Transcript of Prague day-1-test
- WITNESS uses video to open the eyes of the world
to human rights violations
Making Your Video Advocacy Successful
March 7-10, 2011
Chris Michael, WITNESS
Video Advocacy Training Manager
- WHO ARE WE?
Name
Where you live
Why youre here
Experience with video for advocacy
Demonstrate your favorite facial expression
- WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Learn WITNESS Video Advocacy Methodology
Review (successful) case studies
Ensure you leave with a Video Action Plan
Practice filming best practices
Develop safety, security and informed consent best practices
What else?
- DAY 1
Review our experience of effective video advocacy
Explore strengths and limitations of video
Look at methodologies for using video for change
Introduce the Video Action Plan
Filming exercise
- DAY 2
Video advocacy case study review
Storytelling discussion and exercises
Start developing your Video Action Plan
Introduce safety, security and consent
Filming exercises
- DAY 3
Explore innovative uses of video for change
Overview of editing and tips to film like an editor
Finalize* your video action plan & share it
- WITNESS: VIDEO FOR CHANGE
19years
75countries
250partner organizations
1000s of human rights defenders
4000hours of archived human rights footage
- HARNESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
EQUIPPING
cameras & tools
EMPOWERING
training human rights defenders
ENABLING
growing P2P networks
- TRAJECTORY OF VIDEO
- THE GAME CHANGER
- TOOLS FOR A REASON
JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, DOESNT MEAN YOU SHOULD.
- My (most incredible) mom
Tactics that optimally support the advocacy.
Tools that optimally support the tactic.
All should both build and harness power - and be
integrated.
- VIDEO ADVOCACY
Video advocacy is about effectively using the power of stories,
visual evidence and personal testimony as part of a human rights
advocacy strategy to engage people to act and create change in
human rights law, policy, practice and behavior.
- EXERCISE
In a group of three-four persons, share an experience of video
being used for human rights advocacy.
Discuss together in the small group what made it effective.
After ten minutes, well hear a sample of the examples.
- WITNESS TOP 5
Video made for a reason, not about something
Video made for a specific audience
Video with a clear and doable request for action from the
audience
Video with a strong message and the best messengers to move the
audience to action
Video that can, and will, be seen by the audience
- FOR WITNESS, VA IS NOT
A substitute for other advocacy tools: reports, mobiles, lobbying,
etc.
Used primarily as a publicity, educational or training tool
Just for professional filmmakers or journalists or media
experts
Necessarily dependent on strong graphic imagery for impact
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- EXERCISE
In a group of three-four persons, use the example of the film and
your own experience to discuss the strengths and limitations of
video being used for human rights advocacy.
Note your ideas on post-its using no more than 4-5 words try to
identify 3-4 advantages and 3-4 limitations
After ten minutes, well gather the post-its on the wall and see
what groupings emerge
- STRENGTHS
Show or contextualize a violation or its aftermath
2) Put a face on human rights advocacy by telling a personal
story
3) Compress, contrast and juxtapose situations
4) Use emotional power to communicate to an audience
5) Detail specific cases or incidents that are emblematic of
patterns
6) Be a democratic and participatory medium
7) Serve as a shield
LIMITATIONS/SHORTCOMINGS
1) Depends on access to places and people
2) Limitations in covering structural issues
3) Weak for deep quantitative analysis and complex procedural
issues
4) Technological divide still exists and does not change/remove
issues of representation, and process can be less participatory
during editing
5) Can jeopardize lives
Advocacy and Propaganda?
