Priscila Néri's Content

International Women's Day - Using Video to Stop Violence

Priscila Néri — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:05:38 -0800

Up to 60% of women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. Whether in the form of domestic violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, mass rape used as a weapon of war, or criminalization of reproductive rights, violence against women (VAW) remains one of the most pervasive violations of human rights across borders, cultures, and economic classes.

In the past three decades, much progress has been made in developing international legal frameworks to define, prevent, and prosecute VAW (see, for example, CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and UN Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889).

But there's still a long way to go. Last week, as I attended different events organized alongside the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, I heard three words over and over again: implementation, enforcement, and accountability.

So on this International Women's Day, we're highlighting some of the videos that are helping bridge this gap by exposing, documenting, and strengthening the call for an end to violence against women and girls - please share other your own examples in the comments field below!

1) One Million Signatures Campaign - In Iranian courts, the testimony of two women carries the same legal weight as the testimony of one man and women are not offered equal legal rights when it comes to marriage, divorce, and compensation. This activist-led campaign aims at mobilizing support to fight discriminatory laws against women in Iran:

2) The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo - shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, this video was screened to UN representatives to push for a special session at the Security Council on women, peace and security. Resolution 1820 was one of the outcomes of that session.

3) The Girl Effect - produced by Nike Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, BRAC, CARE and others, this short animated video highlights importance of educating and prioritizing girls:

4) Think About it - Ipas.org's campaign in Brazil that used video to force people to think about what it really means to criminalize abortion:

5) Is this democracy? A Nigerian activist on one of the panels I attended told me about this one - in November of 2008, a Nigerian woman named Uzoma Okere was assaulted by Navy officers on a street in Lagos. The attack was captured on video and, 13 months later, Nigerian courts delivered what many are considering a landmark judgement in favor of Okere, sending a strong message that violence against women will no longer be tolerated. Read more on the case in the Nigerian Curiosity blog and on allAfrica: At Last, Justice for Uzoma Okere.

6) Women in Haiti - this latest video by ActionAid highlights the heightened insecurity facing women in Haiti after the January earthquake.

7) Every woman has a story, and every story can create change - see how WITNESS partners are working to end VAW by focusing on the disappearances of women and girls in Mexico; on discrimination against minority women in Yemen; and on political violence against women in Zimbabwe:

LEARN MORE:

* Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues - VAW

* Global Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls

* UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women

TAKE ACTION:

* SAY NO - UNITE: End Violence Against Women

* Women WON'T Wait

* 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

* Take Back the Tech

* Man Up Campaign - A Global initiative to engage youth in preventing VAW

**A huge thanks to Rose Anderson and Violeta Krasnic for the amazing research used in this post!

VIDEO: 10 tactics for turning information into action

Priscila Néri — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:13:08 -0800

Say you suspect the president of your country is using the Presidential airplane to go shopping and sightseeing in Paris instead of for official state purposes. Or say your government has blocked YouTube because too many videos showing police brutality have been uploaded there. Or suppose you spent years using Freedom of Information laws to request access to government data and now you have thousands of pages of a complex budget in front of you. What can you do with this information? How can you turn information into action?

Here's a good place to start: 10 tactics for turning information to action - a 50-minute film by the Tactical Technology Collective that showcases some of the most successful tactics and strategies for using information to create change. The video highlights the experiences of activists from around the world that are using video, photos, SMS text-messaging, blogging and campaigning on platforms like Google Maps, Google Earth, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and blip.

Last night my colleague Sam Gregory (who is featured in the film and also serves on Tactical Tech's board) and I attended a screening of 10 tactics organized by the Open Society Institute in New York City. After the screening, a panel led by Sam and two inspiring contributors to the film - Melissa Gira Grant and Tessa Lewin - gave way to an interesting discussion with questions about measuring success in info-activism and addressing the ethics of online media. Here's the trailer for the film:

For me, it's always inspiring to see how far a bit of creativity goes: the Tunisian activists who tracked images of the Presidential plane at different international airports to prove it was being used for personal travel (see tactic 3); the feminist activists from the Women and Memory Forum in Egypt who are rewriting traditional Arabic fairytales and folklore to challenge prevalent representations of women in popular culture (see tactic 1); the Slovakian activists from the Fair Play Alliance that created an online database to track how the government spends its money and find conflicts of interests between officials and the contracts awarded (see tactic 3).

