ETHICAL GUIDELINES: USING EYEWITNESS VIDEOS IN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTING & ADVOCACY INTRODUCTION Eyewitness video footage may provide valuable documentation of human rights violations. In some cases, these videos are the only visual documentation of abuse, and can provide critical answers to questions surrounding a story or an investigation. These videos raise the question for journalists, human rights advocates, documentarians, and investigators: How can we apply the principles of safe and ethical human rights practices—including a commitment to respect human dignity, empower affected communities, and minimize harm—when presented with visual documentation that we ourselves did not collect? While technology makes it easy to link to a YouTube video in an online report, embed it in an article, or edit numerous clips into a video montage or documentary film, you want to consider the implications of doing so for those involved in the video and the issue it documents. Below are principles to guide the ethical curation of eyewitness videos, as well as tools, resources, and examples of how to approach ethical challenges. The guide is divided by responsibilities to three stakeholders of video footage: I. the individuals filmed; II. the video creators; and III. the audience. ABOUT THIS GUIDE The guide’s primary audience is investigators, journalists, advocates, archivists, and others who utilize eyewitness video for reporting, investigating, or documenting human rights issues. While the guide is primarily concerned with videos already produced, many of the ethical considerations discussed are also applicable to the broadcast and curation of live streaming footage. Finally, this guide is just that. Deciding if and how to curate eyewitness videos is rarely an easy process. At times, you may find two or more of the ethical considerations outlined below in conflict, and will have to use your professional judgment to make the best of an imperfect decision. The way you do so may depend on your own expertise, field of work, and objectives. We hope that the guidance and examples herein will support you in making those difficult decisions, and we welcome your feedback to help us update and improve these guidelines. 177 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: ETHICAL GUIDELINES V 1.2 SHARING Yet deciding if and how to share the footage publicly is rarely a simple process. Some eyewitness videos have the potential to put individuals and communities at greater risk of harm if shared widely or misused. Many videos found online were never meant to be public in the first place. Others were taken with the intent to cause fear, inflict harm, or incite violence.