They will assist with developing the policies and practices to support the WITNESS employee experience across many different countries all around the globe. This requires balancing the need for an overarching, equitable employee experience with the complexities of local culture, expectations and employment regulations. 

The role will coordinate processes and systems that support a Human Resources operations infrastructure for a global remote team. It will also support the design and implementation of policies, processes and practices that foster a collaborative, productive and sustainable work culture so WITNESS employees are engaged and able to deliver on the organisation’s vision and goals.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Manage the employee lifecycle, management of systems and employee data, recruitment support and other activities.

• Executes the delivery of global payroll and benefits administration for over 10 countries
• Executes the management of employment related data, documentation, and HR systems
• Executes the development and application of Recruitment and Onboarding practices

Support the delivery of WITNESS’ employee experience and support in conjunction with the Senior Global People Partner.

• Act as front line of general staff queries or issues, including resolving sensitive HR issues and managing conflict resolution 
• Coordinate team engagement surveys and analyze results to flag any patterns
• Support the delivery of team-wide communications

Support the continued development and implementation of WITNESS’ global employment structures and resource planning to support the organization’s Strategic Vision 

• Support the Senior Global People Partner with the coordination and development of job descriptions and employee growth planning processes
• Research effective and innovative approaches to People policies and processes
• Coordinate team input, feedback, and collaboration
• Coordinate with strategic partners including PEOs, external advisors and consultants 

Support the development and consistent application of global employment policies

• Support the upkeep of WITNESS’ employment policies, process, systems, and employee handbook
• Work with PEO/EOR partners and legal counsel to ensure compliance with local employment regulations
• Work with the Director of People and Systems on implementing our compensation philosophy and policies

Support the Performance Management and Learning and Development programs 

• Assist with the delivery of L&D needs of the organization, teams and individuals in collaboration with managers and external partners.
• Executes the effective development and delivery of the Performance Review processes.
  • Support and manage review outcomes, including
    • Assisting developing processes for individual goal setting.
    • Promotions and development conversations.
    • PIPs / supportive action around performance concerns.

Support the Senior Global People Partner, Director of People & Systems, and staff liaison group in the development and implementation of activities to support and build organizational culture and ensure a continuing focus on integrating DEIJ principles, and best practices across all People related activities.

PRINCIPAL RELATIONSHIPS:

• Senior Global People Partner (Supervisor)
• Knowledge Management & Operations Coordinator
• Senior IT Manager
• Director of People & Systems
• All Staff

POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

Education: 

• You can tell us about your degrees, but we’re more interested in what your passions are and what you can do. If your degrees are part of that story, great!  (But no formal education required).

Work Experience:  

• A minimum of 3-5 years of experience in Human Resources,
• Ideally 1 year of experience supporting Human Resources work in an international setting or a context involving complex employment regulations.
• Experience in a nonprofit setting preferred.

Functional Experience, Knowledge and Skills:  

• Demonstrated experience in compliance with HR regulations and policies and implementation of benefits and leave systems; 
• Demonstrated experience in recruitment for a diverse, global team;
• Knowledge of employment laws, ideally with experience working in multiple countries;
• Ability to work independently and to research solutions on a broad array of HR disciplines and make sound, thoughtful recommendations on actions and policies; 
• High level of emotional intelligence, empathy and curiosity; 
• Ability to completely maintain confidentiality and discretion in relationships;
• Excellent judgement in a variety of situations and contexts

JOB LOCATION

• We are a globally distributed remote workforce and this key role will involve working with staff across our whole team, to help facilitate this, a candidate based around the Eastern Atlantic regions of the Americas, Europe, or the Western / Southern Africa will have the most crossover and collaborative time with the majority of staff and with this role’s key collaborators;
• Ideally this means candidates will be between the timezones UTC/GMT+5 and UTC/GMT+2;
• At this time, our team members are working through hybrid office arrangements, combining remote at-home work with intermittent use of offices and/or co-working spaces;
• The successful candidate must have the legal right-to-work in the location in which they will be based.

COMPENSATION

• WITNESS operates a salary localization policy using a combination of regularly reviewed foreign exchange rates and location adjustment multipliers; 
• Based on current rates, gross salaries for some of our current locations are given as an example: 
  • USA – USD 55,100
  • Brazil – BRL 193,450
  • UK – GBP 43,050
  • South Africa – ZAR 621,600
• Note: Currency conversions of these salaries would not apply in different locations. If your location is not listed, and you are shortlisted we will be happy to confirm the local salary which will be applicable.

BENEFITS

Health:

• WITNESS also offers competitive and robust medical benefits that cover an individual’s medical, dental and vision at 100% and covers a % of the individual’s dependents.

Life Insurance & AD&D: 

• WITNESS provides life insurance and AD&D payable at one time (1x)  the employee’s salary, to the beneficiary, in the event an employee were to expire while employed by the organization.