The information presented in 10 tactics is simple, effective, and easy to understand - it also comes accompanied by a set of 10 cards that summarize each tactic and provide additional tips and case studies. Later this month, the cards and videos will be available in eleven languages on the 10 tactics website. To learn more and start using the tactics in your own work, you can download the cards, attend an upcoming screening (or organize your own), and even translate the video into your own language.

Also, if you're not already familiar with them, I highly recommend the other Tactical Tech toolkits:

* Message in-a-box: tips on creating campaign blogs, websites, videos, podcasts, and more
* Mobiles in-a-box: how to design and implement a mobile advocacy strategy
* Security in-a-box: learn how to identify potential digital security risks in your advocacy work
* Visualising Information for Advocacy: tips on translating complex data to simple visual messages
* Maps for Advocacy: incorporate mapping into your campaigning
* Quick 'n' Wasy Guide to Online Advocacy: a great introduction on taking your campaigns online

Have resources of your own? Please share them in the comments field below!

Looking Back at 2 Years of the Hub - 10 Editor's Picks

Priscila Néri — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:28:13 -0800

NOTE: As part of my job here at WITNESS, I have watched more than 2,000 videos on the Hub alone since I joined the team in mid-2008. Different videos have stuck with me for different reasons - some visceral, others more rational. Selecting just ten of these - and you'll see I also snuck in a couple of extras - has been extremely hard. My criteria has been simply to choose those that I think are worth seeing, either because of their content, tactics, visuals, or because they have been inspiring to me personally. Also, I have deliberately not chosen videos that have already surfaced in our other Top 10 retrospectives. With that mind, this list is admittedly subjective and unscientific - even still, I hope you find little bits of value in these videos, as I did. Finally, we would be really interested to hear from you too - if you have something to share, please leave a comment in the field below or upload your own video. Also be sure to explore our other Top 10 posts to get a broader sense of the Hub content and community since our launch in 2007. Thanks! Priscila PS - These videos are listed in no particular order!

***

1) the clean hands project - this video introduces us to a special collaboration between the Jagaran Media Center in Nepal and the Advocacy Project in the U.S.

that trained 13 Nepali activists and journalists from the Dalit "untouchable" caste to use photography and video to tell their own stories and counter the discrimination against Dalits. In three months, more than 4,000 photographs and 60 hours of footage had been produced. What I especially love about this video are the testimonies from the Nepali activists who participated in the project and the commitment to building local - and long-lasting - capacity...

(PS - for another initiative along similar lines, see this Internews video about a training program that helps refugees produce locally-relevant news for their own community radio stations in Chad)

2) Pablo Fajardo - we had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Pablo at the 2009 ELAW Conference, where we also spoke with environmental lawyers from around the world.

Pablo is an Ecuadorean lawyer and activist who is representing 30,000 Indigenous people and rainforest dwellers from the Ecuadorean Amazon in a landmark $27 billion lawsuit against U.S. oil giant ChevronTexaco for years of environmental devastation in the region. To sum it up, I'll borrow words from Hub user Shannon0, who left a comment on the post we did about the case: "I'm proud of Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza for being the strength of their people and fighting for justice despite having become targets of increasing harassment, intimidation, and death threats over the years..." To learn more about the case, go to ChevronToxico.org and see this interview with filmmaker Joe Berlinger, who just completed a documentary about the legal battle called CRUDE.

3) Hub user ANIS (Brazil's Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights, and Gender) has contributed a remarkable set of masterly crafted advocacy videos that tell poignant personal stories whilst tackling extremely complex and controversial human rights issues.

