With over 1.5 million people in U.S. state and federal prisons, the U.S. puts more people in prison than any other country in the world. We know these astronomical levels of incarceration disproportionately impact people of color and low-income communities. Besides costing over $80 billion dollars a year to lock people up, mass incarceration has very little to no impact on crime reduction, but instead tears families apart and diminishes their economic stability. 

Through our recent trainings and collaborations with groups like CUNY Law School’s Defenders Clinic, Legal Aid New York and Bard College, we’ve seen the power of video and storytelling in advancing efforts to decrease this devastating prison population. Video creates the opportunity to see someone in their full humanity – their mannerisms, their essence, the parts that tend to get lost in a written statement. Amid a climate of fear mongering and misinformation, this has the power to break down stereotypes about people serving long prison sentences, nurturing empathy and understanding.

We are moved by the individuals who have collaborated with us and motivated by the impact this work has had so far. Learn more about this work and share our new Legal Video Advocacy tips and resources.

Justice has triumphed in Bukavu, where two commanders of the rebel militia called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have received life sentences for murder and torture, both constituting crimes against humanity, as well as pillage and arson. All 100 victims party to the proceedings have been awarded reparations ranging from 5,000 USD to 25,000 USD.

In 2012, the villages of Kamananga and Lumenje (South Kivu) were the theatre of barbarous attacks by the FDLR. Alleging the villagers’ support to a rival local militia, militiamen led by commanders Gilbert Ndayambaje (alias Rafiki Castro) and Evariste Nizeimana (alias Kizito) looted both villages, killed and tortured civilians and burned buildings to the ground.

Read more about the case

“We are delighted with this verdict,” says Daniele Perissi, Head of the DRC program at TRIAL International. “Impunity in DRC is rampant, including among armed groups’ commanders. This sends a strong warning signal to anyone committing abuses who might think their military power places them above the law.”

Videos are shown as evidence for the first time in DRC

This success is the result of a close cooperation between many actors, among which three NGOs: TRIAL International, whose mandate is to fight impunity for international crimes; WITNESS, which specializes in the use of video to defend human rights; and eyeWitness to Atrocities, which has developed a unique tool to record, file and verify videos used in judiciary proceedings. Together, they assisted the victims’ lawyers in collecting the strongest incriminating evidence, including verified video footage and photos – a first in the Congolese judiciary.

Isabelle Myabe, Program Manager at WITNESS, explains: “As part of the investigative process, we trained lawyers working on the case in the best practices of capturing and preserving video as evidence. During a fact-finding mission in July 2017, one of the lawyers documented evidence of mass graves in the targeted villages. An extract of this video was presented in the trial.”

In order to be admissible in court, the collected material had to go through a rigorous verification procedure, to ensure there had not been any tampering.

“During the investigatory missions, information was collected with the eyeWitness app to strengthen the evidentiary value of the footage presented in court”, says Wendy Betts, Project Director at eyewitness to Atrocities. “The app allows photos and video to be captured with information that can firstly verify when and where the footage was taken, and secondly can confirm that the footage was not altered. The transmission protocols and secure server system set up by eyeWitness creates a chain of custody that allows this information to be presented in court.”

Learn more about the use of audiovisual as evidence

“The atmosphere in court switched dramatically”

On the base of the collected evidence, TRIAL International assisted the victims’ lawyers to build their legal strategy.

“When the footage was shown, the atmosphere in the hearing chamber switched dramatically” testifies Guy Mushiata, DRC human rights coordinator for TRIAL International. “Images are a powerful tool to convey the crimes’ brutality and the level of violence the victims have suffered.”

TRIAL International, eyeWitness to Atrocities and WITNESS hope that this double condemnation will prompt other lawyers to use audiovisual evidence in criminal proceedings. They will continue to collaborate to help disseminate this practice in Eastern DRC.

Image credit: Augustin Safari Macumu/TRIAL International

###

WITNESS makes it possible for anyone, anywhere to use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. 

