In WITNESS' history we have partnered with women around the world. This is a thank you to all the women who are our partners in change.
We all share the desire to create a just world. At WITNESS, we share your passion to right the wrongs and to support those fighting for their rights. However, as our campaigns are aimed at creating systemic change, human rights impact can require patience, persistence, and a long view of a better world.
In early January, during our holiday break, Chris Michael, Program Coordinator at WITNESS, and I visited WITNESS’ partner LICADHO, the Cambodian League for the Promotion & Defense of Human Rights, in Phnom Penh.
WITNESS has had its most successful year ever, thanks to your support and partnership. This is the moment to say: "thank you."
I’m excited to share with you what inspires me and where WITNESS is going in this moment in the world today; a moment of amazing opportunity to achieve its mission.
In August of 2008, we published Leaving Fear Behind on the Hub, a film made by a Tibetan filmmaker named Dhondup Wangchen. In the film, Tibetans living inside Tibet were interviewed and asked to share their feelings about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Tibet, merely speaking out against Chinese rule or worshipping the Dalai Lama are considered crimes (and subject to severe punishment), so we had to consider the safety risks before deciding whether to publish the video.
...and every story can create change.
Over the past year, WITNESS has partnered around the world with human rights defenders to tell the stories, on video, of human rights abuses. We've worked on the disappearances of women and girls in Mexico, the discrimination of women in Yemen, and the stories of political violence against women in Zimbabwe. Victims of human rights abuses tell their stories on video and those stories are used to create change.
I became an American citizen on a rainy Friday a few weeks ago. When I entered the room where the ceremony was held, I was handed a little paper American flag so that I and about 50 other new Americans could wave it as a recorded message from President Obama welcomed us to the country. Then, a very serious-looking man from the government said: "Now make sure you register to vote and exercise your new rights!"
That's what thousands of women did in Zimbabwe in March of 2008. They went out and voted.
