- Mexico Training on Forced Evictions A quick update from the WITNESS training in Mexico City in association with the Habitat International Coalition (HIC)- Latin America. We've been holed-up for nine days solid in a convent (cheap, good food, peaceful atmosphere, nightly curfew) training a range of human rights defenders either from or working with communities whose rights are being compromised or violated by dam mega-projects.
- Mexico: Peoples’ Tribunal Confirms “Gross Violations” in Dam Projects Communities harmed by dam projects in Mexico won an important victory. A panel of international experts serving as judges for the Mexico chapter of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) recognized a pattern of "gross and systematic human rights violations" in the construction of dams throughout Mexico over the past 40 years. More than 185,000 people have been forcibly evicted.
- Dam-Affected Communities in Mexico Take Government to Peoples’ Tribunal On November 5-6, many of our local partners fighting forced evictions in Mexico will travel to the small town of Temacapulín, in Jalisco state, to tell their stories to an international panel of judges representing the Mexico chapter of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT).
- Major Victory for Activists Fighting the La Parota Dam in Mexico After nearly 10 years of campaigning to save their homes and lands, our partners from the CECOP network in Mexico are celebrating a significant victory on the path to the definitive cancellation of the La Parota dam project. If built, the dam would forcibly evict at least 25,000 campesinos and small farmers from their lands and negatively impact an additional 75,000 people due to environmental changes downstream and throughout the region.
- People Before Profit: New Video on Global Forced Evictions New video People Before Profit – bringing communities across the world together to tell the global story of forced evictions. WITNESS has supported forced evictions campaigns for more than 10 years. During this time, these projects have amplified the voices of communities across the world. For World Habitat Day we are bringing many of these voices together for the first time to tell another story.
- Mexico Partners Use Video to Pressure Governor, Influence Media, Document Protests A few weeks ago, I met our forced evictions campaign partners in Mexico and we traveled together to Temacapulín, a small community in the mountains of Jalisco state that has been fighting its own eviction for several years due to the construction of the El Zapotillo Dam.
- Act Now to Stop the Eviction of 25,000 People in Mexico Our partners in Guerrero, Mexico, need your help. For the past eight years, they have been fighting to defend their homes and communities against the threat posed by the planned construction of a new megadam in the region. If built, the La Parota Dam would displace at least 25,000 people from their lands and negatively impact an additional 75,000 people.
- Mexico: Children Protest La Parota Dam Six weeks ago we completed our first video advocacy training in Mexico as part of our global campaign on Forced Evictions. The workshop took place in a charming convent in Mexico City and, for nine intense days, we and our partners at HIC worked with 11 activists/leaders from four local communities whose rights are either being compromised or violated by large-scale dams and other mega-development projects (see photos of the training here).
- Dams and Human Rights: Using Video to Resist Evictions 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.
- Forced evictions in focus at the Americas Social Forum More than 15,000 Indigenous people at risk of being forcibly removed from their lands to make way for the construction of the Inambari Hydroelectric Center in Peru, a series of six dams in the Peruvian Amazon that will cost $15 billion dollars and, when ready, send approximately 80% of its energy to support large industries in neighboring Brazil.
- Use Video and Technology for the Defense of Earth and Indigenous Peoples Indigenous communities and broader climate justice movements have long been confronting capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and related forces of exploitation and destruction. Indigenous-led resistance to these threats has woven ancestral wisdom with emerging tools and tactics– including audiovisual technology. Visuals evincing the deterioration of the planet have strengthened demands for urgent, globally coordinated responses to […]
- Activists in Argentina use videos to denounce increasing institutional violence WITNESS hosts another training in Argentina and supports activists denouncing institutional violence.
- The WITNESS Blog: A Look Back at 2014 and Look Ahead to 2015 In 2014 we contextualized dozens of citizen videos on human rights; shared resources for using video for change, archiving video and interviewing survivors of sexual violence; interviewed filmmakers, activists and journalists; advocated for better use of technology to aid those using video for change; celebrated stories of courage, and much more.
- The Power of Citizen Witnesses – and How WITNESS is Strengthening Their Impact From creation, sharing, management of your video, to preservation and usage, and with an eye to the ethical questions, WITNESS is thinking holistically about how best to support the millions of citizen witnesses to human rights abuse.
- Join WITNESS at the World Urban Forum & the People’s Alternative Urban Social Forum WITNESS is headed to Medellín, Colombia to participate in screenings, round table debates and video advocacy training sessions this April 5-11.
