We're gearing up for the launch of the second edition of Papuan Voices in 2015. We've just finished post-production on it and we can't wait to share it with you!

Papuan Voices is a project training and producing content by citizen video journalists and human rights advocates in West Papua. Papuan Voices aims to bring the everyday stories of West Papuans to a wider audience.

The first phase of the project was conducted in Jayapura and Meruake in 2012, and concluded with the production of 9 advocacy videos. The award-winning 'Love Letter to the Soldier' is from that collection.

For Papuan Voices II, we trained and worked with a new group of activists in Wamena and Sorong to produce 8 videos that reflect the rich culture, society, and environment there. The video below is a short documentary made by filmmaker Adithio Novello on the process of sharing and learning during the project.

Watch this space for more updates in the lead up to the official launch! We can't wait to show you the amazing work everyone has done over the past year!

We are delighted to announce that we have confirmed the dates and location for RightsCon Southeast Asia. This March 24-25, 2015, we will gather at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manila - so mark your calendars now!

RightsCon Southeast Asia’s agenda will focus on regional and global challenges that you will undoubtedly recognize to be of critical importance - like data protection, privacy, freedom of expression, infrastructure development, surveillance, and limiting risk in the ICT sector.

As you are aware, RightsCons are more than just gatherings of talking heads. At RightsCon Southeast Asia, we will have a mixture of interactive and participant-driven sessions, host strategy and implementation sessions, and provide opportunities for the private sector, government decision-makers, civil society and academics to meet face to face.

Here are a few next steps:

Submit a Session by November 14

Our conferences are built by the experts: our participants.  That’s why we’re inviting you to help us build the program. Submit your proposals for talks, topics, workshops, scrums and more. We encourage you to think of session formats and topics that will engage participants and will advance your work and field. To submit a session and read our guidelines, visit: https://rightscon.org/submitasession/guidelines.php

Attending the Conference

Tickets are now on sale. To show our appreciation of you, our friends, we’re delighted to offer you 25% off the already deeply reduced early bird ticket prices (tickets start at just $50)! Tickets are on sale at rightscon.org (enter code EB25 if you have problems with the above link).

We’d love for you to join us at this important event, which is being co-hosted by EngageMedia, Access , and local partner Foundation for Media Alternatives.

If you have any questions about your session proposal or attending, please let us know, contact conference@accessnow.org.

We look forward to seeing you in March!

Over the past 18 months the video4change network has been working on a toolkit to help Video for Change practitioners design for and evaluate impact. We’ve been blogging about this research here.

We are now at a stage where we’d really like some inputs from other people working on Video for Change initiatives. Please help us out by sharing your experience of Video for Change and impact by filling in this short survey.

We define Video for Change as: “the use of video to support social movements, document human rights violations, raise awareness on social issues, and influence social change.”

Our Video for Change Impact Guide draft currently integrates four ethical principles into its design. These are:

• Power Analysis: This is about analysing and challenging existing power imbalances.
• Participation and Inclusion: This is about considering how your initiative can include and develop the capacities of marginalised and under-represented actors and communities.
• Accountability: This is about taking steps to ensure your initiative is accountable to the communities, groups or actors it is seeking to support.
• Risk Mitigation: This is about having a clear plan for identifying and addressing risks.