Kelly also spoke about the work Our Children’s Trust is doing to help 21 youths hold the U.S. government accountable by filing a federal lawsuit against President Obama and eight federal agencies in all 50 states. The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government has failed to protect the basic human rights to life, liberty, and property for our youngest generation by allowing the use of fossil fuels despite its dangerous impact on the climate system. The fossil fuel industry has been fighting the lawsuit aggressively in order to protect their interests.

In partnership with Our Children’s Trust, WITNESS co-produced the TRUST campaign series videos which showcased nine youth discussing the ways in which the ongoing climate change crisis and the lack of action by the U.S. government is negatively impacting their lives and their futures.

Watch the full playlist of videos here.

Matheson will co-lead a workshop on “NGO Guidelines for Fact-Finding”, hosted by the Open Society Justice Initiative. The workshop will provide guidance and best practices for NGOs and civil society groups documenting and collecting evidence of crimes under the Rome Statute, as well as share recommendations on how to interact with ICC representatives. WITNESS’ Video as Evidence Field Guide will be presented at the event.

The event is free and open to the public. Learn more about the Video as Evidence work on our new website: vae.witness.org.

Workshop Details

Friday, November 20, 3-5pm

Panelists:

• Olivia Bueno, International Refugee Rights Initiative
• Alison Cole, Open Society Justice Initiative
• Federica D’Alessandra and Paul Williams, PILPG-The Netherlands
• Alexa Koenig, Berkeley Human Rights Center
• Kelly Matheson, WITNESS
• Nancy Valdez Vielman, Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation

Moderator:

Sharon Nakandha, Open Society Justice Initiative

Our Children’s Trust’s most recent success was in New Mexico where last month the State’s Court of Appeals issued a ruling recognizing the climate as a resource protected by a constitutional public trust doctrine. New Mexico will now join the growing list of states that are recognizing the government has a legal obligation to preserve the climate for future generations. This is a massive victory and we are thrilled that the success of the Our Children’s Trust campaign continues today.

A similar victory comes out of The Netherlands where an unprecedented decision was issued requiring the Dutch government to take more effective action to combat climate change. The civil case, brought to court by the organization Urgenda which represented over 900 co-plaintiffs from around the country, has resulted in a ruling that will force the Dutch government to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by at least 25% before the year 2020. Because the Dutch government had already agreed to a 17% reduction policy, this decision will be the first time that a national government has been ordered to amend current climate conservation efforts by its judiciary branch.

Similar to the strategy used by Our Children’s Trust in the US, Urgenda developed their case around the concept of a public trust doctrine. An entity protected under public trust is considered to be belonging to the public and therefore, must be protected by the government. According to the court ruling, a clean climate is guaranteed to the Dutch people by the public trust doctrine of The Netherlands and therefore, the government must take serious action to preserve it.

Finally, in preparation for the upcoming United Nation Climate Conference in France, Sam Kutesa, president of the U.N. General assembly, hosted a high-profile meeting on climate change last month.

This event offered an opportunity for two well-recognized and accomplished climate activists to speak in front of delegates from all 193 countries of the general assembly. The first was acclaimed actor and conservationist Robert Redford.

The second was a close friend of WITNESS’, 15-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Roske Martinez, a youth activist from Boulder Colorado who was featured in a campaign video we co-produced with of Our Children’s Trust. During his speech, Xiuhtezcatl made a note of addressing the extreme dangers we face as a species if the international community continues to avoid adopting aggressive policy combating climate change : “What’s at stake right now is the existence of my generation.” You can see Xiuhtezcatl’s story, and the stories of other youth taking legal action against the governmental for a cleaner climate, by visiting Our Children’s Trust here.

This has clearly been a thrilling few weeks for climate change activists across the globe and WITNESS is proud to be a member of the fight for a cleaner atmosphere. These successes have already drawn the attention of the New York Times and other popular news outlets, and will hopefully build momentum for the cause as we quickly approach the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference in December.

WITNESS’ Program Manager for Asia and the Pacific, Arul Prakkash (Prakkash), travelled to the Philippines to attend RightsCon 2015 along with Program Director Sam Gregory.  While in Manila, Prakkash also took part in the Responsible Data Forum, an event that brought together human rights defenders, technicians, and front-line activists to discuss human rights documentation. Additionally, Prakkash met with local groups and NGOs to WITNESS materials and lead short workshops. Despite the city traffic and his tight schedule, Prakkash was able to make the most of his ten days in Manila!

