Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive director of the US-based NGO Witness, wrote a post in the Huffington Post of 15 January about this fascinating topic on the occasion of Witness’ 20th anniversary. Here are some quotes before making a more critical comment:
“Twenty years ago, WITNESS was created because a world with many cameras — a world “where the eyes of the world are opened to human rights” — did not yet exist, a big bold vision at the time. Today, building on two decades of experience in creating tangible human rights change by exposing the truth through video, we are envisioning the next frontier: a world where video is not only ubiquitous, but has given millions the power to hold human rights abusers accountable, to deliver justice and to transform the human rights landscape.”….”So in 2013 and beyond, we are committed to building “video-for-change” communities, supporting networks of human rights defenders, from communities fighting forced evictions in Brazil to youth in the U.S. campaigning to protect the environment.”
In 2012, Witness launched the Human Rights Channel in partnership with YouTube and Storyful to ensure that important human rights stories are seen and contextualized. “We are committing in 2013 and beyond to take on the systems. The technology companies that run the platforms must create more human rights friendly spaces for all of us. And we decided to focus on the international legal systems to improve the understanding of how to authenticate citizen media to hold perpetrators of abuse accountable. We are working to achieve this vision by partnering and sharing in order to meet the challenge in front of us. We’ll join forces with technology mavens and mobile developers, with courageous human rights defenders worldwide, with brave bloggers, with witnessing citizens, with peer networks and effective organizations.”
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Witness has indeed greatly advanced the use of images in the struggle for human rights and its future plans are daunting. What is missing – understandably in a piece that celebrates the achievement of a group’s anniversary – is the wider picture of what the human rights movement is doing with images. From the visualization of human rights defenders (the Martin Ennals Award, Front Line Defenders, Rights Livelihood Awards, Tulip Award, Civil Rights Defenders, HRF to mention just some who regularly make film portraits and/or stream their proceedings), the production of films on HRDs (e.g. True Heroes foundation), the systematization of access to images (e.g. by HURIDOCS) and the showing of films by a myriad of human rights film festivals (HRW, AI, Movies that Matter, and some 30 others). This modest blog alone has made some 60 references to the use of film images for human rights, many by Witness and the organizations mentioned above.
I mentioning this not because of ‘fairness’ in the sense that others need to be mentioned also, but because the full scope of the challenges ahead needs to be seen and addressed. Human rights images face the same problems as documentation: (1) information overload; (2) finding the most relevant information (even more daunting for images as searching directly on images is still far away); (3) authenticity and veracity; (4) ensuring quantity and quality of dissemination (what goes ‘viral’ is not necessarily what serves human rights) and (5) protecting of sources and participants (have the persons in the film given informed consent?). And I am sure there are quite a few other important issues.
So when the executive director of Witness states that it excites her “that we, together with so many allies, are taking the challenge for the future head on“, one must hope that it includes all those who can contribute to her vision of a world ” where many, many more citizens and human rights defenders have access to knowledge, skills and tools enabling them to create compelling, trustable videos and to make sure that their video is acted upon and human rights change happens.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/witness/human-rights-2013_b_2475221.html
Follow Witness on Twitter: www.twitter.com/witnessorg see its annual report: annual report
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
February 27, 2013 at 22:52
Very interesting thoughts! Happy to hear others who do such good work–like the Martin Ennals Award, Front Line Defenders, and many more–get some praise for their unflagging good work. Yvette Alberdingk-Thijm didn’t have enough space to discuss their work in her piece, but WITNESS certainly appreciates their work and features it frequently on our blog (blog.witness.org).
I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on the 4 challenges you outline, especially what solutions you see on the horizon. Can you point me to anywhere where you’ve written on those topics? Thanks!
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February 28, 2013 at 13:53
Dear Kim,
Thank you for the belated reply and show of interest. Yvette herself did not react.
The challenges I outlined with regard to the wider picture of what the human rights movement is doing with images, were:
1. visualization of human rights defenders (the Martin Ennals Award, Front Line Defenders, Rights Livelihood Awards, Tulip Award, Civil Rights Defenders, HRF to mention just some who regularly make film portraits and/or stream their proceedings)
2. the production of films on HRDs (e.g. True Heroes foundation)
3. the systematization of access to images (e.g. by HURIDOCS)
4. the showing of films by a myriad of human rights film festivals (HRW, AI, Movies that Matter, and some 30 others). This modest blog alone has made some 60 references to the use of film images for human rights, many by Witness and the organizations mentioned above.
under 1) I mentioned already examples and their website show what I mean. but these NGOs are more the exception than the rule. Many others are trying but miss the expertise and resources to do so. Let me quote from the recent brochure of THF (www.trueheroesfilms.org)
VISUALISING THE WORDS OF HRDs
HRDs deserve visibility and credit but they are also role models. THF is
committed to produce a multi-media gallery of the most outstanding
individuals, describing – with images – who they are, what motivates
them, how they work, and what recognition means to them. The
portraits will be available on the website from September 2013.
The stories of HRDs are at the heart of the global struggle of human
rights. THF is currently partnering with Geneva-based international
NGOs to film interviews with HRDs, as part of its growing public video
archive. THF’s studio in Geneva acts as a meeting place for HRDs to
have their testimonies filmed and later promoted by Geneva’s human
rights community.
Generally, THF wants to support organisations in the optimal
visualization and communication of their work, in their production
of institutional films, interview series with leaders, stream events
and offer multimedia support at meetings and conferences.
In taking up these activities, THF will draw on a number of trusted
partners with different specialisations such as Dovana Films
Foundation (films), Pacosoft (websites), Capstream (live event
filming and streaming) and Tritan (database development).
2) the production of films (short or long but of professional quality) remains a big lacune. Funding is a key issue here and film funds (not especially for human rights) are badly attuned to the potential of human rights, which producers still tend to see as the exclusive domain of ‘go-gooders’ Sensitizing donors to the images potential and educating NGO Boards is important as the notion that a large amount of money for film production is well spent is not yet there. To exaggerate: there is rarely a shortage of people who want to film or people who want to use (show) a good film. Production is the weak link. Perhaps we need a special film fund for films on Human Rights Defenders.
3. the systematization of access to images is of course a key issue as explained in the para below:
“Human rights images face the same problems as documentation: (1) information overload; (2) finding the most relevant information (even more daunting for images as searching directly on images is still far away); (3) authenticity and veracity;
4. Making sure that the products are actually seen, i.e. reach television screens, film theaters etc is also an issue that is labour- and resource intensive and often escapes the human rights world. Film festival specialised in human rights (see Movies that Matter for a listing) make up for some of it but not enough. Again human rights NGOs should perhaps bundle their meagre resources in this respect. It could certainly help to ensure what goes ‘viral’ is serves human rights).
I know that this is not the blueprint you hoped for but then the problem is a bit too big for a single person to address, best Hans
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