Youtube Promotes Human Rights via New Channel

A screenshot of Youtube's new Human Rights channel.

A US Not for Profit, WITNESS, has teamed up with online video sharing website, Youtube to launch a new human rights chanel to promote citizens by uploading short documentaries on under reported stories.

Youtube News Manager, Olivia Ma and WITNESS Program Director, Sam Gregory said that the site was designed to feature content from a slate of human rights organisations already sharing their work on YouTube. 

WITNESS is an international Not for Profit organisation that uses video and storytelling to record otherwise undocumented abuses and amplify previously unheard voices.

“We hope this project can not only be a catalyst to awareness, but offer people new avenues for action and impact,” they said.

“The channel is committed to providing new citizen creators as well as viewers with the tools and information necessary so that every citizen can become a more effective human rights defender.”

Video plays an important role in highlighting what occurs when governments and individuals in power abuse their authority, according to a Youtube blog post. 

Currently the Youtube channel features stories about land clashes in Cambodia, hunger strikes in Bahrain and a follow up of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“We’ve seen this play out on a global stage during the Arab Spring, for example: during the height of the activity, 100,000 videos were uploaded from Egypt, a 70% increase on the preceding three months,” Ma and Gregory said.