November 11, 2006
WITNESS Benefit Dinner in New York 12/11
I'll be going to New York for this:
2nd Annual Benefit for WITNESS, Dec. 11, 2006, NYCLast year was a blast. This was the most fun I had last year while doing something for positive for human rights. It should be an amazing event this year too. We still have seats available so if you're interested, please sign up and pass it on to your friends.FOCUS FOR CHANGE
The Second Annual Dinner and Concert to Benefit WITNESS
Co-Hosted by WITNESS Founder Peter Gabriel and Gael Garcia Bernal
Performances by Paul Simon, Angélique Kidjo and Kate Pierson & Fred Schneider of the B-52'sTO PURCHASE TICKETS OR TABLES online click here. For more information or to order tickets by phone call (718) 783-2000 ext. 304; To order by e-mail events@witness.org. Pricing is below.
Click here to download an invitation.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
September 15, 2006
Human Rights Video Hub Pilot
23:19 UTC » Global Voices - Human Rights
WITNESS and Global Voices Online just launched the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot. WITNESS has been working for years on enpowering people to make documentaries about human rights issues. Global Voices has been working, initially mostly through blogs, to provide voice to people around the world. This new project is great collaboration between the two projects, bringing the power of video expression to even more people through an online video hub.
I am involved in WITNESS as a recently appointed board member and Global Voices as one of the founding participants. We've been talking about and working on the various unique issues involved in setting up a hub like this for awhile now and it is great to see the first step launched.
Yay!
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
March 14, 2006
Joined WITNESS board
02:35 UTC » Human Rights - Joi's Diary
Ever since I met Gillian Caldwell the executive director of WITNESS in 2003 I've been fascinated with their work. WITNESS is is an organization that "partners with human rights defenders, training them to use video to document abuse and create change".
I'd been talking to Gillian about using the Internet and blogs more for their work and last year we set up a TypePad blog for her when she went to Sierra Leone with Angelina Jolie to deliver recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) to the government. The blog was a big success. Since then, I had been trying to provide advice and support and recently they allowed me to join their board. I'm very excited to be working with them and any thoughts on how we can make WITNESS better would be greatly appreciated!Witness Mission Statement
WITNESS advances human rights advocacy through the use of video and communications technology. In partnership with more than 150 non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders in 50 countries, WITNESS strengthens grassroots movements for change by providing video technology and assisting its partners to use video as evidence before courts and the United Nations, as a tool for public education, and as a deterrent to further abuse. WITNESS also gives local groups a global voice by distributing their video to the media and on the Internet, and by helping to educate and activate an international audience around their causes.
Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
December 6, 2005
WITNESS Gala
23:04 UTC » Global Voices - Human Rights - Joi's Diary
The videos and comments from Peter Gabriel, Angelina Jolie and Gillian were awesome and inspiring. However, the main event for me was Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. He talked about how his life started as a happy kid who played soccer in the streets. As the war swept across the country, he survived the loss of his family and fled from village to village as he watched them being ravaged by the war. He eventually ended up being recruited as a child soldier. He was able to leave the military and attended college and appear before us last night to express his hope for lasting peace in Sierra Leone. It was an extremely well delivered and moving speech and really highlighted the strength of the words of a witness.
The festivities were also great. There were a number of great performances, but my favorite part was when Nile Rodgers and CHIC rocked the house with their classics. They did an auction with some pretty cool things. The only thing I bid on was the Nano programmed by Lou Reed, but I wasn't able to keep up and didn't get it in the end. ;-)
In total, the event was the best fund-raiser gala sort of event that I've ever attended. It had a clear and moving message and vision, it was fun and it was extremely well executed. Congratulates to everyone involved.
Comments (7) | TrackBack (1) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
December 1, 2005
Will Digital Communication Undermine NGOs?
02:43 UTC » Activism - Health and Medicine - Human Rights - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Network Technology - Social Software
Comments (10) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
October 21, 2005
Collaborative Newspaper Column - Wiki-style?
21:59 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Gadgets - Games - Global Politics - Human Rights - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Social Software
Comments (20) | TrackBack (1) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
October 18, 2005
Yahoo's Political Prisoner?
02:34 UTC » Activism - Global Politics - Human Rights - Media and Journalism
Posted by Thomas Crampton
Three questions regarding the Committee to Protect Journalists today naming online journalist Shi Tao as a winner of the International Press Freedom Award.
His 10-year sentence to a Chinese prison came partly due to a disclosure about him by Yahoo!.
1- Do employees of Yahoo! feel responsible for/comfortable with this man going to prison? (Will they, for example, send care packages or join a letter-writing campaign petitioning the government of China for his release?)
2- How do users of Yahoo! feel about the company's privacy policies? (Or privacy policies of other Internet companies, for that matter.)
