Videre

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Videre est Credere (Videre) is a human rights organization that equips oppressed communities in hard-to-access areas with cameras, technology, and training to safely and effectively expose violence, human rights violations, and other systemic abuses. The organization's name means "to see is to believe" in Latin. It is registered as a charitable organization in London, England. [1] [2] Videre has trained over 500 activists since its founding in 2008. [3]

Contents

Methodology

Videre est Credere (Videre) works in some of the world's most oppressive societies and situations. [4] It creates a global network of activists able to film and document the abuses and human rights violations of violent regimes. [5] Videre employs a four-part methodology in its work:

The organization rarely takes public credit for its work, but its footage has been published in a variety of media outlets; shown to policymakers; formed the basis for NGO advocacy work; and used as evidence in courts. [5] Its footage is processed, categorised and stored in an electronic archive that allows Videre to use the footage in both short-term and long-term.

The organisation uses a number of tools used by commercial or intelligence organisations, including social network analysis software. [8] It also claims to use a number of techniques unusual to the NGO industry such as "data storage and communication encryption to counter-surveillance." [9]

Social network analysis

Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes and the ties, edges, or links that connect them. Examples of social structures commonly visualized through social network analysis include social media networks, memes spread, information circulation, friendship and acquaintance networks, business networks, social networks, collaboration graphs, kinship, disease transmission, and sexual relationships. These networks are often visualized through sociograms in which nodes are represented as points and ties are represented as lines. These visualizations provide a means of qualitatively assessing networks by varying the visual representation of their nodes and edges to reflect attributes of interest.

History

Videre was founded by CEO Oren Yakobovich and Board Chairman Uri Fruchtmann in 2008. Fruchtmann, the former husband of Annie Lennox and a successful filmmaker, had the idea of giving old video equipment to human rights defenders. People told him he should talk to Yakobovich. [5] Yakobovich was leading the Camera Documentation Project at the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem at the time and had the idea to take the idea behind the project global. [10] The two partnered to establish Videre.

Uri Fruchtmann is an Israeli human rights activist, film producer and director.

Annie Lennox Scottish singer-songwriter

Ann LennoxOBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band The Tourists, she and fellow musician David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. With a total of eight Brit Awards, which includes being named Best British Female Artist a record six times, Lennox has been named the "Brits Champion of Champions".

B'Tselem is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied territories, combat denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel. Its executive director is Hagai El-Ad. B'Tselem also maintains a presence in Washington, D.C., known as B'Tselem USA. B'Tselem has provoked sharp reactions within Israel, ranging from harsh criticism to strong praise.

People

Brian Eno is Videre's patron. Uri Fruchtmann, John Sauven, Katy Cronin, Fiona Napier and Terry Gilliam serve on its board of trustees. The organization is run by CEO Oren Yakobovich. In 2014, Yakobovich was named an Ashoka Fellow. [11] Videre does not identify its current staff members but former staff are known to include: Nizan Weisman (who helped set up the organization and it's governance, served as Board of Directors member between the years 2008-2012, leading all financial issues, was Senior Partner in BDO Consulting], Eitan Diamond (who helped set up the organisation and was Executive Director of Gisha - Legal Centre for the Movement of People [12] ), Rory Byrne (the former Head of Security and Research and now CEO and co-founder of Security First), [13] Holly Kilroy (the former Head of Development and now Head of Development and co-founder of Security First), [14] and Liviu Babbitz, (former Head of Operations and founder of CyborgNest.) [15]

Budget

According to the UK Charity Commission, the organization had an expenditure of £908,371 and income of £901,728 in 2013. [16]

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References

  1. ↑ Anderton, Ed. "Opening Eyes". Social Tech Guide. Nominet Trust. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "Charity Overview". UK Charity Commission. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Cardoso, Christine (10 August 2014). "Ex-soldado troca arma por câmera para defender direitos humanos". Globo. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Financial Times, Emma Jacobs, The sacrifice for secret footage,13 March 2014
  5. 1 2 3 James Smith, David. "Videre: the secretive group on a mission to film human rights abuses". Wired UK (September 2013). Conde Nast. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  6. ↑ de Souza, Mariella. "London's Top Tech for Social Good". Tech City News. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  7. ↑ McClure, Laura. "Undercover human rights recording: Oren Yakobovich at TEDGlobal 2014". TEDBlog. TED. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "FMS's Sentinel Visualizer Link Analysis Software Assists Videre Est Credere to Expose Human Rights Violations". fmsasg.com. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Videre Est Credere - Charity Organisation for Human Rights Issues and Human Rights Abuse". org. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Goodman, Amy (26 December 2007). "Shooting Back: The Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem Gives Palestinians Video Cameras to Document Life Under Occupation". Democracy Now. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Introducing Oren Yakobovich, Fellow of the Month". uk.ashoka.org. Ashoka.
  12. ↑ "Gisha Staff - Gisha". gisha.org. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  13. ↑ "The CIES interviews Rory Byrne". cies.ie. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "Security First - Home". secfirst.org. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  15. ↑ "Cyborg Nest". Cyborg Nest. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  16. ↑ "Date of report : 24 August 2015". charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
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