Remote Work Stipend: 

• WITNESS recognizes that flexible working arrangements are key to equity and inclusion in the workplace and we provide a $175 USD monthly remote work allowance, we are happy to talk about the type of flexible arrangements that might work best for you. This remote work stipend is provided to all staff members to pay for extra equipment, electricity, stationery, internet, wellness,  or whatever an employee deems necessary in order to work remotely. Please note that a computer and basic accessories are provided to all employees at the time of hire.

Pension Contributions: 

• After 1 year of service at the organization, WITNESS will contribute 3% of an individual’s gross salary towards a global retirement fund.

Paid Time Off: 

WITNESS has a range of paid time off types that support our staff.

• Vacation leave: that meets local statutory levels or 15 days whichever is higher, in addition to staff’s local public holidays.
  • The vacation allowance increases by 5 days after 3 years of service.
• Personal / Wellness leave: 5 days staff can use at any time to recharge in recognition of the importance of supporting positive mental well being.
• End of Year closure: which usually is equivalent to a minimum of 5 days leave in addition to any public holidays across the last week of December and early January.
• Sick Leave: follows local statutory guidance however; 
  • WITNESS ensures a minimum of 10 days paid time off for occasional sickness and health related absences.
  • A minimum of 6 weeks of full pay in instances of longer term absence.
• Sabbatical Leave: At the 10 year mark we offer staff 10 weeks of paid time off in order to take a break, gain new insights and expand their horizons.

Work/ Life Balance: 

• WITNESS believes in creating a healthy work environment in which flexible schedules are available, we also understand that sometimes an employee may just require a few hours to take care of personal issues in which case they can adjust their hours to make up for the time instead of taking a full day of leave. Both are allowable once agreed upon with the departmental supervisors.

Mental Health Policy: 

• WITNESS feels that all employees should feel supported both physically as well as mentally while they are at work and realizes that many times the issues that we deal with, the materials that we watch and the events surrounding some of the work that we do, can lead to feeling “unwell” and not in a “good space”.
• Should a situation arise in which an Employee requests support on mental health, WITNESS will award (10) days of “WITNESS” paid leave.

Professional Development: 

• In support of the growth and development of our staff, WITNESS regularly seeks opportunities for professional development, exposure to new skills and supports a culture of learning. 
• As part of this we offer staff Reading Days (1 day per month) where staff can take a day to read, study and connect more deeply with peers, partners and colleagues to further functional knowledge relevant to their role or deepen their general understanding and ability to support human rights work. 

HOW TO APPLY

If you are interested in joining the WITNESS team, please apply through BambooHR. You will need to attach your resume, cover letter, and contact information for 3 references.

In your cover letter, we are interested in hearing about what you’ve done, what you can do, and what you want to do at WITNESS.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  Applications accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled; early applications encouraged. Please note that due to the volume anticipated, we will not be able to respond individually to each applicant.  We kindly ask that you do not send duplicate applications via mail or email, and no phone calls. 

WITNESS is a global human rights organization and aims to build an inclusive workforce that is reflective of the communities we work with. We are interested in building a talented team that brings their true selves with diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. We are interested in receiving applications from those who are marginalized and underrepresented. 

WITNESS is an equal opportunity employer. People of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, religions, genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, and individuals protected by any other statuses under international federal, state or local laws, including but not limited to, disability, marital, domestic partnership, familial, caregiver, transgender, military or veteran statuses, are encouraged to apply.

We are hiring a Programmatic Communications Coordinator to lead our U.S. regional communications work. The Communications Coordinator, as part of the U.S. team, will create digital assets and communications strategies, build up our newest social media channels, engage with organizers on the ground to uplift their voices and calls to action through our platforms, and create regional content for WITNESS’ global digital engagement campaigns. The ideal candidate will have a passion for telling/sharing other people’s stories, experience with grassroots organizing, basic/intermediate knowledge of video editing for social media platforms, and a great ability to adapt content and language for our audiences. The ideal candidate will have experience in the climate and land rights movement spaces as this is a large focus of our work.

ABOUT WITNESS

We are a global human rights organization, a collective of passionate human rights activists with remote team members all over the world. WITNESS’ mission is to help people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. We are a 50 person multi-disciplinary team with staff based across 5 continents. We are registered as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the U.S, but with staff members (as well as consultants, interns, fellows and a vast community of partners and collaborators) based around the world and reflect a group of activists with diverse skills and backgrounds.

WHAT WE DO

WITNESS pairs grassroots community support with advocacy at a systems level. Our team works holistically on a global scale to understand how communities are using and want to use video and technology for human rights.  With a cellphone camera, anyone can become a human rights defender and expose injustice, making it harder for perpetrators to hide or for systems of oppression to remain invisible.  But using video for community organizing, justice and accountability can be dangerous – videos can put defenders (or those they film) at risk, can be used against communities in court or deceitfully discredited by tired old power narratives.  Filming is almost never enough – for videos to make a difference they need to work alongside strong advocacy or legal strategies; they also need to be created, preserved, and shared in ways that avoid creating more harm or trauma.

New threats to human rights are emerging at the intersection of artificial intelligence, misinformation and disinformation, and a global wave of rising authoritarianism. When it comes to systemic challenges we are on the watch for both existing problems – like how large amounts of critical human rights footage are lost because of the arbitrary decisions of platforms – but also emerging threats and opportunities, such as those posed by ‘deepfakes’, new ways to manipulate media to make it look like someone said or did something they never did.