3- As a journalist who has had many police encounters in countries with nasty authoritarian dictatorships, I am always very concerned about the safety of those with whom I interact. Does online interaction lead to a sense of diminished responsibility? Do we need to see someone's face or visit their family at home to feel their pain?
Comments (8) | TrackBack (1) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
September 20, 2005
Eroding freedoms
05:16 UTC » Activism - Human Rights - Privacy - US Policy and Politics
It's a bit scary when "normal" shifts like this.BBCUS teens 'reject' key freedomsA significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey.
Over a third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.
Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval.
Here is an old Encyclopedia Britannica Films video clip from 1946 (I think) about despotism that they showed to children in schools. Amazing how things have changed. I wonder what kids would think now watching this clip.
Via Greg Elin
Comments (26) | TrackBack (3) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
Party with the Axis of Evil?
05:13 UTC » Global Politics - Human Rights
Posted by Thomas Crampton
North Korea, exaulted member of George W. Bush's axis of evil, just invited me to a festival, but I don't think I can make it.
I have, however, attended three previous Kim Jong Il birthday party.
Based on my experience, I can say that Pyongyang shows a declining level of party sense.
The first I attended was the snazzy party at the Hong Kong jockey club in 2002
The pretty fancy birthday party in 2003
And the distinctly downmarket event party in 2005 (terrible wine!)
For the record, I crashed the party each time. The North Korean government didn't seem to like publicity about their luxury birthday parties while people were starved back at home.
Below is the invite to the festival in North Korea which includes 100,000 people in a synchronized dance!!
INVITATION TO "ARIRANG PERFORMANCE"The grand mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang" which was premiered on August 16 is going on before full audience at the May Day Stadium with capacity of 150, 000 in Pyongyang. A stream of working people of all walks of life in the capital and other parts of the country as well as the tourists from the all over the world is coming to the stadium to appreciate the performance. The current "Arirang" which depicts the Korean history, fully reflects the eight beautiful sceneries with a flawless masterpiece for the combination of music, dances, gymnastics and acrobatics consistent with deep national emotions and high artistic skills, rhythmic background scenes, peculiar stage settings, electronic displays, laser lightings and other representation means and elements. About 100,000 people consist of world prize laureates, skilled artists, acrobats, youth, students and children are participating in the performance.
After appreciating the performance, people do not stint their praise, saying that it makes them feel national pride.
More than 800,000 of Korean people at home and abroad and foreigners have seen the performance since its premiere.
It will go on until 17th of October except Sundays. In addition to enjoy the performance you will be also able to visit the historical places arranged by the travel agencies in Korea.
The cost of the performance
Special seat 300 USD
First standard 150 USD
Second standard 100 USD
Third standard 50 USDThe cost of the accommodation and the lodgings for 1 day (inclusive of local transportation, guide fee, sightseeing fee)
1 person 150 Euro
2-5 people group 116 Euro
6-9 people group 68 Euro
over 10 people 55 EuroThe duration of stay (Optional)
2 nights and 3 days
3 nights and 4 daysIf you are interested please don't hesitate to send us your personal data and visa will be issued within 3 days after your application. Please don't miss the rare chance.
The Consulate General of DPR Korea
Comments (4) | TrackBack (1) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
June 12, 2005
Hoder's going back to Iran
12:33 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Global Politics - Global Voices - Human Rights - Media and Journalism
Hoder, our favorite Iranian blogger is going back to Iran. He needs our help to get there as well as possibly keep him out or get him out of jail. See his blog for details.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
May 13, 2005
Congratulations Gillian and Angelina
21:41 UTC » Activism - Human Rights
For those of you who haven't been following Gillian's blog that I blogged about earlier, their trip to Sierra Leone was successful and Gillian has done a nice job capturing the trip on her blog. Congratulations Gillian and Angelina and everyone else who was involved! Gillian says she's going to continue blogging. Yay!
Technorati Tags: globalvoices
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
May 10, 2005
Gillian Caldwell's new blog
08:22 UTC » Activism - Blogging about Blogging - Human Rights
Gillian Caldwell, the executive director of WITNESS just left for Sierra Leone with Angelina Jolie to deliver recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) to the government. WITNESS is an important effort using video for human rights advocacy. (I blogged about it in more detail in Sept 2003.) In Davos in 2004, Ethan and I cornered Gillian and tried to get her into blogging. At the same time Ethan and Gillian tried to get me interested in Africa. (Since then I've been to Africa once and have two more trips planned this year. Note that Ethan is the key connector here.)
Last week, Gillian emailed me and told me that she was going to blog this trip. With a bit of scurrying around and some quick design help from Boris, Gillian got her blog running just as she was running out the door. I'm looking forward to reading her reports from Africa and hope that she gets addicted to blogging so I can live her amazing life vicariously through the blog.
Safe travels and congratulations on the blog Gillian.
