- The Right to Record Recognized at the United Nations Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council promoted the right to record explicitly in resolution A/HRC/38/L.16 — WITNESS explains what this means for activists and human rights defenders around the world.
- 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.
- The Hunt for Digital Evidence of the Rohingya Genocide In documenting historical records of destruction or grievous danger to a peoples over time, digital trails are a human rights crusader’s best–sometimes most accurate–source of evidence. And yet at the same time, such data can fall into the wrong hands, putting the lives of the persecuted, and those fighting for their rights, at grave risk. […]
- Video Evidence and the Case for the Rohingya How eyewitness video and digital evidence verification work together to corroborate violence and destruction in Burma.
- Last Month in Video: August When WITNESS was founded in 1992, we wanted to get cameras in people’s hands. This wasn’t an easy task- at the time, cameras weren’t in every household, they weren’t cheap, and it wasn’t instinctive for people to reach for their camera. Now, video is everywhere, and it’s being made by everyone with a cell phone. […]
- Vital Human Rights Evidence in Syria is Disappearing from YouTube Thousands of videos showing human rights abuses in Syria, as well as the channels that feature these videos, are being removed by YouTube.
- Set your phone to ProofMode Why Proof? You see a wide pink sky and bushes in a relatively nondescript landscape. You hear an explosion in the background. The camera shakes as a man repeats, strangely calm, “Allahu akhbar.” A few seconds later, an explosion rocks the ground in front of the person filming, and the camera falls, sideways, to the […]
- #RecordingInProgress: Media, Tech and Social Justice This podcast brings together experts from Justice League NYC, Global Citizen, Race Forward, the Undisclosed podcast and WITNESS to discuss the role of social media and tech in the fight for social justice.
- Maziar Bahari on Solitary Confinement, Freedom of Expression, and the Future of (Citizen) Journalism Maziar Bahari speaks to WITNESS about the new film "Rosewater" which tells the story of his solitary confinement and torture in an Iranian prison.
- Live From Ferguson: Videos, Detentions & Attempts at Defining the Press Citizens and professional reporters have been thrown in jail while documenting protests and the police response, raising the question once again--Who IS a reporter anyways?
- Effective Collaboration Between Journalists and Citizens When Using Citizen Video Human Rights Channel Curator Madeleine Bair authors a two-part blog series on ways in which citizens and journalists can work together to capture and curate user-generated content.
- WITNESS Weekly Picks – August 8 Edition This week we feature articles on new innovations and practices in citizen journalism, data mapping and the protection of human rights.
- Human Rights Videos from Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Stories from Syrian Migrants Tamil women’s groups express outrage about the rape of children by Sri Lanka’s military, Syrians face dramatic challenges migrating to Europe, and Nigerians report on the threat of Boko Haram’s attacks.
- Real-time Reports of Sri Lanka’s Sectarian Violence Recently, the city of Aluthgama in Sri Lanka erupted in the worst sectarian violence the country has seen in years. We review the videos and other citizen reports that provided critical documentation of the story.
- Consent, Privacy, and A Video of Sexual Assault In Part 2 of our series on the Ethics of Curating Citizen Video, we discuss a video documenting sexual assault in Egypt.
