What do the World Cup and Olympics Have to do with Human Rights Violations?

By | October 20th, 2011

Sometimes, quite a bit.  Did you know that in Beijing alone, over 1.25 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for Olympics-related development in the lead-up to the 2008 Games?  Organizations like the Center on Housing Rights & Evictions have long documented some of the most egregious abuses, noting that the pattern of displacement has repeated itself in most of the cities that have hosted major global sporting events.  Not surprisingly, poor communities and ethnic minorities often pay the heaviest price (see South Africa during the 2010 World Cup and India during the 2010 Commonwealth Games for more recent examples).

Here at WITNESS, we started working on this issue in Brazil last year, when activists were beginning to organize their strategies to resist the onslaught of evictions planned around 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.  In the 12 cities chosen to host events across Brazil, thousands of families are [...]

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Category: Forced-Evictions, Video for Change | 4 comments | Donate

Dams and Human Rights: Using Video to Resist Evictions

By | March 14th, 2011

It’s International Day of Action Against Dams and, as we kick off our global forced evictions campaign supporting dam-affected communities at risk of eviction in Mexico, this post looks at how video and visual imagery have helped propel campaigns to protect human rights in different dam-resistance struggles around the world.  Know of other good examples?  Join the conversation in the comments field below!

22 years ago, the image of an Indigenous woman wielding a knife before the face of a government engineer in Brazil circled the world.  Tuíra Kayapó was one of 3,000 people voicing opposition to the proposed construction of six dams along the Xingu River in the Amazon. The dams, they argued, would rob from them the very core of their livelihoods – their homes, land, history, culture, food, water.

Tuíra Kayapó, Altamira Gathering – Pará, Brazil/1989 photo by Paulo Jares

 

Tuíra’s gesture – and [...]

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Today is World Habitat Day

By | October 4th, 2010

For the month of October, in conjunction with the Housing and Land Rights Day (World Habitat Day) on 04 October and our global campaign, WITNESS will feature advocacy videos used around the world in campaigns against forced evictions in the name of development. We’ll profile advocacy videos from Cambodia, Colombia, India, the Philippines and the USA and also cross-post from the Habitat International Coalition blog page.

Please visit Habitat International Coalition for events and related blog posts. Make sure you read their statement about the day below and send us (info at witness.org) any examples of video advocacy being used on forced evictions. Thank you!

Habitat International Coalition Statement on World Habitat Day

Land is essential to realizing the human rights to housing and to livelihood. For many communities, the possession of land tenure is synonymous with life itself. In our times, on [...]

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Indigenous Rights Protected After Indian Mine Stopped

By | August 25th, 2010

Following years of controversy and activism, the Government of India on Tuesday rejected the proposed bauxite mining project in the eastern state of Orissa determining that the mine violates environmental and forestry laws and would lead to further abuses against the indigenous communities in the area.

The decision is being a hailed as a major step in protecting indigenous communities’ rights and stopping human rights abuses caused by so-called development projects. The Mint’s Padmaparna Ghosh reports by video.

Although, the state government of Orissa granted approval for the project three years ago, strong local and international resistance delayed approval from the Ministry of Environment in Delhi.

Last week a ministry-appointed committee reported that the mining project by a subsidiary of the UK-based Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation would violate environmental and forestry laws and exacerbate human rights abuses of the Dongria and Kutia Kondh tribes living in [...]

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Three Must-See Documentaries Suggested by Landon van Soest

By | July 23rd, 2010

This summer we are presenting a guest blog series in which past winners of the WITNESS Award (which we present at Silverdocs) discuss their top 3 picks from among social justice/human rights documentaries or films for the year. Landon van Soest is the director/producer of Good Fortune, the Award winner in 2009. Below he shares with us his picks.

I have always been drawn to art as a catalyst for social commentary and social change, so documentary seems like a natural home for me. I am constantly inspired and humbled by the work of fellow filmmakers who are pushing the boundaries of the social documentary; telling rich cinematic stories that help define the state of the global society. I have had the incredible opportunity to attend a number of documentary and human rights film festivals with my film Good Fortune over the past year, and truly immerse myself in social documentaries. [...]

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