You’ll walk away knowing how to safely, ethically and effectively film ICE for evidence and advocacy.

The training will be led by our U.S. Program Coordinator Palika Makam. Palika’s work focuses on using video documentation, data and storytelling to expose ICE, Border Patrol and other law enforcement, fight deportations, and protect the rights of immigrant communities and communities of color around the country.

For more information about the event, click here.

Android users, help us test our Mobil-Eyes Us app on June 6 at 8 p.m. ET. Mobil-Eyes Us is a WITNESS’ initiative that connects frontline human rights defenders with distant supporters in real time.

On June 6, join us for a debate on state violence in Brazil centered around the “Auto de Resistência,” a documentary on homicides committed by Rio de Janeiro’s military police. The debate will be livestreamed from Brazil via the app with community leaders and victims of police violence joining in and sharing their experiences. The debate will be in Portuguese and translated into English by volunteers via the app.

Here’s how you can get involved:

• If you’re an Android user, download the app here;
• Share the event details with partners, friends, and activists who you think may be interested in the Brazilian context of police abuse, and those thinking of ways to better document those abuses;
• Tune-in June 6 at 8 p.m. ET to watch the debate and share your support;
• Help us improve the app by noticing any glitches or if you have suggestions, you can post your comments in real time via the app.

For more information about the app, click here.

RightsCon focuses on the intersection of tech and human rights—right where WITNESS lives. This year, Rights Con will explore pressing issues including innovation policy in Canada, free expression and protection of global journalism, gender diversity and digital inclusion, encryption and cybersecurity, and many other topics relevant to keeping the internet free, open, and secure worldwide.

Join us as we lead and participate in some of the featured panels this year.

Wednesday, May 16

• The right to record, perpetrator video, and human rights (2:30-3:45 p.m., Room A) – Dia Kayyali, Program Manager – Tech+Advocacy, WITNESS

In response to increased global attention and advocacy around the right to record in public spaces, this panel will explore the legal basis for the right to record. We will also discuss the ethics of using and sharing perpetrator video and propaganda, and how companies handle this material.

• Burn, Baby, Burn (Out?) (4:00-4:25 p.m., Community Village Main Stage)  – Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, Executive Director, WITNESS

In response the trauma and burnout that are common in human rights movements and organizations around the world, we will introduce and then invite you to participate in a beginning conversation to share barriers, learnings, and solutions among human rights practitioners aimed to help us as a community create and promote sustainable practices. With participation from Joseph Steele, Operations Director, Access; Donna McKay, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights, Meg Satterthwaite, Faculty Director and Co-Chair, Center for Human Rights and Justice, NYU.

• Forget about the President, let’s talk to Facebook (5:15-6:15 p.m., Room A) – Dia Kayyali, Program Manager – Tech+Advocacy, WITNESS

Today, technology companies are increasingly coming under fire for concerns related to privacy, censorship, and freedom of expression, and distrust and uncertainty. In this workshop, company representatives, advocates, and activists will discuss the process of technology advocacy – how it works, case studies on successes and failures, and critiques.

Thursday, May 17

• AI, Machine Learning, Faked Audio/Video and the Upcoming Image Wars in Journalism and Human Rights (5:15-6:15 p.m., Room J)– Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS

The coming storm of realistically faked audio and video presents an existential threat to declining public trust, as well as trustworthy human rights documentation. In this session, we will explore this potential threat, and consider how technologists, journalists, and human rights fact-finders can come together to find solutions to combat the repercussions of fake audio and video future.

• Social Media Takedowns: Protecting Who? (10:30-11:45 a.m., Room E) – Dia Kayyali, Program Manager -Tech+Advocacy, WITNESS

In this panel organized by Amnesty International, our Tech+Advocacy Program Manager Dia Kayyali will talk about what happens when social media platforms get so efficient at removing content that the human rights community does not even know the content existed before it disappears. The panel will ask who the takedowns are protecting and why, the problems around trusting publicly listed corporations, the challenges for activist groups who need to let the world know about the abuses they’re suffering, the ramifications for such takedowns and, crucially, what solutions may be possible to balance out the pressure on social media networks to comply with local legislation with the need for survivors to share stories of human rights abuses.

