Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge/media/connection/exchange* (delete as applicable)
Posted: 18/01/2012 Filed under: Activism, Human rights, Technology | Tags: censorship, internet, law, netfreedom, PIPA, SOPA 2 Comments »
Wikipedia goes dark in protest at SOPA and PIPA
A few years back, before all this internet/smartphone/ubiquitous stuff, I worked for a media development NGO, helping to strengthen public-interest media in the developing world, as a critical part of public debate and social change. One of the ways we used to articulate why it was important to support these independent, public and community media was “imagine a world without media”… Unthinkable.
Now, with the space for individual communication and agency expanding and affecting so many facets of our lives, a flotilla of sites “going dark” is a critical action that demonstrates where we might all end up if this kind of legislation, which seeks to protect archaic modes of production and value creation, at the behest of entrenched lobbies and interests, is not stopped in its tracks. SOPA and PIPA must be stopped.
[And, if laws such as these pass in the US, then these flawed and failed legal standards will then be exported to other nations, with drastic results for free speech, and the creation of value (cultural, economic, and network) worldwide.]
Kenya: Landmark Ruling on Indigenous Land Rights
Posted: 10/02/2010 Filed under: Human rights, Journalism, Video, Work | Tags: africa, endorois, Hub Blog, kenya, land rights, law, WITNESS Leave a comment »[Cross-posted from the WITNESS Hub Blog.]
In a landmark ruling on February 4th, the African Union has condemned the expulsion of the Endorois people from their land in Kenya. The African Union’s General Assembly adopted a May 2009 decision by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), which found the Kenyan government guilty of violating the rights of the country’s indigenous Endorois community, by evicting them from their lands to make way for a wildlife reserve. This decision – which, with the African Union’s endorsement, becomes legally-binding on the Kenyan government – is being heralded as a major victory for indigenous peoples across Africa, by creating a major legal precedent by recognizing, for the first time in Africa, indigenous peoples’ rights over traditionally-owned land and their right to development.
As part of the evidence package submitted to the ACHPR to support this campaign, WITNESS and our partner CEMIRIDE (Kenya) provided this evidentiary video.
Learn more about how the video supported and strengthened the campaign. | Watch the full version of “Rightful Place: Endorois’ Struggle for Justice”. | Read the press release from WITNESS and Human Rights Watch.
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