By: Violeta Krasnic, Posted: Nov 14 08

Council of Europe, Human Rights Defenders

What counts are your actions. Millions of people all over the world act as defenders, individually or with others, to protect and promote human rights, collecting and disseminating information on violations, supporting victims of human rights abuses, advocating for greater accountability by the State and other actors, or providing human rights training. We are identified by what we do and by the context in which we do it, with only qualification that we accept the universality of human rights and their defined scope and that we undertake non-violent action. To do so, we work in NGOs, in trade unions, as digital journalists, as lawyers, or sometimes as government officials or in the private sector.
There is one more unifying factor: human rights defenders have observed a set of human rights problems and have come up with a set of proposed solutions. It is in this process that video can play a powerful role by communicating evidence, insight, and testimony to specific audiences with a specific call to action. WITNESS partners and collaborators have been running successful video advocacy campaigns in this manner for the past 16 years.
More often than not, defenders face grave risks and experience the very same human rights violations that they fight. One of the most courageous defenders I ever met is Zarema Mukusheva from Chechnya, who picked up a camera to document her country’s mass graves as her family was searching for a missing relative. Shielded by bystanders, Zarema was filming decomposing bodies with her camera hidden under her coat when she was approached by a group men – who turned out to be human rights defenders from Memorial Human Rights Center in Grozny. Zarema became one of them and went on to produce two videos on the impact of war and impunity for disappearances in Chechnya. Listen to Zarema’s podcast describing her video advocacy work.
Using video to document violations requires planning to address specific risks it poses. Last June, Zarema and three other Memorial colleagues were arrested, harassed, and threatened with execution as they were filming at a site of an alleged prison that had been extensively used to confine unlawfully detained people, most of whom remain missing. Human Rights Watch wrote about this incident to Thomas Hammarberg, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, urging an investigation.
Last week, Mr. Hammarberg’s office organized a round table on the situation of defenders in COE member states, focusing on threats to life and security of defenders and their relatives, violations of freedom of expression, association and assembly, and various obstacles to monitoring and reporting. Watch these interviews with the round table participants from Montenegro and Latvia and hear their proposals on how to address these challenges.

Are you a human rights defender? As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, tell us about the actions you are undertaking to realize these visions for the just world. Show support, expand networks, and take action on behalf of human rights defenders at risk.
Violeta Krasnic, WITNESS Program Coordinator