WITNESS 2021 Year in Review

ABOUT THE TEAM

The WITNESS United States Program supports activists, grassroots organizations, advocates, and legal experts across the U.S. to better utilize video and technology to expose abuses, create counter-narratives, and fight for accountability, and advocate for change. Currently, our work is focused on (but not limited to) ending state violence through the thematic areas of police accountability, decarceration, immigrant and Indigenous rights, and land defense. To address these issues, we engage in partnerships, provide workshops and develop training resources that touch on everything from documenting human rights violations to effective and ethical storytelling, to holistic digital security practices. Last year, the U.S./Brazil/Latin America & Caribbean WITNESS teams designed a cross-regional strategy in Abya Yala (the Americas) centering youth and Indigenous fights to protect the land and waters using video strategies and technology in the context of the climate crisis. This is a new model for WITNESS programs and the U.S. Programmatic Communications Coordinator will play an integral role in supporting the sharing of knowledge, lessons learned, and the creation of related WITNESS resources and the strategic distribution.

We are seeking a United States Programmatic Communications Coordinator to amplify the work of WITNESS U.S. team through social media, traditional media outlets, and other online and offline settings, such as trainings and webinars. The Communications Coordinator will support the strategic creation, design, and dissemination of WITNESS resources and training guides. They will also oversee rapid response initiatives and develop and maintain quality relationships with respected media contacts and movement builders. The ideal candidate will also have a passion and knowledge of youth-led movements in the intersection of the thematic areas we focus on, as well as a practice in creating social media strategies that incorporate short-form video in social media platforms (IG + TikTok, other). The Communications Coordinator will employ creative approaches to boost engagement and share lessons across interrelated movements in the U.S. and across WITNESS’ programmatic work in Latin America, the Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES

Communications & Training Resource Development

• In collaboration with the U.S. Programs Manager and the Global Engagement team, develop and implement WITNESS U.S.’s social media strategy, including plans that leverage social media and support key organizations, advocates, and citizen witnesses to adopt video in their efforts to expose & document human rights violations and promote change
• Manage the day-to-day handling of social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. adapting content to suit different channels. Respond to communication-related issues in a timely manner.
• Envision, plan strategy, and launch the U.S. Instagram account in collaboration with the U.S. Programs Manager and Global Engagement team.
• Creatively engage audiences in the different platforms through live conversations that build on and amplify the work of our partners and networks  (i.e: IG Lives, Twitter spaces, other).
• Produce graphics, create derivatives and content for social media, newsletters (Mailchimp), the WITNESS blog, and websites (WordPress).
• Lead on identifying and engaging with external designers and translators, as needed;
• Gather, assess, and evaluate the impact of resource creation and distribution campaigns (including metrics, anecdotes, etc.).
• Coordinate the collection of all monthly metrics on a timely basis, and contribute to the analysis and reflection of those indicators.
• Identify opportunities and develop strategies for rapidly responding to moments of crisis with relevant resources and support (i.e. mass protests, mobilizations around Indigenous land rights)
• Identify gaps and needs and support the creation and/or tailoring of relevant resources. Research and evaluate the latest trends that include the use of video evidence and counter-narratives on the continent in order to be able to activate a surge response where necessary.

• Ensure that both internal and external resources uphold WITNESS’ values and adhere to organizational standards and requirements.
• Collaborate with other social media leads in the other regions where WITNESS operates in order to advance the realization of WITNESS’ goals, objectives, and global campaigns.

Engagements and Administrative Support 

• Provide support and guidance to partners implementing strategies for enhancing the use of video and tech in their work, create feedback loops to learn from successes and challenges;
• In collaboration with WITNESS’ United States Program Manager, develop strategies to foster and maintain key relationships and explore opportunities for deeper engagements and projects around using video and tech in the relevant programmatic priorities;
• Undertake necessary administrative functions with respect to communications for the United States region, such as submitting engagement-related expenses and managing budgets.

Works Closely With:

• US Programs Manager (supervisor)
• US Programs Assistant
• Global Digital Engagement team
• Regional Communications Coordinators
• Regional Managers
• Video4Earth team
• All Staff

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate will have a passion for human rights, experience with content creation for movement spaces, and a great ability to speak/connect to the communities we work with through social media.

Experience:  Background in (or passion for) human rights; committed to social justice and WITNESS’ values/mission. Knowledge of grassroots and movement-building in North America (and the Americas is a plus).

Work Experience: A minimum of 3-5 years of experience working in human rights, advocacy, social justice, video for change, grassroots and youth organizing, or other related fields, and with a demonstrated capacity to think creatively and effectively about engagement and advocacy. Must have 2-3 years of experience creating content for social media platforms and a demonstrated ability to engage with those audiences.

Human Rights and Racial Justice: A demonstrated commitment to racial justice, in the intersection of gender justice and human rights. Believes in the importance of long-term movement-building, and knows the work takes time.