Following his time in the Philippines, Sam Gregory journeyed to Sweden in early April to participate in Defender Days, an annual event put on by Civil Rights Defenders. The event was attended by over 150 European human rights defenders and 160 human rights defenders from outside of Europe. Sam led sessions on video advocacy, video as evidence, and video verification. Check out a Storify from the conference below.

Meanwhile, Jackie Zammuto, WITNESS Engagement Coordinator, rocked it at The University of Texas at Austin.  Jackie conducted a workshop titled, “From Brazil to Ferguson: Using Video to Support Human Rights Advocacy”, and participated in a panel hosted but the Department of Eurasian and Slavic Studies, titled “Social Media + The Dynamics of Dissent.” The panel discussed the role of social media in recent conflicts and revolutions throughout the world including in Ukraine, Russia, Brazil and the Arab Spring. Upon her return to New York, Jackie held training sessions for youth, tailored to address concerns and needs of young people who want to learn about engaging in activism safely and effectively.

Stay tuned for more WITNESS updates from around the world!

This Video as Evidence training comes on the heels of a recently launched preliminary investigation into crimes against humanity in Ukraine by the ICC.

The training is bringing together a range of human rights defenders who have a stake in using video as evidence including citizen journalists, activists, community reporters and human rights investigators. Through case studies, practical exercises and discussions, participants will learn basic legal principles that will inform what and how they film as well as practical step-by-step guidance on how to capture, share and store video with enhanced evidentiary value. The end goal is to ensure the footage activists often take great personal risk to film, will be more helpful for human rights investigations and justice proceedings.

Learn more about WITNESS’ work to develop Video as Evidence guidelines, in collaboration with the ICC, here.

Called “The Media Doesn’t Care What Happens Here,” the story follows WITNESS partners and allies as they document police violence in the country.

In particular, journalist Matthew Shaer introduces Raull, the co-founder of a media collective in Rio de Janeiro. Our Senior Program Manager Priscila Neri has worked with Raull – and many activists like him – in an effort to document police violence effectively so that their video can strengthen calls for justice.

It is no small task. Activists estimate that police violence in Brazil kills thousands each year and marginalized favela communities are the most affected.

Important though for these Brazilian activists is that the country’s media largely ignores the epidemic. Says Raull in the article:

“Four or five bodies show up, six bodies, maybe it makes the news. One body? Never. The media doesn’t care what happens here. They’d rather not think about it.”

Their solution has been to film and document what traditional media has not covered: ongoing and systemic police violence in the favelas.

WITNESS’ collaboration with media groups like Raull’s has included efforts to turn footage taken on the frontlines of human rights abuse into justice, a central component of our video as evidence initiative.

Via The New York Times:

[WITNESS] believed that the footage shot by local residents in the world’s most dangerous places could be used not just to draw attention to acts of violence but also to put the responsible parties in prison. It was a novel vision for how criminal justice could evolve in the era of the smartphone, and the young members of [the media activist group] Papo Reto seemed like the perfect partners.

It is not only in Brazil that activists and lawyers are searching for ways to turn footage taken on the frontlines of human rights abuse into justice. With cameras in the hands of millions of people worldwide, more light is shining on abuses than ever before.

However, while citizen video often provides helpful clues about what took place and who might be responsible, the footage rarely meets the requirements for evidence in a court of law. As Kelly Matheson, our Senior Attorney and Video as Evidence Program Manager explains:

Evidentiary work requires a more detached eye. “It’s instinctual to shoot that puddle of blood or the body lying on the ground,” Matheson [tells The Times]. “It’s not instinctual to turn around and get a badge number or the location of a communications tower. If you’re strictly a media activist, you’re not going to show the world a communications tower. It’s not going to make the news. It’s not going to mobilize anyone. But from a legal sense, you need those details.”

You can read the article here — and please share with your networks so everyone, everywhere begins to understand how to use video for justice.

Also, congratulations to the New York Times Magazine for the redesign of both their print and digital editions. We’re so happy to be included in their launch issue.

More Brazil, More Video as Evidence

Learn about tools and guidance we’re developing to help activists ensure that their footage can serve as evidence in criminal and civil justice processes.

Read WITNESS Executive Director Yvette Alberdingk Thijm’s thoughts in the Huffington Post on video as evidence

Read what WITNESS Co-founder Peter Gabriel has to say about the potential power of video evidence.

Learn more about WITNESS’ work in Brazil.

For Kelly Matheson, WITNESS’ Senior Attorney and Program Manager, it was an opportunity to reconnect with old allies.

“I had the honor of marching alongside young people who will be asking the US Supreme Court to determine whether or not our federal government is obligated to protect our air, water and atmosphere.” she says, referring to Our Children’s Trust. The group is one she worked with extensively when she led WITNESS’ involvement in the TRUST Campaign, an effort to fight for climate justice in the United States by pressuring governments across the country to implement science-based climate recovery plans.

