Human Rights Video Hub Pilot

As video becomes more and more ubiquitious, Rodney King videos emerge on a daily basis to doggedly expand our awareness of man's inhumanity to man. Call it "open source human rights", the underbelly of our local communities and those half-way across the world have decreasing power to exist as dirty little secrets.

Fueling the charge, WITNESS has launched the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot, a participatory Web site where individuals can upload human rights-related videos that can be used to bring awareness to a larger audience. Footage can be uploaded from cell phones and other mobile devices, allowing immediate posting of user-generated content. public premiere of the project is planned for 2007. Even though it is only in pilot form, this video hub makes for a strange and terrifying ride. Here's one example of many that trot will trot you 'round the globe and back to home:

Wael Abbas, by far the Egyptian Blogosphere’s top photojournalist, continues exposing police brutality…Here’s a video clip of the Egyptian police in Damiette, during the November 2005 parliamentary elections. The interior ministry, then, unleashed its agents on the citizens, kidnapping and barring voters from approaching polling stations as it became clear the opposition parties were gaining more seats…

Witness is led by Gillian Caldwell, a filmmaker and attorney who has been named, among other accolades, one of 40 Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs by the Schwab Foundation. While she won't use her brains to make YouTube billions, she will use YouTube to make the world a safer place.

Susan Herr