In Alone and Anonymous, for example, we are left to grapple with the nuances of human dignity with profound questions about what happens when the right to life collides with the right to die - and who gets to decide... In Severina's Story, A Disembodied Woman, Habeas Corpus, and Four Women (later used as evidence in the Brazilian Supreme Court), we're touched by different accounts of violence against women and introduced to the human faces of issues like reproductive rights. And finally in The House of the Dead, we are taken into a psychiatric prison in northeast Brazil to bear witness to the realities of at least 4,500 people living with mental disabilities that are incarcerated in prisons and denied adequate treatment or protection.

4) Video to circumvent repression - holding up a video camera can be an extremely risky endeavor, but people are still finding ways to do so. Here are two great examples:

In Saudi Arabia, activists organized a hunger strike via Facebook to protest the unfair detention of 11 human rights activists. In interviews with the Hub, one activist explained that the internet was "the only way of getting the message out" and that "[speaking out] was worth the risks" of political persecution and harassment. In Tibet, Tibetan filmmakers Dhondup Wangchen and Golog Jigme were arrested and subjected to torture after completing Leaving Fear Behind, a film that showcases the voices and opinions of Tibetans in Tibet about the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Golog has since been freed and the campaign for Dhondup's release continues on - read more here and here).

5) Just plain creative. If you're looking for new and more

"out-of-the-box" ways of communicating your issues, here are three good places to seek inspiration: *The Yes Men (a collective of activists that use pranks to shame corporations and governments who try to abuse or ignore human rights...); *Animations for Human Rights - see Breakthrough's Oops I did it again! or Hub user Draxtor's Virtual Guantanamo in Second Life; * Last but not least, Video the Vote's 2008, which explains "simple" concepts like democracy, oppression, election monitoring and voter suppression with the help of bright pink stick figures... beautiful and effective.

6) Media that Matters! - if you love socially-oriented documentaries as much as I do, be sure to

explore Arts Engine's channel on the Hub. Every year, Arts Engine organizes the Media that Matters Film Festival in New York to "connect media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues." My favorites from this year include The Next Wave and Why Do White People Have Black Spots? Worth your time!

7) The next generations - For videos that showcase

youth perspectives, here are 5 great ones: *Green Prodigies webisode series (which features two brothers ages 8 and 10 talking about saving the environment for the sake of their futures); *ActionAid's participatory media project (in which children in Nepal report on the consequences of climate change on their lives); *Like you, we have rights too, from Amnesty International Philippines (featuring Indigenous youth from around the country); and *Doin' It: Sex, Disability and Videotape (made by The Empowered Fe Fes, a group of young women aged 16-24 living with disabilities and exploring their sexualities). Finally, for an impassioned defense of human rights by a young activist from New Orleans see this interview with Briana O'Neil from the Fire Youth Squad (guaranteed to make you smile).

8) Silence Speaks - a project of the Center for Digital Storytelling, Silence Speaks uses video and digital technologies

as tools for healing, transformation, and justice. The group holds workshops for "youth and adult communities that have been denied a voice" such as "people living in poverty, survivors of trauma, and those who face social stigma due to chronic medical conditions." In the workshops, participants share their stories and collaborate to create digital narratives about their experiences. Here's more about their mission in their own words: "these first-person stories aim to challenge media legacies of voyeurism and naturalized representation by ensuring that workshop participants, and not producers, have primary control over what is shared and how events and people are portrayed." Two particularly moving testimonies for me were Richard's Story, about surviving war in Uganda, and Jamie's Story of domestic violence in the U.S.

9) Ethics of online video in the era of Web 2.0 - this is one of the themes we grapple with constantly in our work here in Brooklyn and around the world. What are the ethics of creating, distributing, and sharing human rights media? And what are the new opportunities - as well as the new risks - that the internet presents for human rights activists in the 21st century?

