December 11, 1998
Contact HRF Communications (212) 845 5245 media@humanrightsfirst.org
WITNESS Marks 50th Anniversary of
Universal Declaration of Human RightsNew York: WITNESS, a pioneer in the use of video and technology to fight for human rights, is marking the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a special presentation in Paris this Friday, December 11. The event will feature Congolese human rights activist and lawyer Guillaume Ngefa and will be hosted by artist Peter Gabriel and philanthropist Marie-Claude Beaud.
"On the momentous occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I wish I could applaud the human rights standards that exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Ngefa, who is currently living in exile in Geneva. "The conditions in my country, however, are increasingly dangerous for rights activists."
Ngefa is president of the l'Association Africaine de DÚfense des Droits de l'Homme (African Association for the Defense of Human Rights), the leading human rights group in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Association, which has been a WITNESS partner since 1994, has generated videotaped testimony and evidence of local human rights violations, especially those associated with the violent seizure of power by President Laurent Kabila. Since its inception, the Association has consistently been the target of persecution by both the Kabila government and its predecessor, headed by Mobutu Sese Seko. In April 1998, the Association was shut down by the Minister of Justice who declared on television that it was an illegal organization. Police closed all its offices and confiscate its assets, including its WITNESS camera.
"What WITNESS needs to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a Reality is support from people in the fields of technology, film and music. Only then can we ensure that the voices of WITNESS partners around the world will be heard," said Gabriel. As we approach the next millennium, human rights groups from around the world - Haiti, Russia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Congo, Northern Ireland and the United States - are using their WITNESS cameras to expose injustice against human beings and to right wrongs.
RESET, an interactive agency with offices in London and Paris will produce the webcast for the event and broadcast.com will provide the multicast. The webcast will be available from www.reset.com and www.broadcast.com [Note: To listen to the broadcast, your computer will need appropriate software (either Windows Media Player or RealPlayer) and hardware (an audio card and speakers).]
WITNESS, a project of Human Rights First, gives human rights activists video cameras and helps them to expose the crimes, right the wrongs, and end impunity for human rights violators. Video cameras make it possible to bring an objective "witness" into dangerous situations to document events. WITNESS trains grassroots activists in video and investigative techniques, equips them with the latest technology, provides assistance in field video productions, and ensures that the evidence generated gets an international audience.