WITNESS

Collaboration:

WITNESS provides in-person and online support to activists operating in suddenly emerging or acutely visible crises (e.g., political violence, coups, protests) as well as cases of chronic abuse (e.g., gender-based violence, extractive industries, systemic racism). In close collaboration with local communities, WITNESS develops customised tools and guidance that are meant to directly address the challenges that human rights defenders encounter when they use video and related communications technologies in their work. From the time of its founding through to 2017, WITNESS trained more than 7,000 people from over 100 countries, produced training materials in 23 languages, and reached more than one million online with their resources.

WITNESS' network of regional team members based in five key regions - Latin America, Africa, the United States (US), the Middle East/North Africa, and Asia - provide training and support to human rights defenders facing injustice, teaching them to create and preserve compelling documentation of abuse, as well as how to reach the right audiences at the right time. WITNESS works to demonstrate effective collaboration for impact among activists, lawyers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and others pursuing shared goals. The organisation also works to ensure that the tools people use (e.g., cell phones, social media platforms) enable them to safely stand up for their rights. Together, these strategies support human rights defenders to pressure key decision makers, sway unfair policies, and hold the guilty to account.

Examples:

• In collaboration with partners in Syria, WITNESS created the first-ever comprehensive Video as Evidence guide (see Related Summaries, below) to support ordinary citizens in learning to capture footage of human rights abuse that can be verified and used as legal evidence for accountability.
• Within 10 days of US President Donald Trump being elected, there were reports of nearly 900 cases of harassment and intimidation in the US. WITNESS mobilised to produce "Filming Hate," a tip sheet for bystanders on how to document acts of hate safely, ethically, and effectively.
• In collaboration with nine organisations in Brazil, WITNESS created a guide on filming police violence during protests, widely utilised during mobilisations around the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. These videos of abuse were presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to demand justice and accountability.

Advocacy:


Out of collaboration with grassroots groups, WITNESS raises human rights concerns and priorities to leading technology companies, advocating for the creation of human rights-centred policies and functionalities around privacy, verification, preservation, and countering hate and bigotry. WITNESS pushes for guidance to be embedded on commonly used platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, so that average consumers understand the risks they are taking when they choose to document and share human rights content.

Examples:

• After years of WITNESS advocacy, YouTube released its Custom Blur Tool enabling users to blur faces and sensitive content on a video before uploading, allowing citizens sharing testimony of human rights violations to safeguard footage that could lead to people being targeted.
• After the fatal shooting of Philando Castile by Minnesota, US police was broadcast over Facebook Live, Facebook reached out to WITNESS for help thinking through their role in presenting, curating, and preserving live footage from human rights and social justice contexts.

Technology Innovation:

WITNESS innovates within the constantly evolving technology landscape in order to harness tech's potential to advance human rights. Drawing on feedback from partners, WITNESS innovates in response to new developments in communications technologies and broader trends shaping the human rights field (including the rise of livestreaming and virtual reality, the increasing centrality of video evidence, and the growing number of people worldwide curating video they did not create). The organisation works to spur the development of tools, solutions, and expertise relevant to the use and curation of video in similar contexts around the world.

Examples:

• WITNESS developed the Mobil-Eyes Us initiative, which connects frontline activists with "distant witnesses" watching an event via livestream to exert pressure, show solidarity, and change the outcome of a human rights situation in real time. The app was piloted at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is in further development.
• In collaboration with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) organisations, the WITNESS Media Lab produced "Capturing Hate," a report analysis eyewitness videos depicting transphobic violence, recorded and shared as entertainment. (See Related Summaries, below.) This data is meant to be a tool for LGBTQ communities to push for justice and policy changes.
• With more and more bystander footage of violence being shared online, WITNESS produced Ethical Guidelines for using eyewitness videos in human right reporting and advocacy.

More examples of WITNESS' strategies and impact for human rights change can be found here. WITNESS also offers tools such as those at Related Summaries, below, and a library of free resources for video activists, trainers, and their allies featuring, for example, the Activists' Guide to Archiving Video in several languages.

Human Rights, Social Justice