For Martin Tzanev, WITNESS’ Video Technology Specialist, the People’s Climate March provided the opportunity to test InformaCam, an open source mobile application we’re developing with The Guardian Project that improves verification of mobile media files.

Martin brought us together, reminded us to follow the methodologies we teach others when filming large scale events in teams, and sent us out to shoot using the InformaCam app. This week he’s sifting through the videos we gathered to learn more about what evidentiary stories can be told via the metadata InformaCam collects.

Below are some photos we took along the way.

Meantime, we keep Kelly’s words in mind: “From Selma and Stonewall to the US Supreme Court, the civil rights and LGBT movements have taught us the power that grassroots activism — combined with hard fought legal battles — has in protecting our basic rights.”

Here’s to those who organized and participated in Sunday’s march, and especially to those who have been and continue to fight for climate justice.

Select an image to view slideshow.

Resources & Ideas

InformaCam does a lot of things. At its heart though is a metadata standard we believe will improve the verifiability of videos taken by activists and citizen witnesses alike. For WITNESS’ thoughts and ideas on metadata, see:

• Metadata is Powerful, and the NSA Knows It
• How Video Metadata Can Help Rhinos, Not Poachers
• How An Eyewitness Mode Helps Activists (and Others) Be Trusted

For more information about InformaCam, visit The Guardian Project.

Images: Photos by WITNESS’ Sarah Kerr and Jackie Zammuto.

The broad topics she and others discussed included:

• The term evidence is used often (and somewhat broadly) in the human rights world. What does it take to ensure video documentation is legal evidence? In other words, how can we ensure video that activists sometimes risk their lives to capture, could be admitted into a court of law?
• At what stages of the criminal justice process can investigators and lawyers use video evidence?
• How do investigators and lawyers use video captured by activists in their process to seek the truth and secure accountability?

Kelly provided some initial answers when she wrote:

Video can be used at every stage of the criminal justice process. The names of the stages vary depending on the country and the court but generally speaking, the stages are:

• Call for an Investigation
• Investigation
• Warrant for Arrest
• Arrest
• Confirmation of Charges
• Trial
• Sentencing

The dialog can be read here and is a fascinating look at various legal aspects of video as evidence, issues of video verification and examples such as the use of video in the International Criminal Court’s 2012 war crimes conviction of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for his actions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As Kelly explained:

[O]ne of the elements the ICC Prosecutor needed to prove was that some of Lubanga’s soldiers were under the age of 15. The Prosecutor could not rely on birth records to prove age because birth records are rare in the DRC. Forensic evidence was also unreliable because the models used to age children based on bone structure were based on American and European children. Since documentary and forensic evidence could not prove age, the Prosecutor relied, in part, on a series of video clips showing: i) Lubanga at the military training camps speaking to children; and ii) children serving as his bodyguards. A sample of the footage from the opening argument can be watched here.

Image: Video still from footage used in the Joseph Lubanga Dyilo International Criminal Court trial demonstrating that children were recruited and used as soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

WITNESS and its partners visited courageous American seniors in their homes to document their poignant stories about abuse, neglect and exploitation. With the video footage we produced a short documentary, An Age for Justice: Confronting Elder Abuse in America and over 100 video testimonies. These films and short messages were then sent directly to Congress with a request to pass the EJA.

While health care reform captured the national headlines, the EJA unquestionably deserves our attention. When asked about provisions of health reform that received little fanfare, former Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius pointed to the EJA — legislation that gives our nation a solid framework to protect seniors from being beaten, neglected and exploited. She stated, “[The Elder Justice Act] has been an issue talked about for a very long time . . . . It’s now the law of the land. It was part of the underlying Senate bill, and I don’t think many people have ever focused on the fact that this is an important step forward for seniors in America.”

The EJA is the most comprehensive federal legislation ever enacted to combat elder abuse. The EJA authorizes increased federal resources and leadership to support state and community efforts to prevent, detect, treat, understand, intervene in and, where appropriate, prosecute elder abuse. It also authorizes funding for broad-based education and awareness efforts.

We are grateful to all those who shared their story. As Pat Smith, one of the courageous seniors so succinctly states, “I don’t think this is an issue people like to think or talk about.” Video advocacy and the passage of EJA take us one step forward in making elder abuse a national conversation.

Want to learn more about current efforts to protect American elders? We spoke with Marci Phillips, the Director of Public Policy at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), on World Elder Abuse Day.

Image: Video still from ‘Age for Justice: Confronting Elder Abuse in America.’