Global Response Unit

Authoritarian governments restrict fundamental human rights, criminalize legitimate dissent, harass, arrest, and even murder those who raise their voices in protest. Documenting these violations has been a significant challenge for local activists and civil society organizations until the arrival of camera-equipped phones. Smartphones, combined with social media, have transformed millions of individuals into sources of information and local civil society organizations into guardians of critical evidence. However, this documentation is often too inadequate to be used in courts and international forums.

With the rapid technological advancements, especially in artificial intelligence, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Documentation of human rights violations is lost in a sea of disinformation and misinformation, often manipulated by the perpetrators themselves. Local activists and civil society organizations strive to meet these challenges, but the uneven distribution of power makes it difficult to keep up with the perpetrators’ extensive resources.

In this project, Videre aims to establish a Global Response Unit to enhance civil society’s ability to act on and collect legal documentation of human rights violations.

The project is supported with 2 800 000 SEK.

What happens in the project?

This project will establish the Global Response Unit, a specialized capability within Videre that will directly support local activists and organisations globally to bolster their community-based human rights monitoring and documentation efforts. Ultimately, this will strengthen the human rights documentation ecosystem, protect human rights defenders at scale, and increase accountability for grave rights violations and atrocity crimes in many of the world’s most challenging contexts.

Why was the project supported?

Strengthening civil society’s ability to respond to human rights violations is crucial for reversing the negative democratic trend. This project contributes to increased accountability to highlight and reduce the risks of abuse of power and impunity.