On the vanguard of video for human rights

It’s a video world out there. According to industry experts, video will account for over 80 percent of new content consumed on social media in 2025, and as we know, ‘short and punchy’ seems to reign supreme.

But have people’s attention spans really shortened to milliseconds? And more broadly, what’s working and what’s not in the world of video campaigning? How about the ethical concerns that folks in the third sector must be mindful of when deploying video?

I recently spoke to Ifé Fatunase, head of multimedia at Human Rights Watch, about how the world of video activism is evolving in 2025. She told me that, although short and sharp is absolutely key, longer-form outputs are still extremely impactful.

“In the past Human Rights Watch was more focused on longer-form documentary-type pieces, but as the human rights movement has become more focused on people power, it’s been necessary to get much more active on social media and shorter pieces with simpler language that can engage a much broader audience.

“That said, longer 10- or 20-minute documentaries still have an important place. When we do a longer piece it is often because there is a strong human story there and can be visually engaging. These can be really effective when shown in particular spaces, for example at a screening for policymakers or lobby groups. When used like this they can be really powerful, as the audience is drawn deep into a human experience.

“The question, of course, is whether there’s a strong enough story to capture and maintain people’s attention for 10 minutes or longer. And there certainly are many stories that are like that and which warrant a more in-depth treatment. So it’s not the case that everyone’s attention span has just got so short that they can only focus for a minute, but it depends on the issue, on the story and on the audience. The outputs that are going to grab people for a longer watch on Youtube or on another platform are very different to the messaging that will work on Instagram.”

One powerful example of this is the ‘Swept’ piece on homelessness in Los Angeles which Human Rights Watch released last year. Full of dramatic tension to draw viewers in at the opening, the film quickly shifts to a deeply emotive human story and, in so doing, makes the issue of homelessness a portrait of real people and real lives, who should be treated with decency and respect. Diving deep into the lives of Michelle and Harvey, and exploring both the challenges they face and the communities they are part of, the film makes it impossible not to witness the inherent humanity and dignity of the subjects. It also deals with the policy issues of course - throwing into relief the cruel, unnecessary, and utterly ineffective approach of criminalising homelessness - and contrasting these with the more effective and sensible approach of providing assisted housing… but the heart of the film is human stories.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/08/14/you-have-move/cruel-and-ineffective-criminalization-unhoused-people-los-angeles

For the shorter pieces that have become the bread and butter of Instagram and TikTok, it’s essential to have a strong hook. Ifé explained that leveraging the attention to stories making headlines in major news outlets has proved very effective in bringing attention to long-running human rights controversies that the media has grown tired of. When the tennis star Novak Djokovic was detained by Australian border security due to his refusal to be vaccinated for Covid, for example, it provided a perfect opportunity to raise the visibility of the abuses suffered by thousands of asylum seekers who have been unjustly detained for extended periods in the country’s migrant detention centres.

https://www.tiktok.com/@humanrightswatch/video/7050533526881455406

As one of the world’s leading human rights organisations, ethics are always a central concern in both the production and dissemination of HRW’s video outputs. “Consent is extremely important,” says Ifé. “We always explain to everyone exactly what it’s going to be for, and how it’s going to be used, including that footage can go to major media outlets as well. It can also be tricky - we sometimes have scenarios where a contributor says they want to be identified, but doing so could put them in danger either now or in the future. We have a duty of care to try and prevent them coming into any harm.

“It’s also important to use local videographers and producers wherever possible. They have to be thoroughly briefed about the issue and the purpose of course. In some of my previous jobs I saw biases where people presume a videographer from the US or maybe Europe is going to be better than a local one from maybe Asia, or that they will have better equipment. Maybe they do, but if the local Malaysian videographer doesn’t have a 4K camera, that’s fine - we’ll work with what they have. And the reason this is so important is that the local person is going to understand the culture, the nuances of meaning that someone who’s not from there will not understand.”

Questions of ethics and representation are of course critical when it comes to human rights video work, and the decisions over what to show and what not to show can be delicate. “We recently had a case where there was an interviewee who was wearing a t-shirt with a symbol that would be considered offensive in most countries. We thought about blurring it, about not using the footage. All our work goes through extensive review and I believe it was the country reviewer who pointed out that the image was not what we thought, and had a different meaning - one that was far more ok - in that country. So you then have the dilemma of do we obscure it just because people who don’t understand that context will be annoyed. So it can be tricky… in the end we used a disclaimer and kept it in.”

As with so many areas of professional life today, the multimedia team at Human Rights Watch has also been grappling with what role Artificial Intelligence could or should play in its work. “We have just implemented a new AI policy”, says Ifé. “In a nutshell, we won’t use generative AI for anything that could be mistaken for real video footage. If we use generative AI for graphics or animation we always include an onscreen disclaimer so viewers know generative AI was used.  We use AI for things like transcripts, though, and to help with subtitles but that always has to get checked.

There are not many civil society organisations out there that are really doing an excellent job with video, but Human Rights Watch is certainly one of them. Of course, HRW is also rather larger than most NGOs and has resources and reach that smaller organisations can only dream of. That only makes it more valuable to monitor their outputs and pay attention to the lessons they’re learning.

If you’re interested to explore how video can boost the impact of your organisation’s work, don’t hesitate to give me a shout. These days I’m delighted to collaborating with the inimitable master of online campaigning Andrew Parle, from Social for Good Ireland – together we can really make some noise for your mission.

Author: Luke Holland Insurgent Vision

Contact: luke@insurgentvision.com