Witness

WITNESS "uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change...

"WITNESS was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation as a project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). In 1988, Peter was part of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! Tour."


 * Gillian Caldwell - Executive Director, Witness

Funding
In 2005, they received $200,000 from the Ford Foundation for "its worldwide human rights video advocacy programs."

Core Partners
"Below is a listing of our current Core Partners and a description of their work with WITNESS:

Africa
 * Association des Jeunes pour le Developpment Integre - Kalundu (Ajedi-ka), Democratic Republic of Congo
 * Human Rights Focus (HURIFO), Uganda
 * Centre for Minority Rights Development (CEMIRIDE), Kenya

Americas
 * American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), USA
 * Centro de Estudios Aplicados a los Derechos Economicos Sociales y Culturales (CEADESC), Bolivia
 * Comision Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos, Mexico
 * Comissao Pastoral da Terra (CPT) & Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Brazil

Asia
 * Burma Issues, Thailand/Burma
 * Sekretariat Keadilan dan Perdamian (SKP) - Jayapura (Office for Justice and Peace, Jayapura), Papua, Indonesia

Europe and the former Soviet Union
 * Association for Promoting Inclusion, Croatia
 * Organization Drom, Bulgaria
 * Human Rights Center Memorial in Grozny, the Chechen Republic, Russian Federation

Directors

 * Yvette Alberdingk Thijm
 * Andrew Blau (President)
 * Patricia Caesar (Treasurer)
 * Julia Cohen
 * Mallika Dutt
 * Peter Gabriel (Chair)
 * Joichi Ito
 * Michael Hirschhorn
 * Paul Katz (Secretary)
 * Robert Kissane
 * Joshua Mailman
 * Izhar Patkin

Advisory Committee

 * Brian Byrd
 * Mercedes Dorreti
 * Steven Goldberg
 * Diederik Lohman
 * Juan Mendez
 * Patrick Montgomery
 * Annie Ohayon
 * Drazen Pantic
 * Eli Pariser
 * Harry Pearce
 * Samantha Power
 * D.J. Ravindran
 * Tim Robbins
 * Sebastio Salgado
 * Paula Silver

Contact
80 Hanson Place, 5th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: (718) 783-2000 Fax: (718) 783-1593 Web: http://www.witness.org

Related SourceWatch articles

 * FilmAid International - Partner
 * Joseph Salim - former committee member
 * Ronit Avni
 * Greg Carr - Member of Witness board of advocates
 * Julia Pimsleur - Acting Deputy Director