Here are a couple of posts and videos that begin to explore these issues:
*Cameras Everywhere: Human Rights and the Ethics of Ubiquitous Video
*Iran Protests: A Woman Dies on Camera - to post or not to post?
*Honest Truths: What are the Ethics of Making Documentaries?
*Burma: Shooting, owning, sharing, watching video, shouting with glee at a TV broadcast... can earn you years in jail
*Guest Post: Notes from Burma - Story v. Security
*Should You Believe Your Eyes? Allegations of a Doctored Video from Sri Lanka
*What Can Civil Society Learn from Evgeny Morozov's Critique of Web 2.0?

10) Video for change in communities dealing with the consequences of war - this video is one of my favorites

because it encapsulates the meaning of video advocacy in a way no textbook could. The video shows how AJEDI-Ka, WITNESS' partner in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), used one of our co-productions - On the Frontlines - to mobilize and inform local communities in the DRC about child soldiers and the dangers of encouraging or allowing children to voluntarily enlist in war. What this particular video illustrates so beatifully is that making the video is not enough if the right people don't see it. I love watching the scenes of the communities debating the issue of child soldiers after seeing the video. For me, this is one more piece of evidence of the power of video to foster dialogue and lead to real change.

MORE ON 2 YEARS OF THE HUB

Top 10 Most Mentioned Issues

Top 10 Most Read Blogs

Top 10 Most Covered (And Responded To) Issues

Looking Back at 2 Years of the Hub - Top 10 Most Covered (and Responded to) Issues

Priscila Néri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:20:03 -0800

December 2009 marks the Hub's official two-year anniversary and we're looking back at the most popular videos, issues, campaigns, and blog posts since our launch. There's a lot to cover - the Hub is now home to 3,000 videos on a range of human rights issues from all around the world. Since 2007, more than 9,700 people have created accounts on the Hub, 177 organizations have created group pages, and Hub content has been viewed more than 8 million times. This list marks the most covered (and responded to) issues on the Hub - see more on our 2-year retrospective posts.

TOP 10 MOST COVERED (AND RESPONDED TO) ISSUES (of all time, as of December 21, 2009)

1- Egypt Torture Videos	2- What image opened your eyes to human rights?	3- Video for Change: Bringing a Warlord to Justice	4- Spotlight on LICADHO - forced evictions in Cambodia	5- Resources, Tips, Toolkits
17 videos and 5 blog posts were viewed 182,780 times	52 videos and 7 blog posts were viewed 94,260 times	27 videos and 7 blog posts were viewed 68,180 times	20 videos and 11 posts were viewed 51,130 times	6 videos and 6 posts, were viewed 41,750 times

6- HCLU's campaign for drug policy reform	7- The Campaign for Elder Justice in the U.S.	8- Hear Us, Stand With Us - Women Against Sexual Violence in Zimbabwe	9- Campaign to End Femicide in Northern Mexico; WITNESS meets President Calderón	10- Spotlight on Indigenous Media Around the World
27 videos and 2 posts were viewed 39,550 times	36 videos and 7 posts were viewed 32,410 times	11 videos and 4 posts were viewed 29,200 times	5 videos and 6 posts were viewed 26,930 times	10 videos and 4 posts were viewed 22,990 times

MORE ON 2 YEARS OF THE HUB

Top 10 Most Mentioned Issues

Top 10 Most Read Blogs

Looking Back at 2 Years of the Hub - Top 10 Most Read Blog Posts

Priscila Néri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:59:13 -0800

December 2009 marks the Hub's official two-year anniversary and we're looking back at the most popular videos, issues, campaigns, and blog posts since our launch. There's a lot to cover - the Hub is now home to 3,000 videos on a range of human rights issues from all around the world. Since 2007, more than 9,700 people have created accounts on the Hub, 177 organizations have created group pages, and Hub content has been viewed more than 8 million times. This list marks the most read posts on our blog - see more on our 2-year retrospective posts.