TRIAL International’s on this case has been conducted in the framework of the Task Force for International Criminal Justice, an informal network of international actors collaborating to support the work of Congolese military jurisdictions in the investigation and prosecution of mass crimes in DRC.  

The work of TRIAL International on mass crimes cases in DRC would not be possible without the support of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Belgian Development Cooperation.

Media contacts

TRIAL International
Noémi Manco, Communications Officer (In Switzerland, French and English)
n.manco@trialinternational.org
+41 79 192 37 44

Guy Mushiata, Human Rights Coordinator (In DRC, French and Swahili)
g.mushiata@trialinternational.org
+243 81 085 80 47

eyeWitness to Atrocities
Nyangala Zolho, Communications Coordinator (In UK, English)
Nyangala.Zolho@int-bar.org
+44 33 00 240 789

WITNESS
Isabelle Mbaye, Program Manager (In Spain, French and English)
isabelle@witness.org
+1 646 249 4992

Mozilla Fellowships provide resources, tools, community, and amplification to those building a more humane digital world. During their tenure, Fellows use their skill sets — in technology, in advocacy, in law — to design products, run campaigns, influence policy and ultimately lay the groundwork for a more open and inclusive internet.

Mozilla Fellows hail from a range of disciplines and geographies: They are policymakers in Kenya, journalists in Brazil, engineers in Germany, privacy activists in the United States, and data scientists in the Netherlands. Fellows work on individual projects, but also collaborate on cross-disciplinary solutions to the internet’s biggest challenges. Fellows are awarded competitive compensation and benefits.

Gabriela will be working with our Tech+Advocacy team where she will be working on issues around the safe, ethical, and effective use of video in documenting human rights violations.

During the Fellowship, Gabriela will be focusing on a number of areas including emerging technologies for human rights documentation and the effects of policy and engineering decisions by technology companies – such as content takedowns of information – that is, or could be, societally important.

Her work will provide a greater level of understanding of the impact tech companies have on civil society and human rights defenders. Before becoming a Fellow, Gabriela worked at Syrian Archive, a group working on preserving visual documentation of the Syrian conflict, and has been working on open source investigations since 2015. She holds a master’s degree from University College London in Human Rights.

In the article titled, “Making the invisible visible with video,” Dia spoke about data privacy and its importance to human rights, and how video techniques and training can equip advocates with the tools they need to make an impact.

“When you put a camera in someone’s hand and they know how to effectively use it, they can tell their own stories and create their own media, which is incredibly important. The people we work with are oftentimes inaccurately portrayed by the media, but when they have the skills to create their own stories, people become empowered to counter that,” Dia said during the interview.

You can access the full interview 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.

It was 1991. A plumber planning to record the Los Angeles marathon with his newly acquired Sony Handycam was trying it out when he heard a commotion outside and saw flashing sirens below his apartment window. He pressed the record button and began filming the brutal beating of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department. Within 12 hours, it had been seen around the world. The video sparked outrage and brought a new focus onto police conduct and brutality, racial injustice and human rights.

A couple of years earlier, I had a life-changing experience as part of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! tour. I was profoundly shocked by my conversations with many victims of human-rights abuses, both by the extent of their suffering but also by how often their horrific experiences were denied and buried.

I believed then what I still believe today — that people armed with cameras can create change. With cameras in our hands, we all can protect and defend human rights.

And so in 1992, I helped found WITNESS. The organization is based on the idea that technology can transcend all borders and that information is power. Change flows when the right tools are in the right hands with the right skills.

In 2014, a Staten Island grand jury declined to charge a New York City police officer in the death of Eric Garner. His death and last words “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for a new generation of activists fighting to end police misconduct. Mr. Garner’s death was captured on cell-phone video and circulated widely on social media and news outlets around the world. The prevailing opinion was that the officers in charge would face justice and be held accountable for their misdeeds. That was not the result.

Examples like these may leave us at a loss. Crimes were documented — and the footage captured circled the globe many times over. Sometimes, documenting a human rights crime doesn’t directly lead to justice. But it can galvanize a movement. It can be proof regardless of what a jury decides. Most importantly, it can transform public opinion as well as national and international policies.

