- Cracolândia: A Public Health Crisis Treated with State-Sponsored Violence Originally published in Portuguese. Brazil currently faces the world’s largest crack epidemic, with an estimated 1 million crack users. Sharing a border with 10 countries, Brazil is a prime transit hub for the coca producers of the Andes region. While the increasing use of crack there is often attributed to the war on drugs in […]
- Deadly, deadlier: Rio favela under fire by joint Police-Army forces Last week in Brazil, military police joined lethal forces with the Brazilian Army for an operation in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Maré, leaving 7 dead. Residents using mobile phones captured the deadly use of helicopters and over one hundred bullets fired during the attack.
- Police Violence Against Local Teens is Caught on Camera in Rio de Janeiro By Victor Ribeiro and Dalila Mujagic. A video containing footage of a brutal police incident went viral amongst social media users in Rio de Janeiro. The footage shows Lapa Presente officers — a unit of military police dedicated to tourist areas and funded by a group of business and economic interests called the Federation of […]
- Last Month in Video: Cameras got smarter. Will we? From Florida teens using video as a powerful advocacy tool, to Pakistan's High Court ruling on network shutdowns, to the supercharged technology behind "smart" cameras and facial recognition: this is Last Month in Video, February 2018 edition.
- Last Month in Video: September 2017 From Rio to Cairo's Mashrou' Leila concert and a Utah nurse's refusal to an unconstitutional blood draw, we review September 2017 in human rights video.
- Rio’s favelas score victory against military police abuses Rio favelas win victory over police abuses as two police commanders were denounced by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for crimes committed in the illegal invasions of private residences in favela Complexo do Alemão.
- Military police raids turn Samba Square into a war scene Complexo de Alemao- Police Pacifying Unit (UPP) and Major Zuma called to answer for illegal invasions in Samba Square at a public hearing on April 24th.
- Community activists targeted as police killings escalate in Rio’s favelas Local activists and residents targeted by the military police for filming violence in Rio favela.
- Dispatch from Rio: Part 2 Week two of the Mutirão of Independent Media has been dramatic, productive and inspiring. See some of the highlights of our work covering the social impacts of the Olympics 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
- Live video, curation, and action at #Rio2016 Olympics With our allies in Rio de Jainero, we're conducting pilot projects using live video, curation and action to highlight human rights violations that took place in the lead-up to and during the Olympic Games.
- Dispatch from Rio: An alternative look at the Olympics WITNESS is working with activists in Rio to report on human rights issues and live stream coverage of how the Olympics affect the city’s communities.
- Response to New York Magazine on “disaster-free” Rio Olympics An estimated 70,000 people have lost their homes and at least 2,500 people, mostly in favelas, have been killed by the Rio police since the city first learned it would host the Olympics in 2009.
- Immersive Witnessing: From Empathy and Outrage to Action There are challenges and opportunities in virtual reality, live and immersive media for social good. New WITNESS projects aim to channel this empathy into meaningful action.
- Facing an Epidemic: An Interview with ‘Zika, the film’ Director Debora Diniz WITNESS interviews documentarian, Debora Diniz, whose recent film Zika provides an intimate portrayal of women affected by the virus in Brazil.
- Brazil: Middle School Students take Government to Commission for Violence During Protests Young Brazilian students used video to document police abuse during protests to keep their schools open. Recently, they took their videos and their case to the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights and scored a big win for students across the country.