TOP 10 MOST READ BLOG POSTS (of all time, as of December 21, 2009)

1- What image opened your eyes to human rights? [27,983 reads]	2- Mobile Phones Document Police Killing Unarmed Man in California [14,101 reads]	3- Hear Us, Stand with Us - Zimbabwean Women Rise Against Sexual Violence [10,295 reads]	4- Video for Change: Bringing a Congolese Warlord to Justice [8,194 reads]	5- Elder Justice Now! A New Campaign to Address Elder Abuse in the U.S. [4,730 reads]



6- Results of our Meeting with President Calderón [4,269 reads]	7- Earth Day: Do Environmental Rights = Human Rights? [3,253 reads]	8- Remembering Chechen Activist Natalia Estemirova [3,215 reads]	9- USA: Las Vegas Newspaper 'Outs' Sex Workers [2,999 reads]	10- Info-War over Gaza [2,710 reads]

Note: duplicate posts on very similar issues were deleted from the Top 10 so as to reflect a broader base of themes.

MORE ON 2 YEARS OF THE HUB

Top 10 Most Mentioned Issues

Looking Back at 2 Years of the Hub - Top 10 Most Mentioned Issues

Priscila Néri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:31:29 -0800

December 2009 marks the Hub's official two-year anniversary and we're looking back at the most popular videos, issues, campaigns, and blog posts since our launch. There's a lot to cover - the Hub is now home to 3,000 videos on a range of human rights issues from all around the world. Since 2007, more than 9,700 people have created accounts on the Hub, 177 organizations have created group pages, and Hub content has been viewed more than 8 million times. This list marks the most mentioned issues - see more on our 2-year retrospective posts.

TOP 10 MOST MENTIONED ISSUES (of all time, as of December 21, 2009)

1- Freedom of Opinion & Expression	2- Torture & Ill Treatment	3- Poverty	4- Police Brutality	5- Detention



6- Environment	7- War Crimes	8- Internally Displaced Persons	9- Indigenous Peoples	10- HIV/AIDS

MORE ON 2 YEARS OF THE HUB

Top 10 Most Viewed Videos

Top 10 Most Read Blogs

Top 10 Most Covered (And Responded To) Issues

Top 10 Editor's Picks

**A huge thank you to Marianna Moneymaker for all her work on this!

Looking Back at 2 Years of the Hub - Top 10 Most Viewed Videos

Priscila Néri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:09:48 -0800

December 2009 marks the Hub's official two-year anniversary and we're looking back at the most popular videos, issues, campaigns, and blog posts since our launch. There's a lot to cover - the Hub is now home to 3,000 videos on a range of human rights issues from all around the world. Since 2007, more than 9,700 people have created accounts on the Hub, 177 organizations have created group pages, and Hub content has been viewed more than 8 million times. This list marks the most viewed videos - see more on our 2-year retrospective lists.

TOP 10 MOST VIEWED VIDEOS (of all time, as of December 21, 2009)

1- Japan: Military Sexual Slavery during the Second World War -- witnessed 102,709 times	2- Egypt: Bloggers Open the door to police brutality debate -- witnessed 51,263 times	3- China: Government's video censorship foiled -- witnessed 32,128 times	4- Malaysia: Cellphone video captures police excess -- witnessed 28,694 times	5- Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border -- witnessed 27,328 times



6- Mark Malloch Brown on Darfur -- witnessed 26,337 times	7- Egyptian Internet Torture Video Shakes Police Sense of Impunity -- witnessed 25,603 times	8- The Hub for Human Rights Media and Action -- witnessed 21,200 times	9- Tibetan pilgrim shot dead by Chinese Police at Nangpa La Pass -- witnessed 20,212 times	10- Bound by Promises: Slavery in Rural Brazil (excerpts) -- witnessed 19,597 times

MORE ON 2 YEARS OF THE HUB:

Top 10 Most Mentioned Issues

Top 10 Most Read Blogs

Top 10 Most Covered (And Responded To) Issues

Top 10 Editor's Picks

**A huge thank you to Marianna Moneymaker for all her work on this!

Videos that opened our eyes to human rights in 2009

Priscila Néri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:25:35 -0800

Last year we asked people to tell us what images had opened their eyes to human rights. The responses were fascinating and a true testament to the power of visual imagery to capture the consciousness of people across boundaries. This year, to keep the conversation going, I asked WITNESS staff and interns to think about human rights videos they saw in 2009 that made an impact on them. Then I asked them to choose one video and send me a couple of sentences explaining their selection. Here's what they said (you can see a list of my own picks here):

