Witness (human rights group)

Infobox Non-profit
Non-profit_name = WITNESS
founded_date = 1992
founder = Peter Gabriel
area_served = Worldwide
focus = Protecting human rights
method = Video Advocacy
homepage = [http://www.witness.org WITNESS website]

WITNESS is a New York based non-profit organization that uses video and online technologies to expose human rights violations. By partnering with organizations worldwide, WITNESS transforms video into a tool for promoting public engagement and policy change.

Profile

Co-founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel, WITNESS equips, trains and supports locally-based organizations worldwide to use video in human rights documentation and advocacy. The WITNESS Core Partners Program has allied with groups in over 70 countries, bringing controversial images to the attention of decision makers, the media and the public and catalyzing grassroots activism and political engagement.

The WITNESS Media Archive now contains over 40 original documentary productions and more than 3000 hours of original raw footage from human rights organizations around the world. These films feature a range of issues on almost every continent, including indigenous rights, war crimes and genocide, refugees and internally displaced persons, globalization, child soldiers and human trafficking.

WITNESS videos have been used:
* to promote grassroots education and mobilization
* to corroborate allegations of human rights violations
* as a resource for news broadcasts
* to catalyze human rights advocacy via the worldwide web
* as evidence in court and quasi-judicial hearings
* to complement official written reports of human rights abuses
* as a deterrent to further abuse

WITNESS also pioneered the "Seeding Video Advocacy" initiative in response to growing demand for effective training in the use of video in human rights advocacy. This program provides short-term trainings to hundreds of organizations and individuals each year, and serves to stimulate wider use of video in worldwide advocacy efforts.

Upcoming efforts

In an effort to expand the strategic use of video to create change, WITNESS will launch a participatory media website in Summer 2007 called the Hub. This site will allow anyone in the world to upload video footage of human rights abuses and will provide a forum for discussion and activism for concerned citizens, journalists, researchers and advocates.

The Video Advocacy Institute, also launching this summer, will provide a two-week introduction to video advocacy for select human rights defenders focusing on strategic, narrative and technical skills, and integration of video into advocacy work.

Films

*"Between Two Fires: Torture and Displacement in Northern Uganda" (2006)Human Rights Focus Uganda (HURIFO) / WITNESS
*"Living Proof: The Right to Live in the Community / Svjedočanstva: Pravo na život u zajednici" (2006)Association for Promoting Inclusion (API) / WITNESS
*"Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border / Derechos sobre la Línea : Caza-migrantes en la Frontera" (2005)American Friends Service Committee / ACLU / WITNESS
*"Awaiting Tomorrow" (2006)AJEDI-Ka/PES / WITNESS
*"Outlawed: Rendition, Torture, and Disappearances in the "War on Terror" (2006)WITNESS and 15 other human rights and civil liberties organizations
*"Season of Fear: Internally Displaced People in Burma Call for International Action" (2006)Burma Issues in cooperation with WITNESS
*"Equal Access: Integrated Education for Romani Children in Bulgaria / Училищният звънец за интеграция: Oбразование на ромските деца в България" (2006) Organization Drom / WITNESS

References

* [http://www.witness.org Witness's official Website]