3/7/11
16
- BREAK
- WITNESS: Methodology
Start with the Advocacy Objective
Focus on Audiences
Solutions and a Space for Action
Safety and Security
- Landmarks of a Video Advocacy Campaign
Safety, Security & Consent
Advocacy Goal
Target Audiences
Message
Story
Distribution
Archive
Impact Evaluation
- Location/Partner: Paraguay, Mental Disability Rights
International
Objective: Secure precautionary measures to protect two named
individuals; and push for long-term reform with community-based
model
Audience: Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, footage
sequenced for mass media usage
- Advocacy Objective
Audience
Message
Contextualize in/or Create Narratives with Action
Opportunities
Circulation, Distribution and Viewing Approach
Evaluate
Participation/Safety
- Objective
Audience
Message
Contextualize in/or Create Narratives with Action
Opportunities
Circulation, Distribution and Viewing Approach
Evaluate
Location/Partner: Paraguay, Mental Disability Rights
International
Objective: Secure precautionary measures to protect two named
individuals; and push for long-term reform with community-based
model
Audience: Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
Participation/Safety
/
Message: Abuses in this facility are breaches of international law,
and require immediate action
Story: Told via the emblematic stories of two minors, framed by
international law
Timing/Distribution: For usage before Commission; and footage to be
used in news coverage of decision
Impact: Presidential action to secure improved conditions for named
minors; reform of the psychiatric system
- Location/Partner: Croatia
Association for Promoting Inclusion (API)
Objective:To raise awareness about the rights of people with
intellectual disabilities; secure officials commitment to social
inclusion and establishment of community-based social care
programs.
Audience: Health care, social services, elected officials ->
UN
Objective
Audience
Message
Contextualize in/or Create Narratives with Action
Opportunities
Circulation, Distribution and Viewing Approach
Evaluate
Participation/Safety
/
- Location/Partner: Croatia
Association for Promoting Inclusion (API)
Objective:To raise awareness about the rights of people with
intellectual disabilities; secure officials commitment to social
inclusion and establishment of community-based social care
programs.
Audience: Health care, social services, elected officials ->
UN
Message: Over institutionalizing persons with intellectual
disabilities; challenging stereotypes; policy change is
needed
Story: Told via the emblematic stories of two lovers, framed by
rights
Timing/Distribution: Key decision makers; direct service providers;
UN
Impact: Croatia one of first 5 nations to sign UN Convention on
Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Objective
Audience
Message
Contextualize in/or Create Narratives with Action
Opportunities
Circulation, Distribution and Viewing Approach
Evaluate
Participation/Safety
/
- STEP 1: SMART OBJECTIVES
Establish the purpose of the video within broader advocacy
strategy
Set clear and specific objectives for the video, specifying what
they are, and how they can be achieved
- SMART Objectives
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound
- NOT Specific: Empower students to do environmental
accountability research in Brazil
Specific: Provide technological support to Brazilian film students
to help document corporate violations of environmental laws in
south and southeast Brazil and place this evidence before national
stakeholders including
NOT Measurable: The video screening should evoke more uplifting
responses from the public.
Measurable: The video screening will secure a 15% increase in
participation in local community dialogue in this location over the
next six months.
NOT Achievable: The video will make officials act to push for
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
Achievable: During our advocacy briefing, we will provide a video
report with accompanying recommendations for interim steps to
support the upcoming legislative debate on ratification.
NOT Realistic: Attendance at our video events will quadruple last
years attendance.
Realistic: We should aim for a 5% increase in attendance for this
years video event while maintaining our routine efforts.
NOT Time-bound: We hope the anti-discrimination law passes as soon
as possible.
Time-bound: We aim to have the anti-discrimination law passed by
August 1st, 2009.
- STEP 2: TARGET AUDIENCES
Who has an influence on your advocacy goal? Who should be reached
and persuaded?
What is their perspective or attitude to the issue?
What is their level of awareness?
What is their level of knowledge?
Who are your secondary audiences who can pressure your primary
audience?
-
- Evidentiary
- Decision-maker lobbying
- Interventions in formal HR monitoring
- Community organizing offline and online
- Solidarity organizing online and offline
- Mass mobilization
- Mass media attention
.
- STEP 3: STRATEGIC MESSAGES
Resonate & Compel
What are the 1-5 key facts / sentences / points that will resonate
with your audience and thus must be in your documentary?
- KEY QUESTIONS
What is the message you need to get to this audience?
Are you educating, engaging or activating?
What story will be persuasive, compelling or motivating for this
audience?
What voices is it important to have in the video in order to have
political, ethical, analytical and emotional credibility and
impact?
- REVIEWING VIDEOS
What is the Objective of the video?
What is the Audience of the video?
What is the Message of the video?
What is the Story of the video?
What is the request for action?