• Building Cross-sectoral Partnerships To Improve LGBTQIA+ Digital Security (2:30-3:45 p.m., Room R) – Dia Kayyali, Program Manager – Tech+Advocacy, WITNESS 

Dia will join Article 19, Grindr, and an incredible group of human rights defenders to talk about how civil society, activists, and companies can partner to improve digital security for the LGBTQIA+ community- in a realistic way that meets the community where it’s at. The panel will use a specific partnership on improving security on dating apps, including how the work continues to move forward and how different partners contributed and collaborated, as an example.

• Digital Landscapes of Trans Activism in Central Asia and Eastern Europe: Threats, Opportunities, and Resistance (5:15-6:15 p.m., Room I) – Dia Kayyali, Program Manager – Tech+Advocacy, WITNESS 

In this panel, organized by Astraea, Dia Kayyali will join activists on the front lines of trans organizing in an often overlooked region to discuss  the state of communications, digital activism, surveillance and access to technology in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with a spotlight on trans activists’ digital organizing needs, realities and resistance strategies.

• The evidence locker of the 21st century: cooperation between social media platforms and law enforcement authorities for preserving digital material for justice (2:30-3:45 p.m.) – Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS

This session will convene law enforcement authorities and NGOs working to bring cases based on photos and videos posted online, and representatives from the social media platforms where this footage is oftentimes posted (Youtube, Twitter and Facebook).

• Digital Evidence Forum (12:30-12:55 p.m.) – Dalila Mujagic, Digital Producer, WITNESS

In this experimental design session, the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley and WITNESS will explore possible platforms to build a field-of-practice around the use of digital evidence

• Fast Forward to 2030: Can technology break the silos around human rights? (12:00-1:15 p.m.) – Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS

In this event, experts from various disciplines will lay out the potentials and threats to real conversations between human rights and society that are caused by technology.

For more information about tickets, times and schedule, click here.

We will talk about the launch of the Chemical Weapons Database by the Syrian Archive and the importance of ensuring that human rights evidence is properly archived and analyzed. The Chemical Weapons Database is the first publicly available database of open source content documenting chemical weapon attacks in Syria between 2012 and 2018. The database contains over 2000 verified videos, tweets, and Facebook posts that can be viewed, analyzed and downloaded.

Our panelists include:

• Hadi Al-Khatib (Founder, Syrian Archive)
• Kelly Matheson (Video as Evidence Program Manager, WITNESS)
• Dia Kayyali (Tech+Advocacy Program Manager, WITNESS)
• Raja Althaibani (Middle East and North Africa Program Manager, WITNESS)

Make sure to tune in to our Facebook page on Tuesday.

Don’t have Facebook? No issue. You can catch the live stream here.

We will cover:

– Overview of Video Advocacy Methodology

– Best Practices for Filming for Advocacy & Evidence

– Basic Digital Security Tips

– Mobile Equipment Recommendations

If you’re interested in learning how to use video to raise awareness, share important stories, or document violations against Indigenous peoples and territories, this will be a great introductory workshop!

For more details on the event, and to RSVP, click here.

Technology, video and social media have become everyday tools for activists around the world- but they have also become tools for repressive governments and other bad actors. Although the National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward Snowden led to a national conversation about mass surveillance, the threats posed by such spying are mostly hypothetical. Unfortunately, the threats posed by targeted surveillance are anything but hypothetical. Communities, especially those that remember the abuses of the FBI in the 60s and 70s, do a lot to protect themselves- but there is always more to know.

The discussion will be moderated by our own Dia Kayyali, who coordinates WITNESS’ tech + advocacy work, engaging with technology companies and working on tools and policies that help human rights advocates safely, securely and ethically document human rights abuses and expose them to the world.