Characteristics: Highly organized, pays close attention to detail, and has a defined workflow to organize social media campaigns and weekly content creation. Demonstrated record of dynamism and self-starter. Strong interpersonal skills and aptitude for cross-cultural communication. Team-minded. Is organized and follows through.

Education: You can tell us about your degrees, but we’re more interested in your passions and what you can do. If degrees are part of that story, great! (But no formal education required). We are looking for someone who has experience creating content on social media, particularly keeping up with Instagram’s various features such as Reels. Basic knowledge of video production/editing for social media platforms is required.

Languages: We are a global team who uses English as our shared language, as such this role requires a high proficiency of written and spoken English. Additional languages are a plus. Being a native speaker of English is not required.

Platforms: We are looking for someone who has experience creating on social media platforms, particularly with Instagram Reels. Speaks Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, YouTube, and GIF natively. Experience with social media data analysis and reporting. Knows how to take advantage of the creative possibilities for content creation using CANVA and/or other accessible graphic design platforms for social media use. Basic knowledge of video production/editing is paramount

Other Important Skills:

• Strong digital design eye, including creating powerful, political visual messages and editing for digital platforms that spark change;
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite including graphics creation and image, video editing skills, including Indesign, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator; or any other relevant graphic and video editing softwares.
• Web publishing skills, knowledge of basic HTML and CSS, strong understanding of UX and front-end design;
• Digital archiving skills, digital security and privacy know-how, knowledge and use of Creative Commons licensing;
• Photography and/or filming skills;
• Demonstrated flexibility and ability to effectively work as a part of a team, open to giving and receiving constructive feedback;
• Exceptional organizational skills, including an ability to manage multiple priorities and keep track of details;
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills;
• Experience with non-profit design strategy;
• Advanced proficiency with Google worksuite as Gdocs, sheets, forms are heavily used across WITNESS.
• Experience as an educator or workshop facilitator, and in creating learning materials is a big plus.

Location: We are a globally distributed, remote workforce. This is a full-time position, and the location is flexible with a preference for a candidate based in the United States. As a globally distributed workforce, some consideration would be given to candidates being able to have some overlap of working hours with the rest of the team. At this time, our team members are working through hybrid office arrangements, combining remote at-home work with intermittent use of offices and/or co-working spaces.

Typically, we can only consider applicants who are already legally able to work in the country in which the role is based. Visa sponsorship or relocation allowance are rare, and offered only for specialized positions. The successful candidate must have the legal right-to-work in the location in which they will be based.

Compensation:  WITNESS operates a salary localisation policy using a combination of regularly reviewed FX and salary adjustment multipliers for location.

Based on current rates, annual gross salaries for some of our current locations are given as an example:

• New York City – USD 55,100

Benefits:

• Health: WITNESS also offers competitive and robust medical benefits that cover an individual’s medical, dental and vision at 100% and covers a percentage of the individual’s dependents.
• Life Insurance & AD&D: WITNESS provides life insurance and AD&D payable at one time (1x)  the employee’s salary, to the beneficiary, in the event an employee were to expire while employed by the organization.
• Remote Work Stipend: WITNESS recognizes that flexible working arrangements are key to equity and inclusion in the workplace and we provide a $175 USD monthly remote work allowance, we are happy to talk about the type of flexible arrangements that might work best for you. This remote work stipend is provided to all staff members to pay for extra equipment, electricity, stationery, internet, wellness,  or whatever an employee deems necessary in order to work remotely. Please note that a computer and basic accessories are provided to all employees at the time of hire.
• Pension Contributions: After 1 year of service at the organization, WITNESS will contribute 3% of an individual’s gross salary towards a global retirement fund.
• Paid Time Off: WITNESS has a range of paid time off types that support our staff.
  • Vacation leave: that meets local statutory levels or 15 days whichever is higher, in addition to staff’s local public holidays.
    • The vacation allowance increases by 5 days to 20 days after 3 years of service.
  • Personal / Wellness leave: 5 days staff can use at any time to recharge in recognition of the importance of supporting positive mental well being.
  • End of Year closure: which usually is equivalent to a minimum of 5 days leave in addition to any public holidays across the last week of December and early January.
  • Sick Leave: follows local statutory guidance however;
    • WITNESS ensures a minimum of 10 days paid time off for occasional sickness and health related absences.
    • A minimum of 6 weeks of full pay in instances of longer term absence.
  • Sabbatical Leave: At the 10 year mark we offer staff 10 weeks of paid time off in order to take a break, gain new insights and expand their horizons.
• Work/ Life Balance: WITNESS believes in creating a healthy work environment in which  flexible schedules are available, we also understand that sometimes an employee may just require a few hours to take care of personal issues in which case they can adjust their hours to make up for the time instead of taking a full day of leave. Both are allowable once agreed upon with the departmental supervisors.
• Mental Health Policy: WITNESS feels that all employees should feel supported both physically as well as mentally while they are at work and realizes that many times the issues that we deal with, the materials that we watch and the events surrounding some of the work that we do, can lead to feeling “unwell” and not in a “good space”. Should a situation arise in which an Employee requests support on mental health, WITNESS will award (10) days of “WITNESS” paid leave.
• Professional Development: In support of the growth and development of our staff, WITNESS regularly seeks opportunities for professional development, exposure to new skills and supports a culture of learning.
  • As part of this we offer staff Reading Days (1 day per month) where staff can take a day to read, study and connect more deeply with peers, partners and colleagues to further functional knowledge relevant to their role or deepen their general understanding and ability to support human rights work.

