- Using Generative AI for Human Rights Advocacy In this post we explore the potential of using generative AI and synthetic media tools (“AI tools”) to support human rights advocacy and social critique–but only with appropriate caution and ethical considerations.
- Statement by Alternative Media in Abya Yala on #SOSPerú WITNESS signs onto statement by Alternative Media outfits across the Americas on the excessive violence enforced upon Peruvian demonstrators protesting the illegal coup.
- 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 […]
- WITNESS at RightsCon 2021 Online For the last decade, RightsCon has served as a forum for activists, civil society, and international stakeholders to gather around critical issues, questions, and possibilities that lay at the intersection of technology and human rights. As a global organization committed to supporting communities to use video and technology for justice, WITNESS aligns with the central […]
- COVID-19 Misinformation and Disinformation Responses: Sorting the Good from the Bad —May 2020: Sam Gregory, Dia Kayyali, Corin Faife. Last updated: 5/29 In this blog post we give an overview of some of the key trends in platform response to misinformation, disinformation and harmful speech during COVID-19, and develop a set of criteria through which the wide range of possible reactions can be assessed, using a framework […]
- COVID19 and Police Brutality in Africa We have created a video that highlights some of the violations carried out by security forces during the COVID19 lockdown in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
- How You Can Help the Humanitarian Crisis at the US-Mexico Border… and Beyond When images of Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria were published recently, we were outraged. We were heartbroken. The situation at the US-Mexico border is a crisis: a humanitarian crisis. Because of the government’s stronghold on the narrative — coupled with a militarized lack of transparency — without stories and images from brave whistleblowers, activists and community […]
- World Refugee Day 2019 June 20th marks World Refugee Day. But the work of protecting the rights of refugees happens every day of the year. At WITNESS, we help refugees document their stories—specifically human rights violations, through creating and archiving important media that can be used to bring awareness to their experiences and help advocate for change. Here are […]
- Collectives From All Regions of Brazil Gather in Rio 35 activists from 6 cities met to discuss strategies on how to use video for change. The convening “#R2R – For the Right to Record” featured representatives from Belém, Santarém, Fortaleza, Recife, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasîlia and Porto Alegre. These representatives consisted of video activists, human rights lawyers, archivists, and community media collectives. […]
- WITNESS at RightsCon 2019: Full List of Panels We are headed to RightsCon in Tunis next week, and would love to see you! RightsCon focuses on the intersection of tech and human rights—where WITNESS lives. We’re more than ever in the center of hot debates around topics such as manipulated media and extremist content, so there’s no better opportunity to meet and collaborate […]
- Storytelling in livestreaming: the Favela da Skol case in Brazil Mobil-Eyes Us is a project that explores technologies, tactics and storytelling strategies to use live video to connect viewers to frontline experiences of human rights issues. The goal is for audiences to become ‘distant witnesses’ who will take meaningful actions to support frontline activists. Mobil-Eyes-Us teaches us that a series of live broadcasts can form […]
- Western Sahara—Africa’s Last Colony Western Sahara, with a population of over half a million people and 200,000km land mass – the size of South Dakota – is the world’s largest non self-governing territory. It is also Africa’s last colony, left under Moroccan occupation following the retreat of Spanish colonial power in the 1960s. The human rights situation is still […]
- How to export content from WhatsApp By Yvonne Ng and Gabi Ivens Published on: 18 December 2018 The messaging platform WhatsApp has 1.5 billion users worldwide and is increasingly being used as a tool to organize, mobilize, as well as to share important human rights content. This tutorial, put together by WITNESS, walks you through how to download and export your […]
- Fighting impunity for attacks at women’s marches From Ukraine to Malaysia, demonstrators at International Women's Day marches continue to face attacks without accountability. This is Last Month in Video, March 2018 edition—with updates from the Alton Sterling police shooting, police collusion in Sri Lanka, and border patrol abuse in California.
- Hope for Justice: 7 years of the Syrian Uprising WITNESS catches up and reflects with our partners working with activists, lawyers, and investigators to secure justice in Syria, 7 years after the uprising began.
