Overview
WITNESS helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. Watch this 2021 year-in-review video to meet the WITNESS team and learn more about our vision and how we work.
Our visual era, with its explosion of new video-based technologies and platforms, presents an urgent opportunity and need to fortify the use of video and technology for human rights. Over the past 30 years, WITNESS has been a leading force in the global movement to create a more just world. We support grassroots activists, civic journalists, lawyers, and frontline witnesses to use the newest media tactics and technologies to bolster authentic voices and protect truth. Today, we envision a radical and necessary new horizon in the fight for truth and structural transformation. Together with our partners and allies, we can prepare the human rights movement for the future.
We are a group of activists based in five continents. As a collective, our staff members (as well as consultants, interns, fellows and a vast community of partners and collaborators) hail from around the world and reflect a group of multi-disciplinary, passionate human rights activists with diverse skills and backgrounds. As a team, we share a vision of a world where oppressed communities, grassroots activists, and everyday witnesses can harness the power of video and technologies safely and effectively to protect their rights and the environment, to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions and to shape a more inclusive world.
Following 14 years as Executive Director of WITNESS, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm will be stepping down from the role, providing the opportunity for an outstanding, new leader to join an amazing team as we move into the future. WITNESS plays a unique ecosystem partnership and thought leadership role in the larger human rights movement. WITNESS’ organizational design and leadership team structure optimizes its ability to implement successful strategies to achieve its mission in this landscape. We practice inclusive leadership that stems from listening closely to the communities we serve and foresighting emerging technology developments. The Executive Director (ED) role exemplifies this leadership. It is designed to also closely partner with the Director of Programs, Strategy & Innovation who leads on WITNESS long term vision in this evolving landscape. The ED will ultimately be responsible for WITNESS’ human rights impact and excel at designing and implementing the organization’s long term strategic plans to ensure that WITNESS can operationalize, fund, and achieve its ambitious vision. The successful candidate will be an adept relationship builder, fundraiser, resource mobilizer, and external representative. The ED’s leadership champions WITNESS’ unique mission and, by listening closely to both internal and external partners, ensures that WITNESS continues to play a global leadership role in anticipating and being ahead of a challenging landscape.
Do you share our vision and belief that innovative tools and tactics for human rights defenders can counter today’s threats to truth and justice? Do you see an inclusive future in which we remain laser focused on ensuring that advances in video and technology work in the service of human rights while uplifting and protecting the most marginalized? Are you excited by building a world in which every social media user can easily share the truth, safely and securely, debunk falsehoods, and preserve and protect critical visual evidence? Do you envision a movement in which communities and people at risk or affected by human rights violations can use video and technology to record their truth from their perspective, defend it, and push for change as part of a successful strategy of resisting oppressive power structures? If so, please visit https://candidates.perrettlaver.com/vacancies/ quoting reference 6006, in order to download appointment details for this role, and to apply. The deadline for applications is Friday, September 16, 2022 at midnight ET.
We are a globally distributed, remote workforce; this is a full-time position, with location preferences that include Africa, Latin America, and Europe, among others. At this time, our team members are working through hybrid office arrangements, combining remote at-home work with intermittent use of offices and/or co-working spaces.
Typically, we can only consider applicants who are already legally able to work in the country in which the role is based. Visa sponsorship or relocation allowance are rare, and offered only for specialized positions.
WITNESS operates a salary localisation policy using a combination of regularly reviewed FX and local salary adjustment multipliers. Based on current rates, gross salaries for some of our current locations are given as an example: Brazil – 752,650 BRL; Malaysia – 724,450 MYR; New York City – 220,000 USD; South Africa – 2,232,500 ZAR.
WITNESS is a global human rights organization and strives to build an inclusive workforce that is reflective of the communities we work with. We believe in representative leadership and are interested in building a talented team that brings their true selves with diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.
We greatly welcome applications from those with lived experience from outside the global north and from those who consider themselves from historically exploited, marginalized and/or under-represented communities.
WITNESS is an equal opportunity employer. We value and encourage diversity and consider applicants for all positions without regard to age, race, color, religion, creed, gender, sex, national origin, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other legally protected status.
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