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A Rough Cut Screening Example: ECPAT-USA’s Campaign to Protect Exploited Children
Every year in communities across the United States, children are bought and sold through a variety of venues including on the streets, through the internet, in hotel rooms, from semi-to-semi at truck stops or through classified ads.
WITNESS
August 2, 2011
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Video Advocacy Example: New Yorkers for Marriage Equality
After celebrating the recent passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Bill, I wanted to revisit some of the video advocacy efforts that supported the campaign. This PSA, produced by Human Rights Campaign, featured statements from New York celebrities and civilians, and garnered over 1 million views on YouTube.
WITNESS
August 1, 2011
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Video Connects Communities in the DRC to Trial at the International Criminal Court
This video aims to inform the public in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), especially in war-affected zones, about the Thomas Lubanga Dyilo trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. It is available in English (below), French and Swahili.
WITNESS
July 31, 2011
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First ICC trial begins in the Hague
On Monday this week the historic and long-awaited first trial of the International Criminal Court began in the Hague. In the dock is Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese warlord accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 - some as young as seven - as soldiers in the civil war.
WITNESS
July 30, 2011
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Video Advocacy Example: ‘Yo Me Declaro’ Campaign for Human Rights Defenders
In the human rights world we often talk about HRDs or 'human rights defenders' - but this is more than just an an acronym or a piece of jargon. Human rights defenders of every type play a key role in protecting, promoting and upholding the human rights of all of us. And they're not just the people who work in NGOs like WITNESS or our partners.
Sam Gregory
July 28, 2011
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New Film Captures the Trials and Triumphs of Housing Activists in South Africa
Less than two decades ago, South Africa joined the ranks of democracies around the world as years of agonizing civil struggle and violence gave way to the moment so many had fought for: the end of apartheid, and the beginning of a government representative of all its people.
WITNESS
July 26, 2011
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Ahmad Bayasi’s Story: Citizen Video Authentication in Syria and Beyond
When a video was posted online in April showing Syrian protesters being brutally beaten by security forces in the town of Bayda, the Syrian authorities quickly responded on state TV. First they said the footage was fake; they then alleged that the video had been filmed not in Syria but in northern Iraq, and depicted the abuse of prisoners by American marines.
WITNESS
July 25, 2011
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Weekly Video-For-Change Digest: July 22, 2011
We're launching a couple of new series this week on the blog. (If you missed the first in our Video Advocacy Example series, you can read it here.)
Matisse Bustos Hawkes
July 22, 2011
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Video Advocacy Example: Yale E360’s Video Makes a Powerful Statement on Water-Based Conflicts in East Africa
For most, the words “climate change” and “forced migration” are likely to conjure images of tsunami evacuations and FEMA trailers. These images have saturated the mass media and, as a result, remain fixed in our moral psyche.
WITNESS
July 19, 2011
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Crowd-Sourcing Surveillance: When Does Little Brother Get Too Big?
On June 16, riots swept downtown Vancouver after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Final of the NHL’s Stanley Cup. The online response to the riots—a public campaign to name and shame rioters followed by a heated discussion regarding whether naming and shaming constitutes vigilantism or community policing—still rages.
WITNESS
July 5, 2011
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ObscuraCam v1: A Mobile App for Visual Privacy
Last week we, along with our our friends and colleagues at the Guardian Project, released the first public beta app from the SecureSmartCam project. ObscuraCam, an Android camera phone application is the result of a 7 month long collaboration between WITNESS and The Guardian Project.
WITNESS
June 29, 2011
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Human Rights Watch Award Goes to Cambodian Monk Fighting Forced Evictions
Human Rights Watch has awarded a prestigious Hellman/Hammett grant to the Venerable Loun Sovath for his human rights defender work supporting communities facing forced evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia.
WITNESS
June 28, 2011
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Threats Increase Against Monk Fighting Forced Evictions in Cambodia
Since 2009, our partner organization in Cambodia, LICADHO, has been using video to document forced evictions and land-grabbing. We met the Venerable Loun Sovath, a Buddhist monk, through our work with LICADHO. His tireless campaigning for those at risk of forced eviction in Cambodia, has repeatedly put him at risk.
WITNESS
June 27, 2011
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New Videos: Four Communities on Forced Evictions in Rio
As part of our ongoing campaign on forced evictions in the name of development, I was just in Brazil to meet with our partners and plan our upcoming video advocacy workshop in Rio de Janeiro.
Priscila Néri
June 20, 2011
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Choosing Timing, Outreach and Platforms for Successful Online Fundraising
Thanks to incredible response from our supporters, WITNESS' spring fundraising challenge has reached and exceeded our goal! To date, Project: FOCUS has raised $73,948 (that's 106% of the $70,000 goal) and checks are still coming in.
Miyoko Brunner
June 16, 2011