We may not see the outcome we want when we want it, but there is power in arming truth with evidence.

The reality is that human-rights crimes happen all around us, and most of us have the tools to document them. We need to not only show the truth, but to verify and prove it. We need to know how to save, protect and curate our video footage, because in most cases the road to justice is long and difficult.

At times, it seems like we live in the post-truth age. Propagandists sit alongside those in power who see our world as theater, in which shocking news stories are rapidly countered by fabricated accounts suggesting that the opposite happened. We end up stunned and subdued, unsure of what we can and cannot believe. When you factor in that we only end up seeing the news that is increasingly chosen for us through algorithms and our own filter bubbles, the truth appears elusive.

One way to counter this is to empower, protect and champion the storyteller and the human rights activist. History shows us time and time again the power of truth. The most effective way to counter Holocaust deniers was by diligently assembling the stories and first-hand accounts of survivors. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in the wake of South Africa’s apartheid, letting people have their stories seen and heard is an act that itself is empowering and is the foundation for justice.

I still believe that seeing is believing. The value of video footage lies not just in its existence, but in the inability to deny what is captured for posterity.

Timely, accurate and impartial information is the most powerful force we have to protect the fundamental rights of all people. Now more than ever, there are more bystanders willing to step forward and speak truth to power. And, as ever, they need your help to do it.

Photo Credit: John Molloy – Getty Images

Here are some highlights from our latest video advocacy trainings led by WITNESS’ Asia-Pacific Program Manager, Arul Prakkash:

Workshop on Video as Evidence for Bersih 5 Rally
 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

In solidarity with the Malaysian movement for clean and fair elections, WITNESS provided training for a group of videographers to document the Bersih 5 rally held on November 19th. To help mobilize members of the public and citizen journalists, Prakkash created the ‘10 Tips Penting Jika Merakam Video Di Bersih 5′ (Top 10 Tips for Filming Bersih 5) tip sheet, which was adapted from this WITNESS tip sheet (in English). Over 15,000 protesters took part in the Bersih 5 rally in the streets of Kuala Lumpur calling for institutional reforms for a new Malaysia. Bersih’s 5 demands include clean elections, a clean government, a strengthening of parliamentary democracy, the right to dissent, and the empowerment of the states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Workshop on Storytelling for Advocacy for Indigenous People
 Gua Musang, Malaysia

In November, Prakkash delivered a brief training on storytelling for video to a team of activists who are members of the Indigenous Peoples’ Network of Peninsular Malaysia (JKOASM). The workshop took place in Gua Musang in the state of Kelantan where indigenous people have been protesting illegal logging in their ancestral lands. Prakkash trained participants on how to safely and effectively use mobile phones and GoPro cameras to highlight their struggles. He emphasized the importance of the use of the first-person narrative for video for higher impact. This training workshop was conducted together with our partners, KOMAS.

Series of Workshops for Human Rights Defenders
Comoro, Timor-Leste

Activists, human rights defenders, and NGO staff from South Asia and Southeast Asia working on a range of human rights issues attended a one and a half day training by WITNESS on October 18th and 19th. The Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) is an independent Australian NGO committed to advancing human rights by empowering civil society through education and skills training. WITNESS and DTP strategized with participants on how to include video in their various advocacy initiatives and trained them on storytelling using video. Participants were able to produce short videos on a range of issues by the end of the workshop.

Within the same month, WITNESS and Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR) trained around 30 human rights activists and NGO staff on the use of video for advocacy work. Participants went through an intensive training process on video documentation of human rights abuses, storytelling for video and digital security. Through workshops such as these, we hope to inspire and support more activists working in Timor-Leste in their advocacy efforts.

An Encounter with Max Stahl

Prakkash also took some time out of his training schedule to meet with British film-maker Max Stahl, whose documentary In Cold Blood: the Massacre of East Timor contributed to changing the destiny of the nation of Timor-Leste. The Max Stahl Audiovisual Archive Center for Timor-Leste (CAMSTL) is home to a repository of documentary heritage comprising of over 5,000 hours of audiovisual material since November 1991. The Center today is a training ground for young filmmakers and activists who engage with struggles of resistance and who want to communicate their stories to the world.

