The Digital Divide
WITNESS, TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
On a plantation in northeastern
Brazil, indentured laborers heave
kilos of charcoal onto truck-beds
in sweltering heat. Through the
shaky lens of a hidden camera, a
decrepit shack indicates their housing. The unidentified voice of one of
the workers, off-camera, explains
how an offer of employment had led
these men unknowingly into slavery:
“I was approached to clear land on
a ranch. [But once I arrived there]
they told me, ‘here, all you have the
right to is a bullet from my shotgun.’”
Thanks to WITNESS—a nonprofit
organization that uses video technology to expose human rights
abuses around the world—such
hidden tales of horror now
have an audience. The
video has been a powerful tool in a campaign to
eradicate slavery in several of Brazil’s leading
export industries. Teaming
up with local organizations
in various countries, WIT-
NESS
has pioneered the use
of video advocacy—
equipping activists with video cameras to
document and spread awareness of
human rights violations.
The Brooklyn, New York-based
organization identifies potential
partner groups by determining first
whether video is an appropriate tool
for furthering their advocacy goals.
As Tamaryn Nelson, program coordinator for Latin America and the
Caribbean, explains, “it is important that these videos be for something and not just about something.”
WITNESS
team members provide
equipment and on-site technical
assistance to local partners. “The
idea is not to replace other mechanisms for human rights, but rather
to go hand-in-hand with a campaign,” says Nelson.
WITNESS
was founded by British
rock star Peter Gabriel, who got the
idea while on the road with Amnesty
International’s Human Rights Now!
Tour in 1988. With a camcorder in
hand, Gabriel documented stories of
victims he met while touring around
the world with the human rights
organization, beginning in London
and ending in Buenos Aires. He
quickly realized that video and photographic documentation could be
slavery and in turn to increased federal funding for programs to provide
alternative economic and employment opportunities.
In Mexico, a partnership with
the Mexican Commission for the
Defense and Promotion of Human
Rights helped bring the killing of
women in Ciudad Juárez to national
and international attention and led
to the acquittal of a suspect who
had been tortured and wrongfully
convicted in one of the cases. Other
projects in the region have included
campaigns on access to water in El
Salvador and the struggle for indigenous rights in Bolivia.
In the past, the annual Video
Advocacy Institute (VAI)
has convened in Canada.
This year, the organization
will be holding its first VAI
conference in Latin Amer-
ica in conjunction with
Mexico-based production
company CANANA films.
Selected participants will
meet in Mexico City in July
to develop film production
skills and refine an advocacy plan
for their campaigns.
With the aim of making video
advocacy accessible to a broader
public, WITNESS launched an online
video-sharing site, The Hub, in
2006. Through the website—
similar to You Tube in format—
would-be activists around the world can
upload clips of human rights abuses
and give a context for their footage. View clips and find out more at
http://hub.witness.org.
—Rachel Greenwald
effective tools for bringing abuses to
light and perpetrators to justice.
In nearly 20 years, WITNESS has
yielded impressive results. The
organization has worked in over 70
countries, with 21 partenerships in
Latin America to date. With the antislavery video campaign conducted
with Brazil’s Pastoral Land Commission, mentioned above, WITNESS
targeted key policymakers in Brazil
as well as U.S. audiences. The effort
led to support for mobile inspection squads to investigate claims of
