CHIAPAS MEDIA PROJECT
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." (Gandhi)
Subject:
FWD: Call for (working) used Video cameras for CHIAPAS MEDIA PROJECT
Date:
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 01:05:48 -0800
From: George
Lessard <media@ietc.ca>
Reply-To: media-l@tao.ca
Organization: Media Activist - Freelance
Communication Arts, Training, Management & Mentoring
To: media-l@tao.ca
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 11:33:10 -0800
From: Sid Shniad
To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy (LABOR-L@YORKU.CA)
Subject: Video cameras for Human Rights work
Global Exchange supports this call from the CHIAPAS MEDIA
PROJECT for
donations of VHS camcorders to support human rights work
in indigenous
communities.
The presence of cameras with trained users is a proven
deterrent to
human rights abuses.
------------------
***CHIAPAS MEDIA PROJECT***
In February, the CHIAPAS MEDIA PROJECT will deliver up
to 40 used VHS
camcorders to indigenous villages throughout Chiapas.
In March, a
delegation of Chicago-based youth trained in video skills
will join
youth in Mexico City and Oaxaca to give a 10-day training
in video
editing in the community of Morelia. Tom Hansen will
lead the delegation
to donate the video cameras and teach villagers to use
them.
To donate your used VHS camcorder: include working batteries,
battery
charger and, if possible, a camera case. Please send
your camcorder to
Tom Hansen, 4834 N. Springfield, Chicago, IL, 60625.
For more information about the youth delegation, please
contact Tom
Hansen at 773-583-7728; e-mail alex2051@xsite.net
-------------------------------------
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CA 94110 Phone:
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http://www.globalexchange.org
----- reply sent to above ----
Date sent: Mon,
26 Jan 1998 00:54:28 +0530
Tom Hansen
Have you contact the Lawyers Committe for Human Rights
in NY?
They have been doing this for some time (so they say...
I have high
hopes but have offered myself as a volunteer teacher
/ trainer many times and have heard nothing back from them)... but the
singer Peter Gabrial is supporting them and they seem to have some U$
Their URL is
http://www.witness.org/
or
http://www.witness.org/textonly/index.htm
and email address for them is
witbin@lchr.com
( lchr =Lawyers Committee for Human Rights )
Snail mail:
Witness
330 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
I include this and other information below from their
site incase you do
not have web access.
"One of the key goals of the Witness program is to empower
human rights
activists working locally within their own communities.
Witness gives the tools of technology directly to nongovernmental organizations
to document human
rights abuses as they occur in cities, towns and villages
worldwide. " from
their web site..
Please let me know if anything happens with them...
I do not speak Spanish (but my knowledge of French lets
me understand
much) If I can help with the training, let me know...
I'll post copies of your request where I can
Good luck
George
P.S. I've just set up my Homepages .... see below
in my .sig file
About Witness
"Truth knows
no borders.
Information
wants to
be free.
Technology is
the key."
--Peter Gabriel
The Witness program, conceived
in 1992 in partnership with the
Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights, Peter Gabriel and the Reebok
Foundation, gives human rights
advocates the tools to document human rights abuses.
Witness provides video cameras and training to human
rights groups around the world. Through Witness, many groups are discovering
an important new dimension to their human rights
advocacy. For example, Witness videos document police brutality in
Nigeria; exhumations of mass graves in Bosnia, Guatemala and Haiti; graphic
evidence of "ethnic cleansing" of Rwandese
refugees by Hutu militants; and the abuse of street children in Honduras
and Guatemala. Dozens of new videotapes reach the Witness office each
month. With these tapes, Witness opens the world's eyes to human rights
violations and helps bring justice.
"Armed with cameras,
front-line activists
are letting the truth
do the talking."
-- Peter Gabriel
Witness honored by VH1. Click here for Event Highlights.
Click on any of the following questions for more information:
What have people said about Witness?
What do local human rights groups
do?
Why do they need equipment?
What do activists do with their
cameras?
How is Witness footage being
used?
What is the Witness Archive?
What can you do to support Witness?
Who created the Witness Website?
What have people said about Witness?
Peter Gabriel
"Witness works. A camera in the
rights hands at the right time at
the right place can be
more powerful than tanks and guns. Let truth do the
fighting.
Information is power and with
the right technology, truth can
travel across any border. By
capturing the human rights stories of today, the Witness
program challenges governments and can help prevent future abuses from
occurring. "
Sigourney Weaver
"One of the things that has always
struck me about working with the
Lawyers Committee is the terrible
isolation of these brave men and women
activists.
With Witness, communication
between us will not be stopped. Our
connection to each other will
be even stronger."
Michael Stipe
" Witness can link one village
to another and villages to
international forums. Witness will help pressure governments
to right wrongs and honor their promise that every human being is free
and equal in dignity and rights. "
The Boston Globe
"It is a wise project that deserves
universal support."
