Witness

Training and capacity building: Witness trainings help fill critical gaps in the use of video for human rights, ensuring that the videos people often go to great lengths to capture can be trusted and verified; that activists can stay safe and manage risk; that evidentiary videos can be found amidst mass volume; that movements and groups can use visual storytelling in strategic and impactful ways; and that new and existing technologies can enable greater citizen participation. (continued on schedule o) each year, program staff provide a series of in-person and virtual trainings to communities, human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and lawyers around the world, sharing concrete resources, guidance, and tools around the safe, ethical, and effective use of video and technology for human rights.

Learning and sharing: a primary mechanism by which Witness helps build the fabric of ecosystems is through the unique ability to learn and share, ensuring that guidance and tools can be adapted to, and shared with, vulnerable communities facing similar issues around the world. As patterns of injustice and marginalization repeat themselves across borders and geographies, so too must the strategies and tactics for how video and technology can help realize opportunities and expose these abuses. (continued on schedule o) a rohingya villager trying to archive and preserve the mass volume of war crimes footage captured on their mobile phone via whatsapp in myanmar can learn from a civic journalist in syria who has already thought through these challenges and workflows in a war crimes context; just as a community leader trying to prevent the illegal deforestation of their land in malaysia can learn from indigenous leaders using video evidence to end the illegal invasion of their ancestral lands in the amazon.

Technology threats and opportunities:building on a rich history of anticipating the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies, Witness remains laser-focused on ensuring that innovation operates in service of a healthy and informed society, while serving and protecting the most marginalized. It engages actors across the human rights and technology ecosystem, bringing grassroots perspectives to global technology companies pushing them to be more accountable and scaling impact in the process. Witness utilizes an understanding of the real and unprecedented threats posed by emerging technologies to develop threat models, advocate to companies on rights-respecting approaches, and collaborate on applied research. (continued on schedule o)the organization is a thought leader and cross-sector convener, addressing the threats of synthetic media, mis-and disinformation, generative ai, surveillance, and security facing vulnerable groups and the human rights movement at large.

Resource creation and distribution:witness online library enables anyone, anywhere to access, download, and adapt a range of open source tips and guidance on how to use video more safely and effectively for human rights. Year after year, Witness has seen an increase in the overall engagement with these resources, demonstrating appetite and need for its materials across issue areas, regions, and languages. The organization recognizes the strategic power of social media and digital platforms as tools to widely distribute information, as well as the fact that activists and vulnerable communities worldwide are turning to these platforms to communicate, advocate, and participate in society.