intention is to open up a space for a more critical, reflective, and inclusive dialogue about the true cost of these actions meted out in UNHCR's robust data on the people served by the organization. In that sense, “I'M HERE” stands as an invitation to my former colleagues at UNHCR, fellow researchers, and the wider public, each of whom has a unique responsibility in reflecting in their own narrative for a renewed UNHCR narrative that stands for inclusiveness, transparency, equity, and justice.

I invite my former colleagues at UNHCR to take a step back from their commitment to authorized interpretations with a status quo of silence on these inconsistencies. But mere acknowledgment is insufficient. The subsequent essential step would be to transition towards a transparent communication system, challenging and surpassing the prevailing structures and protocols that restrict the flow of information for image management, both internally within UNHCR and externally to the public.

Theory without practice lacks real-world impact, while practice without theory lacks direction. I invite fellow researchers to reflect on their responsibility to not only critique existing structures but to strive for practices that can do something about injustices they raise in their research and go beyond scholarly critiques with ideas and words.

For the wider audience visiting this archive, I aim for anyone, regardless of prior expertise, to access, understand, and probe UNHCR's digital media portrayals with data, delving into what's been removed from their view.

This prototype edition of the archive contains insights and materials I collected during my research. While visitors can view the content, they can't add or alter narratives. But it is designed for adaptability and growth, reminiscent of building a house step by step. Guided by my research advisors, Cécile Chevalier and Anke Schwittay, and realized by the technical skills of Waqar Arshad, with me as the system architect, we've laid the foundation. For the archive to fully realize its vision with future iterations, collaboration across disciplines is crucial. But the heart of its growth will be the involvement of displaced communities, essential for the archive's continued evolution.

Warmly,
Ceren Yuksel