Paul Fireman
Chairman and CEO of Reebok International Ltd
"In the world of business, we're
about competition. In the world of
human rights, we need to be about cooperation. In that
world, while few
of us are guilty, all of us are responsible. We at Reebok
have donated our
marketing and business skills, from the Reebok Foundation,
the start-up
dollars for Witness."
Michael Posner
Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee
"The worst cases of political
torture occur within the first 48
hours of an arrest. We have already seen instances where
sending out faxes has generated a prompt international response that helped
stop abuse in
the critical first hours."
What do local human rights groups do?
They monitor and expose government
abuses.
They teach fellow citizens about
their basic rights.
They defend victims of human
rights abuse.
They fight for rights in every
possible venue, in the courts, the
media and
in the international arena.
Why do they need equipment?
Every day, people the world over suffer grave abuses of
their human
rights.Governments engage in torture, political killings,
arbitrary detentions
and deny other basic freedoms. Yet these basic rights
are guaranteed by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted
by the United Nations in 1948.
Human rights activists are on the front-lines of the fight
to protect
these rights. But they often fight alone, isolated and
under constant threat.
With Witness equipment, these groups can record the facts,
expose the truth
and get their message out to the international community.
What do activists do with their cameras?
1.Document human rights violations as they
occur.
In Nigeria, the Civil Liberties Organization taped a peaceful
protest against military rule that turned violent when
state security
forces attacked unarmed demonstrators.
2.Submit evidence to courts of law.
In Honduras, Casa Alianza taped children behind bars in a
cramped jail for adults. When a young boy was murdered
in that jail, the
group spearheaded the investigation using video tape
as evidence.
3.Disseminate information.
Physicians for Human Rights filmed the exhumations of mass
graves throughout the former Yugoslavia. This footage
was broadcast
on international news programs to expose the atrocities
committed
in the war.
4.Tape eyewitness testimony.
The Egytpian Organization for Human Rights captured the
physical and psychic wounds of torture victims receiving
treatment at a
hospital.
How is Witness footage being used?
In the U.S. and international
media:
Witness footage has appeared on major national and
international networks.
By international tribunals:
A Witness camera recorded the exhumation of genocide victims
in Rwanda. These tapes were then submitted to the International
War Crimes Tribunal.
In the courtroom:
Taped evidence of police brutality in Egypt was submitted to
the Chief Prosecutor in cases involving violence
against voters.
What is the Witness Archive?
Witness is building a multi-media archive that uses advanced
technology
to gather and catalog human rights footage. The archive
is a unique
resource - a repository of crucial video evidence. Public
awareness of human rights violations is the first step in building a broad
constituency to
challenge these abuses.
The Witness Website
The Witness website aims to bring together a virtual community
of people
concerned about Human Rights. The site will keep the
community
up-to-date on Human Rights issues, what they can do to
assist, and the impact Witness itself is having world-wide.
Thanks go out to:
The Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights in partnership with Peter
Gabriel and the Reebok Foundation
Michael Stipe
Cybershop, Original site host
VH1
GroundZero, original graphics
design
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:
Sun, 25 Jan 1998 11:30:54 -0500
Reply-to: unreform@ccen.uccb.ns.ca
From:
Martin Sieg <siegm@GUSUN.GEORGETOWN.EDU>
Organization: CCT @ Georgetown University
Subject: Video cameras
for Human Rights work (fwd)
To:
WUSCNET@post.queensu.ca
I am forwarding this not only because I think it is a
good cause, with
good reasoning, but also because it is an interesting
illustration of
the perceived power of the media. People naturally behave
differently
when they know they are being watched. But Orwell's prophecies
of (to
him) future society being constantly under the eyes of
'Big Brother' are
being contradicted by this more democratic movement of
everyone having
the ability to watch each other and show the world what
they see.
Martin
.
-> from the digital space of George Lessard, Media
Activist
--> Freelance Communication Arts, Training, Management
& Mentoring.
This site has my Bio
http://www.cban.com/resume/base/media+ietc-ca.html
Not a pretty website, but it has my Bio, Resume, Credits,
Exhibitions &
Residencies.
http://www.web.net/~media
---> 7305 Ch du Huard, Lac Pilon, Mont Rolland, Quebec,
Canada, J0R 1G0
----> Voice / Fax (514) 229-3666
E-mail when at home:
<media@ietc.ca>
or
<media@web.apc.org>
or when on the road,
<media002@hotmail.com>
CAUTION: Contents may not have been spellchecked, copyedited
or proofed.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
(Gandhi)
"The fool wonders, the wise man asks." (Benjamin
Disraeli)
Original material (c) copyright 1998 G.A.Lessard &
may be quoted,
resent, reproduced, stored or forwarded provided this
copyright notice
is attached. Forwarded or mined material is property
original copyright
owners.
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