1) The murder of Oscar Grant - (picked by Chris Michael and Marianna Moneymaker)

Chris: "The video of Oscar Grant, a young, unarmed black man being shot by police officers while laying face-down on a BART subway platform in Oakland, California on New Years' morning 2009 is one of the many police-brutality videos that will stick with me. An example of a tragic event, a murder, that was captured by citizens from a variety of viewpoints was a powerful example of how mobile phones and digital cameras can be used to police the police and capture human rights violations.
Marianna: After being horrified that the young man on the ground that had been shot in the back, the next thing that struck me was the incompetency of the city to properly train their police officers. From the limited information in the video, the police officers appeared jumpy and ill prepared for the situation, which helped lead to the one officer drawing his weapon on a person that was already apprehended, handcuffed and restrained. Now, that officer has to live with the fact that he shot a man in the back... meanwhile, the city continues to train police officers who will potentially react in the same deadly manner.

2) A 10-year-old's message to Obama - (picked by Jenni Wolfson)

The video that most stood out for me in 2009 was of a 10-year-old boy called Sage delivering a message to Obama about climate change and what the U.S. President must do to protect the environment. Sage and his 8-year-old brother Cam are changing their own lifestyles to do their part and you can see that in this Green Prodigy Webisode to the right. Sage's message is clear and compelling, and he understands one of the most important steps in preventing human rights abuses - political will.

3) Sex workers from India, in their own words - (picked by Stephanie Lotshaw)

I am drawn to this video because of what it does not visually capture. The video is simply interviews with women who look much like any woman; there is no footage of repressive apparatuses, dire or exploitative circumstances, evil individuals or fanatical crowds. This negation of a recognizable 'victim' identity (sex worker, rape victim, torture victim) creates a new kind of portraiture, where the subject is surrogate for any human subject. This obliteration of the 'victim' shifts the viewers attention to consider modes of violence and injustice that are not as obvious. I also particularly like this video because of the determination with which these women are working to defend their rights despite the entrenched ideas of masculinity, patriarchy and class in their society. I was drawn to how not only has this program educated and developed preventative HIV policies in the community, but how it has renegotiated perceptions of difference in Indian society. By bringing together housewives and sex workers - two groups that traditionally exist in separate spheres of society - and encouraging them to discuss their commonalities as women, I believe the project helps blur and eventually eradicate traditional categorical boundaries that impede women's rights.

4) Take the knife or don't take the knife? - (picked by Chris Michael)

Using the interactive feature of online video, DropTheWeapons.org creates a choose your own adventure-style video to raise awareness about knife and gun violence and encourages people to reconsider carrying weapons. This series of videos got a ton of views and participation, and helped usher in a new era of online video advocacy by highlighting how built-in YouTube tools could be used to raise awareness. I'm confident that we'll see a lot more groups and organizations using interactive video tools to raise awareness and mobilize online supporters to get involved and take action on human rights issues.

5) I am that, yes that's what I am - (picked by Violeta Krasnic)

The other day I was at a high-level human rights panel. One would hope that at least at this venue the level of discriminating against the proverbial "other" would be less pronounced. But alas, even human rights defenders who overtly respect seemingly visible differences (think race or gender) sometimes have a hard time hiding their disdain for the more covert things that set as apart. Oh how easy is to for some to forget that sexual orientation does not necessarily show in someone's mannerisms! Oh how surprised are some that people with intellectual disabilities could be so "normal"! And as for people who choose to sell sexual services - well, here is a video from them to you..

6) A massacre in the Philippines - (picked by Bryan Nunez)

Aside from my personal connection to the region, I thought this was a pretty horrific incident that didn't get enough attention from the international press. Though not a video, the CNN photo essay is more powerful.

