I work in the world of human rights, seeking to educate and activate mainstream audiences to stand up to abuse and injustice. I've spent long periods in both the Former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone assisting post-conflict transition processes; but I also support civil rights and social development closer to home, in the US and my native UK. My personal belief is that you get human rights messages across most effectively by using popular vehicles like music, sport, entertainment, video – and of course, the Internet. That's why I'm working with WITNESS and Global Voices on this Human Rights Video Hub.
Latest posts by Gavin Simpson
Guinea-Conakry: standing up to a power-hungry President
The technological revolution that enables ordinary citizens to capture and upload video footage on the web has been slow to take root in West Africa. Up to now we haven’t featured any video content from this part of the world on the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot. So this week...
Forced evictions in Guatemala: whose land is it anyway?
Land ownership and occupation are complex and highly contentious issues in many parts of Latin America, and the tropical, resource-rich plains of northeastern Guatemala are no exception. On the one hand, legal title to land is generally brokered in formal processes between governments and private buyers. On the other hand,...
Former Yugoslavia: Can video play a part in truth, justice and reconciliation?
It fell to the controversial figure of Carla del Ponte, prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, to lament the slow progress of justice in the Former Yugoslavia in a lecture she delivered last week. del Ponte picked out Serbia as a country “removed from the European...
US secret detentions: from hotel room to squalid prison cell
When President George W. Bush confirmed in a speech last month that the CIA has been operating a programme of secret detentions on foreign territory, it was portrayed by the United States Government as part of its efforts to “bring terrorists to justice”. Yet this programme, along with the controversial...