When: Thursday, March 15, 2018, 7-9pm

Where: Matter, New York, NY (more details in RSVP link)

Our panelists include:

Virginia Eubanks – Author of Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

Sarah Aoun – Co-Founder of Tandem

Bina Ahmad – Public Defender of The Legal Aid Society

Luba Cortes – Rapid Response Coordinator at Make the Road New York

Kei Williams – Movement NetLab // Organizer-In-Residency at Civic Hall

Refreshments will be served! Sound interesting? RSVP here.

For activists: Grassroots Digital Security Training

When: March 16, 2018, 9am-5pm

Details and to RSVP click here.

By supporting WITNESS, you are taking action by using your voice to help expose the truth, generate awareness, and join the fight for justice and accountability, all in the name of human rights.

Hashtags: #Video4Change #IAmAWitness #BeAWitness

SHARE!

Eyes on ICE:

For Twitter & Instagram:

Filming encounters with #ICE can expose #humanrights abuses, deter violence, substantiate reports and serve as evidence. However, you must make sure to take your safety into account first. More tips on filming ICE here: https://wit.to/FilmingICE

WITNESS Library

Did you recently film a protest or a rally and not sure how what to do with the video? Head over to https://library.witness.org/ to find out the next steps!

Our partners at Coletivo Papo Reto report that every 11 minutes, a black youth in Brazil is killed. Take action by sharing their message on your social timelines.

Instagram

Twitter

Sample Tweets

The power of video can bolster the fight for human rights change

I am a Witness and the world watches with me

I support @witnessorg because they will ensure that more video = more rights

…or click on the pics below for a simple and easy re-tweet!

Facebook

Add a frame to your profile picture! Click HERE and type “WITNESS 25” into the search bar to find the #IAmAWitness frame.

Don’t believe us? Check out this highlight reel from last year’s event. We challenge you not to get a little misty eyed.

WITNESS is proud to be an official charity partner in the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon for the eighth consecutive year. On Sunday, November 5, five dedicated runners will represent Team WITNESS and run for human rights change– and you can be one of them!

WITNESS welcomes runners of all levels and backgrounds, from dedicated multi-marathon champions to first-time runners. Cumulatively, our past teams have raised close to $100,000 in support of human rights defenders everywhere. They have empowered thousands of activists and average citizens to fight for change on some of the most pervasive human rights issues of our time – from war crimes in Syria to police brutality in the United States to sexual and gender-based violence around the world. And they did this while running the race of their lives…sometimes multiple years in a row!

We hope you will follow in their footsteps and join Team WITNESS in the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon.

Why WITNESS?

As images of refugees, police violence, and attacks on civilians flood our social media feeds and shape our reaction to current events, it is impossible to deny the power of visual imagery for human rights. That’s why WITNESS is making it possible for anyone, anywhere to use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. With millions of people empowered to film injustice – often with just the smartphones in their pockets – we make sure that more videos lead to more rights. By joining team WITNESS, you are helping us make it possible for anyone, anywhere to use video and technology to protect and defend human rights.

How It Works:

• Register with Team WITNESS. Registration for charity partners opens after the official lottery drawing on March 2, and closes on September 14. Note that spots are limited and will go quickly – so the sooner you reach out, the better!
• Meet your fundraising minimum by November 30, 2017 – with help from our amazing fundraising team. Each runner commits to raising $3,000 in support of WITNESS’ programs. But you don’t have to do this alone! You’ll have the full-support of our in-house fundraising team, who will help you out with strategies, tips, and additional assistance.
• Run your heart out in the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon!

As a member of Team WITNESS, you will receive:

• A guaranteed spot on the starting line on November 5;
• A personalized WITNESS jersey;
• Invitations to special WITNESS events;
• Fundraising tips and strategies to help you meet your goals;
• An amazing team of human rights defenders to train and share your journey with.

 Interested in joining the team? Contact natalie@witness.org to learn more and secure your spot today.