7) The human cost of climate change -(picked by Violeta Krasnic)

An incredibly powerful interactive feature by Oxfam that makes us feel like we are on the island of Gabura, in south-west Bangladesh, dealing with the real-life consequences of climate change...

8) The death of Neda -(picked by Dan Verderosa and Priscila Néri)

Dan: I think I have to go with the Neda video: Iran was the country in the news this year, and this video, which represents a multitude of others from the Iranian protests, not only demonstrated with graphic brutality the nature of the present Iranian regime, but also demonstrated to the world, and most importantly to the U.S., that the people of Iran are not the government of Iran. From a video advocacy perspective, the video demonstrated the new dynamic of advocacy in a participatory online landscape where user-generated content can reach millions, as well as some of the ethical concerns that accompany it.
Priscila: Had and continue to have several thoughts and unresolved questions about this video, especially about the ethics of seeing it whilst trying to preserve Neda's dignity as a person... (you can read more in this post I wrote shortly after the video first surfaced online).

2 years of the Hub - a look back

Priscila Néri — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:05:47 -0800

We have learned so much from all of you in the past two years and we've been continuously inspired by how people and groups are using video and online technologies to tell their own stories, circumvent government oppression, and defend the basic rights with which all humans are born. An enormous thank you to groups like Frontline, Amnesty International, Breakthrough, Freeforall, HCLU, a-films, Pulitzer Center, b'tselem, HR2Housing, needmagazine, TVEAP, USHR Network, EngageMedia, Human Rights Watch, SilenceSpeaks, LICADHO, Bulatlat, and many others for being such valuable contributors to the Hub community. Thank you for leading the way!

What follows is a small (and by no means comprehensive!) selection of some Hub highlights from the past two years - we invite you to explore, comment, and contribute your own ideas and thoughts about how video can and is being used to further human rights. We look forward to the conversation!

*Note: the data below reflects numbers retrieved on December 21, 2009

TOP 5 MOST VIEWED VIDEOS*

1- Japan: Military Sexual Slavery during the Second World War -- witnessed 102,709 times	2- Egypt: Bloggers Open the door to police brutality debate -- witnessed 51,263 times	3- China: Government's video censorship foiled -- witnessed 32,128 times	4- Malaysia: Cellphone video captures police excess -- witnessed 28,694 times	5- Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border -- witnessed 27,328 times
(see the next 5 most viewed videos here)

TOP 5 MOST MENTIONED ISSUES*

1- FREEDOM OF OPINION & EXPRESSION	2- TORTURE & ILL TREATMENT	3- POVERTY	4- POLICE BRUTALITY	5- DETENTION
(see the next 5 most mentioned issues here)

TOP 5 MOST READ BLOG POSTS*

1- What image opened your eyes to human rights? [27,983 reads]	2- Mobile Phones Document Police Killing Unarmed Man in California [14,101 reads]	3- Hear Us, Stand with Us - Zimbabwean Women Rise Against Sexual Violence [10,295 reads]	4- Video for Change: Bringing a Congolese Warlord to Justice [8,194 reads]	5- Elder Justice Now! A New Campaign to Address Elder Abuse in the U.S. [4,730 reads]
(see the next 5 here)

TOP 5 MOST COVERED (AND RESPONDED TO) ISSUES*

1- Egypt Torture Videos	2- What image opened your eyes to human rights?	3- Video for Change: Bringing a Warlord to Justice	4- Spotlight on LICADHO - forced evictions in Cambodia	5- Resources, Tips, Toolkits
17 videos and 5 blog posts were viewed 182,780 times	52 videos and 7 blog posts were viewed 94,260 times	27 videos and 7 blog posts were viewed 68,180 times	20 videos and 11 posts were viewed 51,130 times	6 videos and 6 posts, were viewed 41,750 times
(see the next 5 here)

5 EDITOR'S PICKS (listed in random order - see a quick explanation of the criteria, as well as 5 more picks from the Editor here)

1) the clean hands project - this video introduces us to a special collaboration between the Jagaran Media Center in Nepal and the Advocacy Project in the U.S.

