Using Cameras to Fight Human Rights Abuses: Yvette Alberdingk Thijm of WITNESS

In 1988, musician and activist Peter Gabriel traveled the world with Amnesty International's "Human Rights Now!" tour. He brought a big, bulky camcorder with him and used it to interview victims of human rights abuses. Gabriel realized that capturing those stories made it harder for them to be forgotten, and that's what spurred him to found WITNESS, a Brooklyn-based human rights organization.

"The aim is always to turn a personal story of abuse into a powerful tool for justice," says Executive Director Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, who sat down with Reason.tv to discuss how WITNESS uses the power of video to fight human rights abuses around the world.

See Jesse Walker's post on Witness "Little Brother is Watching" at http://reason.com/archives/2008/04/16/little-brother-is-watching.

Approximately 6 minutes.

Interviewed by Hawk Jensen who also edited. Shot by Jim Epstein.

Additional footage provided by: WITNESS.ORG. Photo Credit: Kate Glicksberg

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