HOW TO APPLY

If you are interested in joining the WITNESS team, please apply through BambooHR. You will need to attach your resume, cover letter, and contact information for 3 references.

In your cover letter, we are interested in hearing about what you’ve done, how you match the position requirements, and why you’d like to join WITNESS.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  Applications accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled; early applications encouraged. Please note that due to the volume anticipated, we will not be able to respond individually to each applicant.  We kindly ask that you do not send duplicate applications via mail or email, and no phone calls.

WITNESS is a global human rights organization and aims to build an inclusive workforce that is reflective of the communities we work with. We are interested in building a talented team that brings their true selves with diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. We are interested in receiving applications from those who are marginalized and underrepresented.

WITNESS is an equal opportunity employer. People of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, religions, genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, and individuals protected by any other statuses under international federal, state or local laws, including but not limited to, disability, marital, domestic partnership, familial, caregiver, transgender, military or veteran statuses, are encouraged to apply.

As a global organization committed to supporting communities to use video and technology for justice, WITNESS aligns with the central ethos of this conference. This year, we continue to build on our history of participating in this space as presenters, facilitators, and attendees. 

RightsCon is taking place online from June 7th to 11th. Those who have registered can catch the WITNESS team presenting in the following panels, community labs, and strategy sessions: 

TUESDAY, JUNE 8TH

Authenticity Infrastructure against mis/disinformation: What’s that? Who’s it for? What are the risks and benefits?

Time: 2:45-3:45 PM EST 

Type: Panel

WITNESS Team: Sam Gregory (Program Director)

On social media, shallowfaked images and videos with false captions or simple edits frequently deceive us. Deepfakes threaten to make discerning visual truth from falsehood even harder. Now proposals for ‘authenticity infrastructure’ are proliferating. These promise more robust ways to help us understand the media content we consume, and whether images, video and audio have been manipulated, mis-contextualized or edited, and when and by who. 

Featuring leading civil society experts and advocates in this area with experience in trust technology, verification, OSINT, press freedom, digital security and human rights as well as private sector pioneers this panel will highlight the initiatives in this emerging area, the key human rights questions, how to understand this in a global context, and how we balance critical trade-offs. You’ll come away with a much stronger understanding of the baseline of this emerging area of content tracking and its relevance to the mis/disinformation discussion as well as fundamental human rights questions.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9TH

“Hey you, stop filming! Defending smartphone witnessing and the Right to Record globally. What do we need to do?

Time: 7:45-8:45 AM EST

Type: Community Lab/Strategy Session

WITNESS Team: Adebayo Okeowo (Program Manager- Africa), Jackie Zammuto (Program Manager – United States), Victor Ribeiro (Senior Program Manager – Latin America and Caribbean),  Arul Prakkash (Senior Program Manager- Asia), Sam Gregory (Program Director)

As more and more people globally take out their phones to film state violence, authorities resist.  Our Right to Record is key. This right to film people with power has become even more critical during COVID and the many uprisings for social and racial justice globally.  Yet in every country worldwide, whether there are legal protections or not, the right to record is undermined and ignored in practice and witnesses threatened or harmed.

Learning from each other, we’ll identify how the right to record is exercised and suppressed, and how it relates to other struggles we currently face. Connecting the dots, we’ll identify concrete priorities for moving the right to record forward practically at national and global levels!

FRIDAY, JUNE 11TH

Manipulated Media, manipulated realities: Confronting deepfakes and shallowfakes in a global context 

Time: 9:45-10:45 AM EST 

Type: Community Lab/Strategy Session

WITNESS Team:  Indira Cornelio (Communications Coordinator – Latin America), Mahmoud Saber (Communications Consultant- Middle East and North Africa) Adebayo Okeowo (Program Manager- Africa), Jackie Zammuto (Program Manager – United States), Victor Ribeiro (Senior Program Manager – Latin America and Caribbean),  Arul Prakkash (Senior Program Manager- Asia), Sam Gregory (Program Director)

AI-manipulated videos and memes are now being normalised in politics, culture, and social media sharing. Authoritarian governments are already taking advantage of this, either by discrediting the content they do not like or, in some cases, creating manipulated media to devalue or to distract. 

Building from this we will ask the question: what are human rights defenders and journalists concerned about? With a particular focus on the MENA region but not exclusively, this session will also build on the work WITNESS has done in Brazil, sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia, and the United States focused on understanding manipulated media trends and emerging threats like deepfakes in existing contexts of gender-based violence, misinformation and disinformation and closing civil society space. We will explore from non-US/European perspectives and non-majority voices how deepfakes and shallowfakes are being handled, manipulated, or used by governments, the public and platforms amid COVID and growing state repression.  

