Witness (organization)

WITNESS is a human rights non-profit organization based out of Brooklyn, New York. Its mission is to partner with on-the-ground organizations to support the documentation of human rights violations and their consequences, further public engagement, advocate for policy change, and seek justice. WITNESS has partnered with over 300 human rights groups in more than 80 countries. History WITNESS was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel, along with the assistance of Human Rights First (then known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and its founding executive director, Michael Posner. Gabriel was influenced by his experience of using a Sony Handycam, one of the first small camcorders available to consumers, to record the stories he heard while traveling with Amnesty International’s 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour. Gabriel made the decision to establish WITNESS after the 1991 police brutality incident involving Rodney King Jr. The incident gained significant attention due to bystander's video capturing King's beating by the Los Angeles police. To Gabriel, this video demonstrated the power of video to capture the world’s attention and viscerally communicate human ri