- CASE STUDY: On The Frontines
Partner/Location:Ajedi-Ka, Eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo
Objective:Reduce voluntary recruitment of children into militia and
armed groups
Audience:Community members in eastern Congo in areas at risk of
recruitment
Message:
Story/Voices:
Distribution:
Impact:
- CASE STUDY: On The Frontines
Partner/Location:Ajedi-Ka, Eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo
Objective:Reduce voluntary recruitment of children into militia and
armed groups
Audience:Community members in eastern Congo in areas at risk of
recruitment
Message: Participation in the militia has short and long-term
consequences for children and is not in their best interests
Story/Voices: Young people talk about the impact on them and we see
visual evidence from the camps
Distribution: In community screenings across eastern Congo
Impact:Reduction in voluntary recruitment; later videos contribute
to prioritization of issue at international level
- CASE STUDY: A Duty To Protect
Partner/Location:Ajedi-Ka, Eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo
Objective:
Audience:Opinion-formers at international level including ICC
investigators themselves
Message:
Story/Voices:
Distribution:
Impact:
- CASE STUDY: A Duty To Protect
Partner/Location:Ajedi-Ka, Eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo
Objective:Encourage the ICC to prioritize the issue of child
soldiers and sexual violence in its investigation in DRC(and also
to invest in community outreach)
Audience:Opinion-formers at international level including ICC
investigators themselves
Message: i) Child soldiers should be a priority issue for the ICC
as well as sexual violence against girl soldiers + ii) More
community outreach is needed in eastern Congo iii) Call for US
engagement
Story/Voices: Through the stories of two young women framed by an
authoritative narrator
Distribution: Shown internationally and to ICC officials
Impact:Contributed to prioritization of issue at international
level including at ICC in first prosecution
- STEP 4: RIGHT STORY
1. Condense your story to one sentence.
2. How will you tell the story? Knowing your audience you can now
choose:
Voices who is included? who is excluded?
Style MTV vs. News vs. ?
Structure beginning -> middle -> end -> ACTION
A/V Elements what sound and visuals are in it?
Length driven by your primary audience(!)
Language driven by your primary audience(!)
SPACE FOR ACTION and clear request for it
- Case Study: Missing Lives
Location/Partners: Chechnya with Memorial Human Rights Center
offices in the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia,
North Ossetia)
Objective: Push for official action to end impunity and provide
redress for the crimes of enforced disappearances, torture, and
extrajudicial killings.
Audience: Government of the Russian republics in the North
Caucasus; Prosecutors' Offices; Ombudsman of the Russian
Federation; Federal and local government officials; European and
international policy makers; solidarity groups
Message:
Story:
Voices:
- Case Study: Missing Lives
Location/Partners: Chechnya with Memorial Human Rights Center
offices in the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia,
North Ossetia)
Objective: Push for official action to end impunity and provide
redress for the crimes of enforced disappearances, torture, and
extrajudicial killings.
Audience: Government of the Russian republics in the North
Caucasus; Prosecutors' Offices; Ombudsman of the Russian
Federation; Federal and local government officials; European and
international policy makers; solidarity groups
Message: Need to break through the system of lawlessness
surrounding the crimes of disappearances
Story: Insight into damage done in the lives of people whose loved
have vanished; A survivor of abduction and torture speaks about his
ordeal at the prison site
Voices: Relatives of the missing people, a torture survivor
Distribution approach: Used in public screenings in Chechnya,
Russia, and international advocacy fora
- STEP 5: STRATEGIC DISTRO
Who are your distribution allies?
Timing: Is there a key premiere date?
Sequencing: What are your distribution opps?
Choosing the right messenger
- 5 NEW(ISH) USES OF VIDEO
Pocket-power: Mobile Phones
Immediate: Livestreaming video
Amplify: User-generated voices
Geo-specific: Location-mapped video
Remixing advocacy videos
- CAPTURING ABUSES
- DOCUMENT: LIVESTREAMING
- USER-GENERATED SWARM
- USER-GENERATED SWARM
- NOT SO FAST
- WHOS AT RISK HERE?
- EGYPT
- IRAN
- SPOTLIGHT: FIVE TRENDSaffecting human rights advocacy
Accessibility
Participation
Accountability
Amplification
Mobilization
- STRONG FOUNDATION
Good Stories & Storytelling for Change
Know Your Audience
Message -> Story -> Action
Use & Enhance Best Practices
+ Safety & Security
+ Informed Consent
- WITNESS.org
WITNESS.org/training
chris@witness.org
- CASE STUDIES
- Watch the video as a critical viewer, thinking about its
objective, audience, message, story and voices.
