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	Showing the truth will bring us justice in the long run by Peter Gabriel Co-founder WITNESS   May 2017 (Time Magazine)   It was 1991. A plumber planning to record the Los Angeles marathon with his newly acquired Sony Handycam was trying it out when he heard a commotion outside and saw flashing sirens below his apartment window. He pressed the record button and began filming the brutal beating of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department. Within 12 hours, it had been seen around the world. The video sparked outrage and brought a new focus onto police conduct and brutality, racial injustice and human rights.   A couple of years earlier, I had a life-changing experience as part of Amnesty International's Human Rights Now tour. I was profoundly shocked by my conversations with many victims of human-rights abuses, both by the extent of their suffering but also by how often their horrific experiences were denied and buried.   I believed then what I still believe today, that people armed with cameras can create change. With cameras in our hands, we all can protect and defend human rights.   And so in 1992, I helped found WITNESS. The organization is based on the idea that technology can transcend all borders and that information is power. Change flows when the right tools are in the right hands with the right skills.   In the last 25 years, technology has evolved many times over. Heavy, expensive video cameras have been shrunk into chips, and a tiny lens is found in every cell phone. There are now very few people who do not have access to a cell phone.   More video is generated in a day today than was generated in an entire year when WITNESS was formed. And that cell phone in your pocket has the power to capture what's going on and use it to ignite change.   In 2014, a Staten Island grand jury declined to charge a New York City police officer in the death of Eric Garner. His death and last words 'I can't breathe' became a rallying cry for a new generation of activists fighting to end police misconduct. Mr. Garner's death was captured on cell-phone video and circulated widely on social media and news outlets around the world. The prevailing opinion was that the officers in charge would face justice and be held accountable for their misdeeds. That was not the result.   In April, the world was yet again shocked and horrified by images coming out of Syria. The use of sarin in a chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held city of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province and the subsequent airstrike on the hospital tending the survivors of the attack were captured on video.   In the aftermath of the attack, President Bashar Assad claimed that the videos of the attack were faked. The authenticated video evidence of the attacks, verified on multiple fronts, proves otherwise. This evidence is irrefutable.   Examples like these may leave us at a loss. Crimes were documented and the footage captured circled the globe many times over. Sometimes, documenting a human rights crime doesn't directly lead to justice. But it can galvanize a movement. It can be proof regardless of what a jury decides.   Most importantly, it can transform public opinion as well as national and international policies. We may not see the outcome we want when we want it, but there is power in arming truth with evidence.   The reality is that human-rights crimes happen all around us, and most of us have the tools to document them. We need to not only show the truth, but to verify and prove it. We need to know how to save, protect and curate our video footage, because in most cases the road to justice is long and difficult.   At times, it seems like we live in the post-truth age. Propagandists sit alongside those in power who see our world as theater, in which shocking news stories are rapidly countered by fabricated accounts suggesting that the opposite happened. We end up stunned and subdued, unsure of what we can and cannot believe. When you factor in that we only end up seeing the news that is increasingly chosen for us through algorithms and our own filter bubbles, the truth appears elusive.   One way to counter this is to empower, protect and champion the storyteller and the human rights activist. History shows us time and time again the power of truth. The most effective way to counter Holocaust deniers was by diligently assembling the stories and first-hand accounts of survivors.   As Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained about the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in the wake of South Africa's apartheid, letting people have their stories seen and heard is an act that itself is empowering and is the foundation for justice.   I still believe that seeing is believing. The value of video footage lies not just in its existence, but in the inability to deny what is captured for posterity.   Timely, accurate and impartial information is the most powerful force we have to protect the fundamental rights of all people. Now more than ever, there are more bystanders willing to step forward and speak truth to power. And, as ever, they need your help to do it. http://witness.org/ Visit the related web page
	Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world by Global Call to Action against Poverty   May 2017   In 2017, the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF) will assess the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, focusing on “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world.”   As the Non-­Governmental Organizations (NGO) Major Group – which facilitates the engagement of a diverse group of NGOs in the HLPF – we offer our perspectives on each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under in-depth review this year.   As recognized by the 2030 Agenda, NGOs play critical roles in SDG implementation: we raise awareness and mobilize; build capacity; design and implement projects; monitor and review policies; collect data; provide technical expertise; and both support and hold governments accountable to their commitments.   We note with concern the shrinking space for civil society, and call for increased political and financial support for civil society participation at all levels and stages of implementation and review, to increase the Goals’chances of success.   The 2030 Agenda is universally applicable, intersectional, and holistic; achieving the SDGs requires integrated solutions and relies on complementary roles of different actors in society.   As governments assess their progress towards implementingthe SDGs, we encourage consideration of this consolidated official input of the NGO Major Group.   Summary   The 2017 High Level Political Forum addresses the theme “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world,” an imperative that is also a prerequisite for sustainable peace.   Achieving these aims will not be possible unless the structural and systemic barriers to achievement and root causes of exploitation and degradation of the environment are addressed.   Current neoliberal macroeconomic policy is a major driver of unequal distribution of wealth and power and the destruction of natural resources, and must be reconsidered and replaced.   Notions of development based entirely on economic growth present a myopic view of progress and must be discarded, and corporations must be held to account for their social and environmental records.   We call for a new development paradigm which furthers the well-­being of humans, nature and animals, and which sees as its ultimate aim the achievement of equity and justice, to “leave no one behind.”   The practical contributions of civil society are a distinct and important element of this process. The NGO Major Group therefore calls on the United Nations and its Member States to increase the engagement of civil society, by soliciting more extensive inputs from Major Groups and other Stakeholders, and providing their translation into the six UN languages.   Allowing ample time for meaningful engagement of civil society in SDG implementation and review processesis essential at global, regional and national levels.   Each country is responsiblefor achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in consultation with its people, to address collective challenges from a place of shared endeavour.   From individuals to local authorities to national ministries to UN agencies, each must take ownership of the Goals in their particular contexts – acknowledging that all Goals are interrelated and mutually reinforcing.   The NGO Major Group recommends the following regarding the SDGs under review in 2017:   Goal 1: Addressing the causes and manifestations of structural poverty requires holistic, context-­specific solutions interlinked with all other goals. Governments should report on their efforts to increase opportunities, wellbeing, and resilience among all sectors of society.   Goal 2: To end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, we must change our agricultural production from high-­input, industrial exploitation towards systems that support smallholders’ livelihoods and preserve cultures and biodiversity.   Goal 3: Efforts to achieve health related targets should prioritize the full spectrum of services from promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation.   Governments, through a multi-­sectoral and multi-­stakeholder approach, must endeavour to remove social, cultural, and economic barriers to ensure full access to affordable, quality physical and mental health services for all.   Goal 5: Obstacles to the actualization of gender equality and the fundamental rights of women and girls should be overcome through implementing laws and policies that prohibit discrimination, redistribute unpaid carework, promote equality in access to resources, education, and decision-­making, in alignment wit internationally agreed conventions and standards.   Goal 9: All governments, including regional and local authorities, should promote inclusive, ecologically-­sound industrialization and the provision of basic infrastructure that incorporates the protection of nature and participatory decision-­making.   Goal 14: SDG14 must be a keystone in protecting the oceans as a substantial part of the biosphere, a unique ecosystem, an integral part of human civilization and major food provider, and a common good with equal and fair access rights.   In keeping with the commitment to “Leave No One Behind,” the full position paper of the Non-Governmental Organizations’ Major Group details the ways in which the SDGs are interconnected, locally applicable yet requiring universal commitment, and essential for the eradication of poverty and promotion of prosperity for all.   * Access the “Leave No One Behind,” NGOs position paper via the link below. 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