To read more, check out this recent blog post by our Asia-Pacific Engagement Consultant, Meghana Bahar, about the Santa Cruz massacre which occurred 25 years ago.

To stay updated on all of our work in the Asia-Pacific region, follow WITNESS Asia on Twitter and Facebook!

The New Media Ventures Innovation Fund selects six innovative and changemaking startups from a pool of hundreds of applicants, all of whom are finding ways to use cutting-edge technology to advance social and environmental causes and to mobilize underrepresented communities.

Mobil-Eyes-Us aims to support frontline activists who are using live video in more meaningful ways, other than through the usual ‘likes’ and ‘hearts’ from those watching these feeds. We look at existing and new technology that can turn viewers of live video into active witnesses who can provide guidance, leverage, and solidarity in real time.

Most recently a small-scale pilot of the Mobil-Eyes-Us project launched during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The pilot in Rio involved collaboration with frontline activists in communities affected by human rights violations to share a series of live-streams and provide ‘distant witnesses’ with the opportunity to witness directly what was happening, and move from being viewers to active witnesses taking action in support of frontline communities.

To learn more about our Mobil-Eyes-Us Project and Tech Advocacy, please click here.

To learn more about New Media Ventures, please click here.

The new video provides a brief overview on the importance of archiving in order to prevent your video evidence from potentially being lost or destroyed in the event that your account gets hacked, your hard drive dies, or your video is seized. Archive! and the Archive Guide show you what steps to take to preserve important video evidence that can help expose human rights abuses and support calls for justice. 

Session on “Access to Remedy” University of Pretoria, July 7th 2016. Photo: Isabelle Mbaye

The conference gathered more than 80 NGOs, community based organizations, civil society organizations and legal practitioners, all working in the field of human rights, extractive industry and environment.  Participants attended from all over Africa, including strong representation from  South Africa, DRC, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria. The attendees from countries such as Liberia, South Africa, DRC and Kenya, are facing land grabbing and forced evictions by big companies, environmental problems affecting local communities (Liberia, DRC), poor working conditions and sexual exploitation (Liberia, DRC).  

During this two day event, participants discussed the conference theme of access to remedy, the proposed treaty on business and human rights, development finance, and video advocacy.

A still from Rightful Place: Endorois’ Struggle for Justice.

WITNESS’ presentation covered the strategic use of video to change policies, practices, behaviors, and laws whilst acknowledging  the strengths and limitations of video for advocacy purposes.  The presentation included information on how to create a Video Advocacy Plan to clearly establish  the purpose of the video and how to determine the audience, all while considering safety and security.

Forced evictions were also part of the presentation through a case study on former WITNESS partners, CEMIRIDE and  the Endorois, an indigenous community in Kenya that was forcibly evicted from their land by the Kenyan government. This case was particularly topical since video from the advocacy campaign video was later used as evidence at the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Participants were very eager to learn more about video advocacy to understand  how it can be used effectively within existing advocacy campaigns.

“This session on the use of video was very beneficial for us because we have an idea of how we can do it now, we would like to deliver a message in our advocacy campaign using this medium and also we have learnt what key points should be delivered in a video for these few minutes would be calling out, heart touching to the audience to lead them to give us answers or actions.”

– Alexis Muhima Shinja from Observatoire de la Societe Civile Congolaise pour les Minerais de Paix (OSCMP)

“The use of video advocacy will be helpful, especially when it comes to land grabbing. In my country, Liberia, there are a lot of companies, mostly oil companies that are grabbing communities land so we need to use video to show evidence to the world on what the companies are doing that are not in the interest of local communities”

– Lawrence Moore, Green Advocates

The African Coalition for Corporate Accountability is growing and strengthening, the next General Assembly will be held in May 2017.

– Isabelle Mbaye

To learn more about WITNESS resources visit Library.witness.org. The access resources in French, visit Fr.WITNESS.org.