- Community-led Approaches to Data Collection on Gender-Based Violence This blog highlights community-led approaches to data collection on sexual and gender-based violence in the United States.
- The Power of Video in 2020: Police Brutality in Africa Author: Loui Mainga In 2020, debate on increased visibility of police abuse gathered momentum in Africa following their heavy-handedness under the guise of enforcing COVID-19-related restrictions and much later, the #EndSARS protest movement in Nigeria. Given the pivotal role social media is playing in exposing and bringing heightened awareness to police abuse, a number of […]
- The Role of Video and the Right to Record in Exposing Systemic Racism WITNESS has responded to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ call for submissions to inform her report on systemic racism and violations of the international human rights of Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement. WITNESS’ submission emphasizes how video has played an essential role in exposing institutional discrimination around the […]
- The role of video evidence in Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement 20 October 2020 On October 3, a video showing the extra-judicial killing of two civilians by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police, sparked outrage on social media. It led to more and more Nigerians sharing videos and personal stories of their brutal encounters with SARS operatives – a unit that became notorious […]
- Want to Record The Cops? Know Your Rights While not any sort of panacea for police violence, videos of police officers in the US killing unarmed Black men like George Floyd, Oscar Grant and Eric Garner have undeniably been an essential part of the conversation around racist, brutal policing in the United States. Police violence is a much longer lasting pandemic than COVID-19, […]
- The Right to Record for human rights during COVID-19 When WITNESS says the Right to Record, we are referring to the ability to pick up a camera or cell phone and film the police or military without retaliation. We are also talking about the initiative, commitment, attitude, and courage that it takes to exercise that right, and the organizing communities do to make this […]
- Using Video to Protect Human Rights During Covid-19 On January 24, Chen Qiushi stood in Wuhan, the center of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, and spoke into his camera: “This epidemic happened because the State covered up the truth and facts”, reported the human rights lawyer and activist. “Through my camera, I want to deliver the voices of Wuhan to the world. If […]
- COVID19 and Police Brutality in Africa We have created a video that highlights some of the violations carried out by security forces during the COVID19 lockdown in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
- WITNESS Ally Livestreams His Own Detention – What The Video Teaches Us |Leia em português aqui| Last night one of WITNESS’ longstanding allies, Raull Santiago, was detained along with two friends as he livestreamed an abusive encounter with Riot Police officers wielding assault rifles on a dark highway overpass in Rio. The officers lived up to their reputation and behaved exactly like you’d expect one of the […]
- In Africa, Fear of State Violence Informs Deepfake Threat Our deepfakes preparedness workshop in South Africa revealed that perceived threats from synthetic media vary greatly by region, especially where repressive government is a factor.
- Cracolândia: A Public Health Crisis Treated with State-Sponsored Violence Originally published in Portuguese. Brazil currently faces the world’s largest crack epidemic, with an estimated 1 million crack users. Sharing a border with 10 countries, Brazil is a prime transit hub for the coca producers of the Andes region. While the increasing use of crack there is often attributed to the war on drugs in […]
- The Right to Record Recognized at the United Nations Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Council promoted the right to record explicitly in resolution A/HRC/38/L.16 — WITNESS explains what this means for activists and human rights defenders around the world.
- Deadly, deadlier: Rio favela under fire by joint Police-Army forces Last week in Brazil, military police joined lethal forces with the Brazilian Army for an operation in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Maré, leaving 7 dead. Residents using mobile phones captured the deadly use of helicopters and over one hundred bullets fired during the attack.
- Fighting impunity for attacks at women’s marches From Ukraine to Malaysia, demonstrators at International Women's Day marches continue to face attacks without accountability. This is Last Month in Video, March 2018 edition—with updates from the Alton Sterling police shooting, police collusion in Sri Lanka, and border patrol abuse in California.
- Police Violence Against Local Teens is Caught on Camera in Rio de Janeiro By Victor Ribeiro and Dalila Mujagic. A video containing footage of a brutal police incident went viral amongst social media users in Rio de Janeiro. The footage shows Lapa Presente officers — a unit of military police dedicated to tourist areas and funded by a group of business and economic interests called the Federation of […]
