The NYS Human Rights Laws listed on the site appears to be fairly similar to Massachusetts HR Laws, and the site is a great source, with information on how and when to file a complaint.
Initially, I googled Human Rights and Brooklyn, and the first link I found was to the organization Witness. Witness is based in Brooklyn (in fact it's based fairly close to my house, in the same zip code), and I think it's fantastic. Witness aims to expose discrimination and human rights violations through video recordings of the violations. Witness has used the power of video to expose HR violations for over 20 years, the video below gives a general overview of the organization and its mission.
That video was really powerful and extremely interesting! I think that it is really important to use technology to our advantage in our world. We obviously live in an increasingly modernizing world and this project is really taking use of technology to help to bring human rights violations to light. When people see atrocities with their own eyes, they can’t deny that these things happen and I would make the claim that this will spark more people to get involved with the fight for human rights. I did a bit more research and they even have a collaboration on a YouTube channel dedicated solely to human rights. They verify and prioritize the videos which are coming in from citizens.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/humanrights
Do you think that this process of making these atrocities available for viewing will help or hurt the fight for human rights?
I think that, ultimately, these videos are going to help the fight for human rights because, like the activists mentioned, by capturing the reality (at least somewhat) of various human rights violations, they show people things that they probably would not know otherwise--things that they can take action to change (whereas the victims may not be able to do this so easily). Video is such a powerful medium because it makes you feel like you are there with those people, and the music adds to that as well.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, though, if the people being filmed feel at all exploited by the production of these videos, even though they are made with very good intentions. Would they feel insulted that filmmakers and journalists assume that they need international help (they may have great pride in the power of their own region or nation and wish to fight for their rights on their own)?
I think that is a really interesting point. It’s hard to decipher whether or not people would want these videos to capture these atrocities or if this is simply exploitation. It is our right to interfere in countries which are not our own? Is it better to focus on human rights on a more local scale?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in one of the videos, they stated that they watch and prioritize the videos which implies that the organization can pick and choose what their audience sees. Is this filter necessary?
Speaking of human rights on the local scale... I was reminded by the video that the ACLU has an app for iphones and androids that allows people to discretely record police and upload those videos to an ACLU server.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to an article about it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/06/aclu-police-app-lets-peop_n_1655257.html