According to this online article in New Media and Development Communication: Human Rights: New Challenges and Applications from graduate students of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, "[n]ew media applications such as cell phones and the Internet can greatly influence political decisions" when used to advantage by human rights organisations. Videos and photos, often taken using cell phones, can add to the data that are sought by organisations monitoring human rights abuse.

The following is a sampling of the ways in which new technologies are being used internationally:

• Amnesty Lifeline - "Since 2004, the human rights organization Amnesty International has established a new kind of signature collection in Sweden, Norway and Denmark consisting of petitions, which people can "sign" using their cell phones to protest against specific global cases. The technology is new, but the idea is quite old: The signature from the cell phone is similar to signatures collected in street recruiting". Of the 25 notifications sent in to Amnesty members in Denmark, nearly half of the national membership participates by signing through this cell phone technology, which may come to replace the face-to-face street canvassing.
• The Hub - This is a video uploading site from the human rights organisation Witness and technically similar to YouTube. "However, the uploaded videos have the purpose of demonstrating when human rights are violated, and thus encourage citizens to take action. Witness... operates in 70 countries with 250 partner organizations, and currently some 3,000 hours of video is available on The Hub. Witness' mandate is not just to create a space for video material and advocacy, but also to use and link the material on an appropriate and timely fashion. One of its recent videos is a short (4 min.) documentary about resistance against the military junta of Burma..." The Egyptian journalist and blogger Wael Abbas has posted videos about police abuse from his country on his own blog and on The Hub. This has led to court convictions of abusers.
• Gaza-Sderot - This project broadcast by the French-German television station ARTE shows the mixed picture of the lives of men, women, and children in two cities on the Israeli-Palestinian border. "Two of the six main characters from the two cities Gaza (Palestine) and Sderot (Israel) are portrayed in short video chronicles each day for two months, suggesting that it is actually possible to achieve understanding and peace-building across borders through humanizing your enemy. [It was winner of] the Best European Emerging Media Project of the Year 2008 at the media festival Prix Europa."

The article analyses the challenges and gaps in engagement through new media. It asks how someone who has become aware of human rights abuse can then accomplish something through their engagement. It points to a need for analysis of the most effective use of new media for membership and donation. Further, concerning video and photo uploading, the author questions how to protect the security of the subject portrayed and how to maintain ethical standards. Organisations are concerned with these questions and wonder about shielding the internet protocol (IP) addresses.

The article concludes that: "New media is a valuable asset to human rights work when it comes to increasing membership drive and offering evidence of abuses that can lead to a trial. However, organizations face new challenges when working with new technologies, and must create new protocols in the years to come."

This material was created in the 2008 class "New Media and Development Communication" with Professor Anne Nelson, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Email from Anne Nelson to The Communication Initiative on April 22 2009.