After watching the video take ten minutes to discuss it with your
neighbors what do you identify as the message, story and
voices?
After ten minutes, well hear a sample of the discussions
- Case Study: Books Not Bars
Location/Partners: California with Ella Baker Center For Human
Rights
Objective: Mobilize support around initiatives to confront the
prison-industrial complex
Audience: Youth activists
Message:
Story:
Voices:
Distribution approach:
- Case Study: Books Not Bars
Location/Partners: California with Ella Baker Center For Human
Rights
Objective: Mobilize support around initiatives to confront the
prison-industrial complex
Audience: Youth activists
Message: You are directly affected by this system, you need to
challenge it, and have the power to win
Story: Told through a series of narratives of youth activism
including success stories
Voices: Primarily youth and supportive activists and
academics
Distribution approach: To be screened in organizing settings often
alongside music and spoken word; paired with teaching pack for use
in schools
- Case Study: CEMIRIDE Evidentiary Video
Location/Partners: Kenya with CEMIRIDE and Minority Rights
Group
Objective: Secure ruling from African Commission on Human and
Peoples Rights on displacement of Endorois people from their
ancestral lands in Kenya
Audience: African Commission, to be followed up with a public
engagement campaign using a different version of video
Message: Endorois people have suffered violations of their rights
under specific articles of the African Charter
Story:
Voices:
Distribution approach: Screened at African Commission alongside
legal submission and in-person advocacy
- Case Study: CEMIRIDE Evidentiary Video
Location/Partners: Kenya with CEMIRIDE and Minority Rights
Group
Objective: Secure ruling from African Commission on Human and
Peoples Rights on displacement of Endorois people from their
ancestral lands in Kenya
Audience: African Commission, to be followed up with a public
engagement campaign using a different version of video
Message: Endorois people have suffered violations of their rights
under specific articles of the African Charter
Story: Focused on showing the daily life of Endorois today
contrasted to specific treaty obligations of Kenya government
Voices: Lead by young man, with voices of other ages
Distribution approach: Screened at African Commission alongside
legal submission and in-person advocacy
- Case Study: Crying Sun
Location/Partners: Chechnya with Memorial Human Rights Center
office in Grozny
Objective: Secure the return of villagers to their homes in the
Caucasus Mountains; Push for the establishment of programs to
restore the cultural heritage; Investigate the abduction of four
Zumsoy residents and prosecute the perpetrators
Audience: Chechen government officials and administrations of local
districts; Prosecutors and Ombudsmans; European and international
policy makers; solidarity groups
Message: War is destroying the unique aspect of Chechen culture -
secure return of villagers to their ancestral homes
Story: Told by Zumsoy villagers and portrays their struggle to
preserve cultural identity and traditions in the context of
military raids and enforced disappearances
Voices: Chechen villagers, local school principal, teacher
Distribution approach: Used in communal and individual screenings
in Chechnya, Russia, and international advocacy fora
- Case Study: Missing Lives
Location/Partners: Chechnya with Memorial Human Rights Center
offices in the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia,
North Ossetia)
Objective: Push for official action to end impunity and provide
redress for the crimes of enforced disappearances, torture, and
extrajudicial killings.
Audience: Government of the Russian republics in the North
Caucasus; Prosecutors' Offices; Ombudsman of the Russian
Federation; Federal and local government officials; European and
international policy makers; solidarity groups
Message: Need to break through the system of lawlessness
surrounding the crimes of disappearances
Story: Insight into damage done in the lives of people whose loved
have vanished; A survivor of abduction and torture speaks about his
ordeal at the prison site
Voices: Relatives of the missing people, a torture survivor
Distribution approach: Used in public screenings in Chechnya,
Russia, and international advocacy fora
- Case Study: Duty to Protect
Location/Partners: DRC with Ajedi-Ka, P.E.S.
Objective: Encourage ICC Prosecutors Office to prioritize issues of
child soldiers and sexual violence in its initial charges in
DRC
Audience: Officials and prosecutors at the ICC, international
audiences concerned about DRC and ICC
Message: Need for focus on sexual violence within ICC
investigations; need for ICC outreach offices in eastern DRC; call
to US for engagement
Story: Told through stories of two young women affected by sexual
violence
Voices: Young women, and voice of a human rights advocate
Distribution approach: Used in communal and individual screenings
in US, and at ICC, as well as worldwide subsequently
- Drafting a Video Action Plan
You will need to identify:
Objective?