Technorati Tags: africa, globalvoices
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
March 12, 2005
More notes from Atocha
01:21 UTC » Global Politics - Global Voices - Human Rights
One of the problems with the question about whether the world is more democratic or not is that it is very difficult to measure and the word "democratic" has so many meanings and is ill-defined. What is more interesting, which Kenneth Roth from Human Rights Watch pointed out was to talk about human rights. He made the point that the Bush administration talks about liberty, freedom and democracy, but avoids talking about human rights. Liberty, freedom and democracy are very fuzzy words, but human rights is very specific. It would be easy to define terrorism as attacks against human rights and international humanitarian law forbids attacks against innocent non-combatants which is often the definition used for terrorism. Roth points out that the US has a terrible position on human rights in the name of the war on terror. He pointed out that Alberto Gonzales told the Senate committee the Senate Convention Against Torture treaty doesn't prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" tactics, which makes the US the only country which is not upholding the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as a matter of official policy. How can a country which is not upholding basic human rights expect to be respected and supported internationally?
One of the people in the audience mentioned that it was too easy to waste time Bush bashing and maybe there was a bit too much of that. However, someone noted that at yesterday's summit only George Soros criticized George Bush by name.
Comments (6) | TrackBack (2) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
March 11, 2005
Kofi Annan speaking on terrorism
00:23 UTC » Global Politics - Human Rights
Kofi Annan is speaking now. He says that terrorism is a direct attack on human rights and the rule of law. If we destroy human rights and rule of law in the response to terrorism, they have won. Many responses to terrorism, even by those among members of the UN damage human rights. Upholding human rights is not merely compatible with fighting terrorism, it is essential. He is going to work on UN guidelines to responding to terrorism while following International human rights guidelines.
UPDATE: full text of speech. via Alvy
Comments (12) | TrackBack (1) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
June 23, 2004
Iran's Net Censorship
02:16 UTC » Human Rights - Media and Journalism - Technology Controversy
I once sat next to a guy from Sun Federal, a Sun Microsystems subsidiary, who was on his way back from selling a filtering system to a government. I think that most of this censorship technology is built in the US. I guess it makes sense, but it's interesting that there is very little discussion about this. (At least as far as I know...)Dan GillmorIran's Net Censorship
Hoder points me to "Stop Censoring Us" -- a site about the increasing level of government intervention in what was emerging as relatively free speech in Iran. I'm not sure what individuals outside Iran can do about this except to offer support to the Iranians who want to speak their minds.
Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
May 15, 2004
Full Red Cross Report
16:10 UTC » Human Rights - US Policy and Politics - Warblogging
I'm sure most people have seen it, but the full Red Cross report on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse is online on Cryptome.
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
May 7, 2004
N Korea's Kim criticized at home for apology to Japan
12:30 UTC » Global Politics - Human Rights - Japanese Politics
Thank you Kim Jong Il. Japan has done many things that I think requires apologies, but the abductions of Japanese by the North Koreas is an issue that I believe required an apology. I think this is a important first step, even if it is causing him some grief at home. I'm not sure what these means from a diplomatic tactics perspective, but I think Kim Jong Il deserves some credit on this one.Japan TodayN Korea's Kim criticized at home for apology to JapanFriday, May 7, 2004 at 04:00 JST
WASHINGTON — North Korean military hardliners have been critical of leader Kim Jong Il for apologizing to Japan for the abduction of Japanese nationals, a U.S. expert who visited North Korea in April said.This makes it difficult for the North Korean leader to make a decision to break the impasse over the abduction issue with Japan, said Selig Harrison, Asian project director at the Washington-based Center for International Policy. He said the hardliners were angry because they think North Korea should never apologize to Japan, which colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. (Kyodo News)
Comments (12) | TrackBack (2) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
Pakistani council aproves rape to avenge honour
10:40 UTC » Gender - Human Rights
Pakistani council aproves rape to avenge honour. "A village council in Pakistan permitted a landlord to rape the sister and sister-in-law of a man he accused of an illicit relationship with his daughter, police said Thursday. (...) The council members, all of them landlords themselves, ruled that Ghaffar, who uses only one name, could avenge his honour by having sex with the farmer's daughter, who is 16, and daughter-in-law, who is 22." (BBC version here). "An estimated 80 percent of women prisoners in Pakistan are in jail because they failed to prove rape charges".This is totally disgusting. Is my blog becoming depressing lately, or is it just the state of the world?
Comments (18) | TrackBack (3) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
February 21, 2004
NKzone needs citizen-reporters in Tokyo and Seoul
08:36 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Human Rights - Media and Journalism
NKzone, the North Korean blog needs citizen bloggers to cover the Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) in Tokyo on Feb 22 and two human rights events in Seoul on Feb 23. If you're available, please help us out.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | View blog reactions | del.icio.us