2) Pablo Fajardo - we had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Pablo at the 2009 ELAW Conference, where we also spoke with environmental lawyers from around the world.

4) Video to circumvent repression - holding up a video camera can be an extremely risky endeavor, but people are still finding ways to do so. Here are two great examples:

5) Just plain creative. If you're looking for new and more

**A huge thank you to Marianna Moneymaker for all her work on this!

Green Prodigies: A 12-Part Webisode Series Featuring Cam & Sage, Ages 8 and 10

Priscila Néri — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:54 -0700

Each day, we hear new stories about how global warming is affecting people and communities around the world. From the Carteret Islanders - facing forced relocation from their homes as the islands they live on become slowly submerged by rising sea levels - to children in Nepal, missing school and experiencing food/water shortages due to intensifying floods and landslides, the human impact of the climate crisis is becoming ever more real (some scientists predict there'll be up to 150 million climate refugees by 2050).

A growing global movement is responding to this crisis by calling on world leaders to take decisive action at the UN Climate Change Conference this December in Copenhagen. Last week, thousands of people took to the streets in 135 countries in a Global Wake Up Call organized by TckTckTck.

In the U.S., Kelly Matheson and I met two very special boys who are also trying to do their part. After learning about the climate crisis, brothers Cam and Sage - ages 8 and 10 - decided to change their lifestyles to reduce their family's carbon footprint and help save the planet. Green Prodigies is a 12-part webisode series featuring Cam and Sage talking about everything from gardening tips to why people should take action on climate. Here's to broadening the scope of voices interacting with human rights issues and campaigns - enjoy!

Webisode 1: What Is Global Warming?	Webisode 2: Drying, Freezing, Canning
Webisode 3: A Greenhouse For My Bday	Webisode 4: Gardening Tips
Webisode 5: How To Scare A Slug	Webisode 6: Message To Obama
Webisode 7: Sage's Plea To You	Webisode 8: Cam On Big Cars
Webisode 9: Why I'm Teaching My Kids About Global Warming	Webisode 10: Spices - Cooking Tips With Chef Cam
Webisode 11: The Mason Bee Home	Webisode 12: Talking To My Friends

LEARN MORE & TAKE ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE:

* TckTckTck.org - a global alliance of civil society organizations, trade unions, faith groups, and citizens calling for a fair, ambitious and binding climate change agreement in Copenhagen

* Global Campaign for Climate Action - a coalition of global organizations from more than 30 countries, including Oxfam, Greenpeace, Avaaz, and Global Call to Action Against Poverty

* 350.org - an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to support solutions to the climate crisis

* Climate Change and Human Rights, A Rough Guide by the International Council on Human Rights Policy

* The Humanitarian Impact of Climate Change - Resource Page by Change.org

* Counting the Human Cost - Anatomy of a Silent Crisis - Global Humanitarian Forum

* Climate Change and Displacement - Resource Page by Forced Migration Online

* From The Hub, videos & blog posts on climate change

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Editor's Note: Green Prodigies is essentially a story about two kids making a difference in our world. We bring you Green Prodigies as a light-hearted yet inspiring close to our ELAW Interview Series, which featured the voices of activists from around the world working at the intersection of environmental rights, climate change, and human rights (see this compilation video for more). An enormous Thank You to Cam and Sage, their parents, and to our amazingly dedicated intern Dave Taub, who spent coutless hours editing and nurturing this series.

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Green Prodigies: A 12-Part Webisode Series Featuring Cam & Sage, Ages 8 and 10

Webisode 1: What Is Global Warming?

Webisode 2: Drying, Freezing, Canning

Webisode 3: A Greenhouse For My Bday

Webisode 4: Gardening Tips

Webisode 5: How To Scare A Slug

Webisode 6: Message To Obama

Webisode 7: Sage's Plea To You

Webisode 8: Cam On Big Cars

Webisode 9: Why I'm Teaching My Kids About Global Warming

Webisode 10: Spices - Cooking Tips With Chef Cam

Webisode 11: The Mason Bee Home

Webisode 12: Talking To My Friends