Copyright: the ‘Double-Edged Sword’ for Human Rights

Time: 12:15-1:15 PM EST 

Type: Panel

WITNESS Team: Yvonne Ng (Archives Program Manager) 

Copyright regulation can have benefits, as well as unintended consequences, for free expression and human rights around the world. Propelled by copyright that calls for sharing of source code, open source technology can support human rights investigations. At the same time, open source projects are subject to copyright regulations that may not adequately protect non-infringing uses and can affect rights to free expression when they are the subject of a content takedown notice. Copyright regulations are also used to infringe on human rights when people seeking to suppress journalism they find objectionable pose as copyright holders and submit takedown notices.  

For further discussion on these issues see our recent post: Truth, Lies and Social Media Accountability in 2021: A WITNESS Perspective on Key Priorities

Summary

WITNESS, an international human rights organization helping people use video and technology notes:

*All of our comments are in the light of the fact that the powers to push Facebook on policy change, on product/technical infrastructure change, on global resourcing and on Facebook’s response to extralegal political pressures globally have not been granted to Oversight Board. 

*Public figures need greater scrutiny, not less. Account suspension was correct.

*Public interest exceptions should apply to vulnerable speakers, not those in power with speech options

*Preservation of critical speech and content can be achieved via evidence lockers

*Off-platform context and dangerous speech principles are critical to making decision, not optional

*Facebook’s rules are not clear to ordinary people:  they suffer from inconsistency in application, bias and lack of appeal. 

*Global enforcement requires: far greater contextual understanding, including beyond majority elites as well as resourcing to moderation/for civil society globally and support to content moderation workers. It requires insulation from domestic extralegal pressures that compromise Facebook in countries around world.

Our Submission

WITNESS (witness.org) is an international human rights organization that helps people use video and technology to promote and defend human rights notes. We work with human rights organizations, social movements and individual witnesses in over 100 countries who engage in human rights-based activity on Facebook’s platforms, and who face threats from abuse of Facebook’s platforms. 

Below we address questions raised by the Oversight Board.

However we first emphasize that to create an equitable, transparent and human rights-centered approach to content moderation requires power that has not been granted to the Oversight Board. To fully confront these questions requires from Facebook: a) A commitment to changes in overall policy b) Direct input from this decision-making into both product development and underlying technical infrastructure including algorithms c) A far more significant human and technical resourcing of/and attention to countries outside the US and Europe and to the needs, demands and harms to vulnerable populations in those countries and the US and Europe d) A concerted effort to insulate country-level Facebook staff and country-level decision-making from political influence and illegitimate government pressure.

 The OB asks: If Facebook’s decision to suspend President Trump’s accounts for an indefinite period complied with the company’s responsibilities to respect freedom of expression and human rights, if alternative measures should have been taken, and what measures should be taken for these accounts going forward:  More often than not, world leaders who incite violence and hatred online (and share harmful misinformation and disinformation) get away with it for too long. Human rights activists have consistently documented this in a range of global contexts, noting situations involving leaders in the USA, Brazil, India, and the Philippines. A decision to suspend former President Trump’s account is too late, not too early, as it was with other world leaders – e.g  Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar.  However, a clear, consistent, transparent process for providing warnings, for appropriately applying earlier temporary account suspensions or content removals, and ultimately for permanently suspending accounts — all with right of appeal — is important.  

The OB asks: How Facebook should treat the expression of political candidates, office holders, and former office holders, considering their varying positions of power, the importance of political opposition, and the public’s right to information: Facebook’s explicit provision of a newsworthiness for all politicians’ speech has provided cover for leaders to share false information or incite hate and for Facebook to act inconsistently. When it comes to incitement to hate, or sharing of harmful misinformation (for example on COVID-19), leaders should be subject to greater scrutiny when they push boundaries on platforms, not less.  Newsworthiness exceptions and related public interest protections for posts or speakers do have a place… in protecting critical evidence of rights violations and vulnerable speakers within the public sphere rather than leaders who have other options for public speech, and who have generally been given ‘the benefit of the doubt’. Considerations of protecting important information from an archival perspective can be fulfilled by preserving content that has been shared on the platform but not making it public via evidence lockers. 

The OB asks: How Facebook should assess off-Facebook context in enforcing its Community Standards, particularly where Facebook seeks to determine whether content may incite violence: Facebook should assess off-platform context if the genuine purpose of intervention is to prevent violence rather than provide policy loopholes for politicians to jump through, and  if the company is legitimately trying to enforce standards in accordance with human rights standards. This off-platform context provides information to help ascertain and be clear on the real-world impact of online speech, and whether this impact justifies curtailing that speech. This must be complemented with real-world resourcing and responsiveness to civil society globally, particularly of groups vulnerable to dangerous speech from a politician. The Dangerous Speech project provides excellent guidance on this approach.