Audience?
Message?
Timing/Sequencing?
Strategy for Participation
- Location/Partner: India, Chintan with IMAK and Video
Volunteers
Advocacy objective:Support the rights to livelihood of
waste-pickers in Delhi
- CASE STUDY: Counterbalance
Location/Partner: India, Chintan with IMAK and Video
Volunteers
Human rights advocacy objective:Support the rights to livelihood of
waste-pickers in Delhi
Message::An alternative model exists that provides for workers
livelihoods and is cost-effective
Story/Voices: :Waste-pickers from New Delhi Municipal Council and
Municipal Corporation of Delhi; public health professional
Distribution: To be shown individually to key members of the
Delhi.
Impact: To be determined
- Location/Partner: Burma, Burma Issues
Objective:Support the push to refer Burma to the UNSC under threat
to the peace
Message: Actions of Burmas military regime in eastern Burma are a
threat to the peace
Story/ Voices:Condensed summary of situation, with emblematic story
of one older woman
Timing/Distribution: :Used in solidarity organizing and shown to
officials in Indonesia, UK, USA and at UN, alongside presentations.
Also viewed almost a million times on YouTube.
Impact:Supported organizing work; ultimately no referral to
UNSC
- CASE STUDY: Bound by Promises
Location/Partner: Brazil, CPT and CEJIL
Human rights advocacy objective:Propose and support a series of
national and state level solutions to challenge use of forced labor
including better enforcement, stronger penalties and economic
opportunities for workers
Message:
Story/Voices:
Distribution:
Impact: units
- CASE STUDY: Bound by Promises
Location/Partner: Brazil, CPT and CEJIL
Human rights advocacy objective:Propose and support a series of
national and state level solutions to challenge use of forced labor
including better enforcement, stronger penalties and economic
opportunities for workers
Message: Forced labor continues in rural areas, and solutions are
on the table
Story/Voices: A composite of voices from forced laborers and their
families, as well as key experts
Distribution: Screenings alongside advocacy to policymakers at
state and national level; broad public attention via television
broadcast
Impact:Reinstitution of mobile monitoring units
- CASE STUDY: An Age for Justice
Partner/Location:National Council on Aging, USA
Objective:Secure passage of Elder Justice ACT
Audience: Key members of US House of Representatives and direct
service providers
Message:
Story/Voices:
Distribution:
Impact:
- CASE STUDY: An Age for Justice
Partner/Location:National Council on Aging, USA
Objective:Secure passage of Elder Justice ACT
Audience: Key members of US House of Representatives and direct
service providers
Message: Elder Abuse is prevalent; it is preventable; Elder Justice
Act is primary solution
Story/Voices: Affected persons; service providers;
legislators
Distribution: Direct screenings with key decision makers; mass
distribution with 100 unique videos
Impact:Contributed to passage of Elder Justice Act (part of Health
Reform Act, 2010)
- Think like a Human Rights Advocate and a Video Activist
Find a compelling story that you can tell visually, and through
testimony
Identify compelling individuals who want to tell their story
Look for telling details that highlight your story and advocacy
goals
Be truthful and ethical
Make the process empowering for people involved with the video and
maintain the integrity of your footage
Build the story within a human rights framework and ensure the
video can be used as an advocacy tool
- Case Study: Hear Us: Women Affected by Political Violence in
Zimbabwe Speak Out
- STRENGTHS
Show or contextualize a violation or its aftermath
2) Put a face on human rights advocacy by telling a personal
story
3) Compress, contrast and juxtapose situations
4) Use emotional power to communicate to an audience
5) Detail specific cases or incidents that are emblematic of
patterns
6) Be a democratic and participatory medium
7) Serve as a shield
LIMITATIONS/SHORTCOMINGS
1) Depends on access to places and people
2) Limitations in covering structural issues
3) Weak for deep quantitative analysis and complex procedural
issues
4) Technological divide still exists and does not change/remove
issues of representation, and process can be less participatory
during editing
5) Can jeopardize lives
Advocacy and Propaganda?
3/7/11
72