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Videos Highlight Progress and Challenges During 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
It’s a time when activists rally around the issue of gender-based violence. We challenge the power structures, perceptions and impunity that allow gender-based violence to persist, call for concrete actions to address these issues at the local, national and global levels, and demand accountability for perpetrators of this crime, along with justice and assistance for those who experience it.
WITNESS
November 26, 2012
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Is it Authentic? When Citizens and Soldiers Document War
On November 1, a particular video caught not only our attention at the Human Rights Channel, but also that of international observers, news outlets, and criminal prosecutors. It’s the type of video whose images have altered the discussion of the Syrian conflict, and may also revolutionize the role of citizen video in times of war.
WITNESS
November 20, 2012
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16-year-old Climate Advocate Speaks Out on Hurricane Sandy
16-year-old Maya Faison from Queens, New York recently shared her thoughts on Hurricane Sandy and climate change in an article published by Climate Progress. Maya wrote the article on her sixth day without heat, her sixth day without power, and her sixth day with no gas in her mom’s car to escape. What troubled me most in what she shared is this: “I feel let down and disappointed that it’s taken a major storm that has taken over 40 lives and counting for my elected leaders to acknowledge the reality of climate change.”
WITNESS
November 12, 2012
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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.
Priscila Néri
November 9, 2012
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Forced Evictions Activist To Be Honored by U.S. Secretary of State Clinton
The Global Leadership Awards honor and celebrate women leaders around the world who are the unsung heroines working to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity, and protect human rights. The awards were established by the organization Vital Voices Global Partnership, which Secretary Clinton co-founded in 1997. Tep Vanny joins a very distinguished group of internationally recognized women. The award ceremony will take place in April 2013 in Washington, D.C.
WITNESS
November 5, 2012
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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).
Priscila Néri
November 2, 2012
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After Hurricane Sandy, Our Youth Call on Us: Be Upstanders, Not Bystanders. Vote for Climate Justice!
Over the last year, we filmed youth from across the country – literally from Boston, Massachusetts to a village just inland from the Bering Sea – whose lives have already been changed by the deterioration of our Earth’s atmosphere. These award-winning video portraits showcase how our youth are bravely taking legal action against our governments’ collective failure to take serious climate action.
WITNESS
November 1, 2012
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Citizen Media + Video In Pakistan: A Conversation with Blogger Faisal Kapadia
In July I had the pleasure of attending my second Global Voices Citizen Media Summit, this time in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit is "a meeting of bloggers, activists, and technologists for public discussions and workshops about the rise of online citizen media movements worldwide."
Matisse Bustos Hawkes
October 23, 2012
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TRUST Oregon: Kelsey Juliana Asks Courts to Recognize her Generation’s Right to a Healthy Atmosphere
Since the world’s key decision makers and our legislature’s refuse to lead us out of our climate crisis and protect our air and water, our youth, between classes, after school and on weekends, are stepping up and asking the courts to recognize and honor their constitutional right to a healthy atmosphere. In Oregon, Kelsey Juliana’s parents taught her not to take the air and water for granted.
WITNESS
October 10, 2012
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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.
Priscila Néri
October 4, 2012
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Anatomy of a Bombing in Syria
For many people outside Syria’s borders, shelling and bombings are concepts. They’re terrible and tragic, to be sure, but they remain hard to fathom as long as they remain unseen. That's why the Anatomy of a Bombing, our most recent playlist on the Human Rights Channel, is particularly arresting.
WITNESS
October 3, 2012
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The Venerable Luon Sovath Wins Prestigious Martin Ennals Award
I am incredibly honored to announce that the Venerable Luon Sovath from Cambodia has just been presented the Martin Ennals Award - an award given by 10 major human rights organizations to recognize those working at great risk for human rights.
WITNESS
October 2, 2012
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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.
WITNESS
September 27, 2012
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In Depth on the Human Rights Channel: The Lonmin Mine Massacre
In recent months, we’ve maintained video feeds for citizen journalism from Syria and worldwide. We’ve published in-depth playlists on topics ranging from the recent anti-American protests, to the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Burma, to the Mexican #YoSoy132 electoral protest movement.
WITNESS
September 21, 2012
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What Role Does the Arms Trade Play in Sexual Violence in Conflict?
Guns go hand in hand with sexual and gender-based violence. Where there is armed conflict, there is rape, and this is true the world over. So what is the significance of the presence of small arms in these conflicts? How do guns perpetuate a ‘cult of masculinity’ that finds women and girls as its victims? And how do these weapons end up in the hands of those prepared to intimidate and demean women?
WITNESS
August 23, 2012