The OB asks: The accessibility of Facebook’s rules for account-level enforcement (e.g. disabling accounts or account functions) and appeals against that enforcement: Facebook’s rules are not clear for ordinary people. For a decade WITNESS’s partners and human rights defenders around the world have complained about take-downs of accounts and content without clarity or with apparent bias. Facebook should be transparent about how decisions are made for both for leaders and ordinary users, and hew to human rights principles of proportionality, legitimacy and specificity rather than over-broad, inconsistent deplatforming. The Santa Clara Principles for content moderation and the recommendations of Professor David Kaye, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion in 2018 provide clear roadmaps, generally accepted within the human rights community for how to do this.

The OB asks: Considerations for the consistent global enforcement of Facebook’s content policies against political leaders, whether at the content-level (e.g. content removal) or account-level (e.g. disabling account functions), including the relevance of Facebook’s “newsworthiness” exemption and Facebook’s human rights responsibilities:  Consistent global enforcement is essential. This must be adequately resourced and with worker protections for vulnerable content moderation workers subject to trauma (see work of Professor Sarah Roberts). It must be done with a clear understanding of language and cultural context that is informed not only by majority elites in countries, but also by diversity and representation of historically marginalized communities in particular countries. Facebook must quickly act when policy decisions in particular countries are impacted by domestic political pressures outside of law or platform rules. Facebook must invest more money in content moderation and more resources in supporting global civil society advocates and entities who act as watchdogs. Otherwise rules will be applied consistently and reinforce trends to US and European exceptionalism in terms of content policy.

A newsworthiness exception should be far more applicable to protecting critical evidence of rights violations and vulnerable speakers within the public sphere, rather than leaders who have other options for public speech, and who have generally been given ‘benefit of the doubt’. Considerations of protecting important information from an archival perspective can be fulfilled by preserving content that has been shared on the platform but not making it public; these “evidence lockers” provide access to critical information for accountability purposes under privacy-preserving conditions. 

We are keenly aware that neither our mission nor the bearing out of that mission in our daily work insulates WITNESS from the moral and ethical blights of systemic racism, white supremacy, and neo-colonialism. As an institution and as individuals within that institution, we recognize that we have a pressing obligation to examine this truth with earnestness and rigor, in order to make reparative, restorative, forward-looking amendments to both our personal behaviors and our infrastructure. 

As a global network of activists with strengths in both the Global North and the Global South, we must continue to fight for, build, and support equitable power within a human rights framework, and continue to do the internal work necessary to do better. This includes re-evaluating dynamics of power within the organization. To date, we have worked to carefully monitor how we practice the critical human rights that are at the heart of our mission and live our policies, both internally among colleagues and externally in our partnerships with activists worldwide. 

Our work around the world is to create spaces where people feel empowered, supported and affirmed. We are fully committed to doing more toward necessary institutional reform—including structural and policy changes around power and equity—and we welcome ongoing constructive feedback with that end in mind. We must do amongst ourselves the work we ask others to do. 

A group of human rights activists and organisations from Southeast Asia are calling to stop the attacks on democracy and media activists, as well as other individuals-at-risk, for their expression online. In the increasingly authoritarian region, we stand witness to bloggers, protestors, human rights defenders, journalists and everyday internet users being harassed, threatened, beaten, prosecuted and imprisoned for their legitimate use of online spaces.

The many brave individuals people fighting discrimination, hostility and violence include Nguyen Van Hoa (Vietnam), Le Dinh Luong (Vietnam) and Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi (Myanmar), who are currently in prison for expressing dissent and exercising their rights online. Their detention violates their guaranteed constitutional and international human rights. They are sentenced to lengthy prison terms and we fear for their physical and psychological integrity.

We stand in solidarity with Fahmi Reza (Malaysia) who was convicted; and Maria Ressa (Philippines), Margarita Valle (Philippines), Dandhy Laksono (Indonesia), Karn Pongpraphapan (Thailand) and Michael Do Nam Trung (Vietnam), who were recently released from detention, while Veronica Koman (Indonesia) and Lookate Chonthicha (Thailand) face threats of arrest and legal harassment for exercising their rights through digital tools. Authorities have often confiscated digital devices of activists, violating their privacy and hindering their work.

The harassment has also been extended to civil society organisations including Sisters in Islam (Malaysia) against whom a fatwa was issued banning all their publications including content on social media. AlterMidya (Philippines) on the other hand is facing a defamation suit demanding exorbitant amounts for exposing the role of corporates in cyber attacks. We view these as deliberate attacks on the right to freedom of expression and information.

The increasing number of arbitrary arrests, detentions and prosecutions of individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression online highlights the failure of governments to respect human rights and damages the region’s reputation on the international stage. Southeast Asian governments must stop repressing free expression online, as this ultimately discourages civic participation.

With this statement, we express our collective voice in support for all people to exercise their rights online and call on all Southeast Asian governments to immediately and unconditionally release all detained activists, drop charges and refrain from harassing digital rights activists, advocates and media-makers. The governments in the region must STOP the ATTACKS on our rights and democracy.

