(English) By SHELLY BANJO
As urbanization takes hold across the globe, Joshua Mailman is looking to end forced evictions that often arise as a result of large-scale, new development.
Known for being a professional philanthropist, Mr. Mailman has launched a number of philanthropic organizations and wealthy giving circles such as the Social Network and Threshold Foundation. This month he announced a $50,000 gift to Brooklyn-based human rights organization Witness.
Witness, which was started in 1992 by musician Peter Gabriel, uses video to document human rights violations across the world. The group works with local grassroots organizations and trains them in video and advocacy efforts.
The donation from Mr. Mailman, who joined the board of directors in 2001, will go toward expanding the organization’s campaign against forced evictions, launched in response to large-scale development projects that result in the eviction of indigenous peoples or other human-rights abuses. «We expose things that are trying to be hidden from the public eye so that they can no longer be hidden anymore,» Mr. Mailman says.
Starting in 2006 Witness partnered with nonprofit Centre for Minority Rights Development in Kenya to use video to document the struggle of the Endorois, indigenous Kenyans who were evicted from their lands to make way for the development of game reserves and resorts, says Witness executive director Yvette Alberdingk Thijm.
These videos were admitted as evidence before the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights and helped convince the commission that the expulsion was illegal, she says.
As a result of the efforts of Witness and other groups, in February the African Union adopted a decision by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights that found the Kenyan government guilty of violating the rights of the Endorois community, she says.
Through similar efforts in Cambodia and Philippines, the organization decided to expand its work from single-community issues to forced evictions on a global level. «Based on our experience in Kenya and Cambodia, we want to take this global to highlight that forced evictions are a human rights abuse and end the evictions on a larger scale,» Ms. Alberdingk Thijm says.
Mr. Mailman says the power of video has the ability to inform tens of thousands of people about unacceptable behavior across the word.
«Once people realize what’s going on, it pushes them to say: ‘How are we going to do something about it and what can I do?'» he says.
Witness was founded in the 1990s, in response to the videotape that exposed the beating of Rodney King Jr. by Los Angeles police officers. Mr. Mailman says the vision was to put cameras in the hands of as many people as possible.
«With the speed of technology and constant cost reductions, everyone can have a camera around the world,» Mr. Mailman says. «Now the challenge is to teach people how they can use videos to advance their rights and protect their communities.»
Saurce: The Wall Street Journal
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