Endorsed by:

Organizations:

Association for Progressive Communications
Body & Data (Nepal)
Cambodia Center for Human Rights (Cambodia)
EMPOWER (Malaysia)
EngageMedia
Internet Policy Observatory (Pakistan)
KRYSS Network (Malaysia)
Open Culture Foundation (Taiwan)
Pelangi Campaign (Malaysia)
PERIN+1S (Indonesia)
PurpleCode Collective (Indonesia)
Radio Rakambia (East Timor)
SAFEnet (Indonesia)
Sindikasi (Indonesia)
Storycycle (Nepal)
Stop the Attacks (Philippines)
Thai Netizen Network (Thailand )
Viet Tan (Vietnam)
West Papua Updates
WITNESS

Individuals:

Pavitra Ramanujam
Gayatri Khandhadai
Nancy Yu
Laura Summers
Somphop Krittayaworagul
Jason Liu
Khon Danaeth
Buth Vanndy
Hein Min Oo
Satt (Tharthi Myay)
Ry Kruy
Dionisio
Nontarat Phaich
Lainie Yeoh
Shubha Kayastha
Farhanah Zevonia
Christiana X Belo
Christopher Burdett
Thina Lopez
Dr. Adam Fish
Sanjib Chaudhary
Azreen Madzlan
Aghniadi
Pitra
Harun
Rezwan
Ry Kruy
Buth Vanndy
San Chey
Irine Wardhanie

For more on WITNESS’ programmatic work in Asia, follow WITNESS Asia on Facebook and Twitter.

Since we began working with the All Eyes on the Amazon (AEA) project, we have lost three from our community. This rivals the pace at which we lost friends from our work on Syria and illustrates the threat level that environmental human rights defenders face.

All of the defenders harassed and killed have stories similar to Paulo Paulino Guajajara: they are ordinary people who have been living on their land for generations, and when they stand up to protect their homes, they come up against companies’ private security, state forces, contract killers, or teams of aggressive lawyers. It is the same everywhere WITNESS works to support land defenders.

Environmental health is the umbrella human rights issue. If we fail to protect our land, air, water and atmosphere, not only will we prevent solutions to human rights abuses, we will exacerbate them. And the rainforest is at the heart of this. Deeply respected conservation biologists believe that once 25% of the Brazilian rainforest has been destroyed, the rainforest will disappear.

It’s already 20% deforested, and logging is spiking under Bolsonaro. Paulino is not only protecting the Brazilian forest, he is protecting New York City from deadly hurricanes like Sandy (coming in at over $70 billion in damages), California from destructive wildfires, and coastal regions from massive floods.

The loss of Paulino is not only a tremendous loss for the Brazilian and AEA communities, it is a loss for the global community because when defenders like Paulino stand up, they stand up for each and every one of us.

Add your name to this petition to tell Bolsonaro’s government to save the Amazon Rainforest and protect the lands of indigenous and traditional communities.

Trust is more important now than ever before. This spring 2019, WITNESS is changing the story. We will highlight the people and communities that fuel our movement, and show that without trust, in our partnerships and for human rights content, there can be no justice.

Cheryl Morris, Community Team @ VIMEO and WITNESS volunteer, reflected on “who can we trust?” As noted in Cheryl’s blog post:

“I am a young, black, first generation American woman from New York City. Following the indictment of George Zimmerman and the murders of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Akai Gurley by the police, I began to feel extremely weary of authority figures and fearful of any potential interactions between my family and friends with the police. When walking through the city, I found myself anxiously crossing the street whenever I saw an officer, my heart racing and palms sweating. It seemed as if anything people of color did could be construed by the police as dangerous…

My growing anxiety over the documented cases of police violence however, led me to become more involved with the community of grassroots activists here in New York. I found local rallies and demonstrations through the Black Lives Matter movement to take part in, in hopes of effecting some change within our country. I began to speak candidly with friends and acquaintances about the fears that myself and many people who look like me feel on a regular basis. I wanted to make sure that future generations of black and brown people would not have to worry about their safety in the way that my generation and generations before me had. Through these activities, I learned that I had people around me that I could lean on when I felt overwhelmed. Through my community I learned that I didn’t have to live in fear every day. Over the past few years, I’ve grown to learn that I could trust the community that I had built around myself — friends, progressive-thinking people of color, and allies.”

For Mother’s Day 2019, we also created a fundraising campaign to encourage individuals to donate $25 in their mother’s name. With a small donation of $25, WITNESS can help many more activists, human rights defenders, and vulnerable people to defend their human rights online and on the ground. 

WITNESS is building a movement based on trust, truth, and transparency – will you join us? Learn more about and donate to the campaign here.

Getting Real is a biennial conference on documentary media. The three-day conference attracts over 800 participants and is the only gathering of its kind in North America. Palika participated in a panel titled, Journalists Under Threat and spoke about best practices for being safe while reporting on critical human rights abuses.

Today, Palika will be moderating a panel titled, Duty of Care – Protecting Vulnerable Sources, which will focus on protecting sources who report on human rights abuses from the frontlines.

You can follow Palika on Twitter here.

Our Program Director Sam Gregory was recently interviewed by VICE News about why is it so hard to care about humanitarian causes.

Click here to see what Sam, and other human rights leaders had to say about what it takes to care for justice in the world.