ABOUT WITNESS

We are a global human rights organization, comprised of a team of passionate human rights activists with remote staff based across 5 continents. WITNESS’ mission is to help people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. While we’re legally a non-profit that is registered as a 501(c)3 in the U.S, our multi-disciplinary team of 55 staff members (as well as consultants, interns, fellows and a vast community of partners and collaborators) are based around the world and reflect a group of activists with diverse skills and backgrounds.

WHAT WE DO

WITNESS pairs grassroots community support with advocacy at a systems level. Our team works holistically on a global scale to understand how communities are using and want to use video and technology for human rights. With a cellphone camera, anyone can become a human rights defender and expose injustice, making it harder for perpetrators to hide or for systems of oppression to remain invisible. But using video for community organizing, justice and accountability can be dangerous - videos can put defenders (or those they film) at risk, can be used against communities in court or deceitfully discredited by tired old power narratives. Filming is almost never enough - for videos to make a difference they need to work alongside strong advocacy or legal strategies; they also need to be created, preserved and shared in ways that avoid creating more harm or trauma.
New threats to human rights are emerging at the intersection of artificial intelligence, misinformation and disinformation and a global wave of rising authoritarianism.

When it comes to systemic challenges we are on the watch for both existing problems – like how large amounts of critical human rights footage are lost because of the arbitrary decisions of platforms – but also emerging threats and opportunities, such as those posed by ‘deepfakes’, new ways to manipulate media to make it look like someone said or did something they never did.

THE ROLE

We are seeking a Program Manager to lead the Brazil team on supporting independent communicators, to increase their capacity for using video as a tool to document abuses, raise decolonial narratives, fortify the truth, and defend human rights.

They will work together with land defenders, traditional and original communities, activists, and social movements across Brazil that are using video and digital tools to expose abuses, create and amplify counter-narratives, uphold human rights values, and preserve evidence, that can lead to defense of territories, cultures and autonomy in the face of the climate emergency.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Engage Communities and Facilitate Spaces For Learning
  • Develop strategies for the region, to foster and strengthen key relationships with communities, groups and key organizations, with the support of the Associate Director of Video For Earth;
  • Attend events and gatherings relevant to WITNESS Brazil-work in general, offering trainings and presentations to different publics when possible;
  • Lead relationship building with independent media collectives, and organizations that work directly with Indigenous, Quilombolas and Caiçara communities;
• Adapting WITNESS resources to different situations/groups/locations
  • Work together with the Communications Coordinator for the region on creating, adapting and releasing online derivative resources and guides;
  • Help identify key moments when we can provide surge responses, supporting communities and communicators facing risks and challenges on filming for human rights purposes
    
• Training and relationship building
  • Guide local training together with WITNESS Brazil team, alongside Indigenous, Quilombolas, and Caiçaras’ communities, with a focus on regions including Amazon, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Maranhão e Brasília;
  • Attend occasional meetings with institutional partners and funders, when needed, mainly in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo;
  • Attend occasional events, protests, and demonstrations relevant to the community groups we work with, mainly in Brasília.
• Support the planning, coordination and execution of convenings
  • Work together with the whole team on shaping, leading, and evaluating convenings and gathering with partners;
  • Facilitate sessions, presentations and mentoring activities (post-convening);
• Support other programmatic work
  • Collaborate with colleagues of Video For Earth program to support development of collaboration among WITNESS Brazil and other teams;
  • Collaborate with Associate Director of Video4Earth and Program Managers from the United States and Latin American and Caribbean countries to strengthen solidarity among partners and regions;
  • Collaborate with Learning and Sharing team + thematic programs like Global Digital Engagement, Video As Evidence and Archive to support resource creation, distribution and implementation;
  • Collaborate with TTO - Technology, Threats and Opportunity team to facilitate resource and knowledge sharing about AI, technology, mis/disinformation, deep fakes, etc in Brazil.
• Organizational and Departmental Support
  • Lead Brazil team on creating reports and documentation about the work for sharing organization-wide, and supporting institutional reporting, including to funders;
  • Attend regular calls and meetings with entire staff, or program functional groups, and with Video4Earth team as well;
• Working with Brazil Team
  • Work together with the Brazil Communications Coordinator on identifying relevant dates, from a global perspective, for resource / content distribution on WITNESS channels;
  • Work together with the Brazil Communications Coordinator on identifying opportunities for derivative resources based on WITNESS global repository;
  • Work together with the Program Assistant on encounterings and gatherings that WITNESS Brazil leads and organizes, to support with preparations, and site production;
  • Attend weekly calls and meetings with the Brazil team for regular check-in and brainstorms;
  • Attend occasional in-person meetings with the Brazil team for work planning, and other activities, when needed.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Position Requirements & Experience

• Communities: Experience and connection with communities/groups/activists defending land rights and climate justice, with first-hand experience working with Indigenous / Quilombolas / Caiçaras’/Trabalhadores Sem Terra independent communicators, that use vídeo to amplify their causes, document evidence of abuse and environmental crimes, or to promote youth leadership on social media. This experience could encompass someone with investigative journalism/documentarian background who thinks strategically about community-owned narratives, social impact distribution and evaluation of results.

• Networks: Connection to independent media groups in general (city & countryside) with relevant experience guiding training and providing support for them filming, organizing and preserving files for different human rights advocacy contexts. That can include those with consistent experiences working together with lawyers, public defenders, and etc, on preparing litigation support, including with law/advocacy backgrounds.

• Training: Experience on guiding/leading online and in-person training, including leading creation and distribution of resources, and leading facilitation to different groups of human rights defenders.
• Values: A strong sense of collective responsibility, commitment to a respectful approach with all the diversity of staff colleagues and community partners.
• Work Experience: Communications/Human Rights background, 5-7 years of experience, working first-hand with Indigenous, Quilombolas, Caiçaras, communities supporting them on the use of video and technology for defending land rights and denouncing state violence
• Project Coordination and Management: Experience of project coordination, involving overseeing consultants, partners, and monitoring activities' implementations alongside different regions.
• Video For Earth Work*: Knowledge of the main issues facing the groups WITNESS works with, including: land recognition, environmental crimes, environmental racism, land defenders and communicators facing risks and vulnerabilities, right to consultation, impacts of mega-extractive industry, forest guardians, right to education and communication, collective memories preservation, etc.
• Regional Work / Field Building: Knowledge of main issues facing the groups WITNESS works with relating to the right to film institutional violence, to personal and digital security measures, to audiovisual equipment and language. Basic audiovisual filming and editing skills would be a bonus.
  

*Video4Earth is the name of the WITNESS land defense and climate justice program. It supports activists, original communities, and land defenders who are using video and technology to defend their territories and rights. It encompasses regions including Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States.

Other Important Skills and requirements:

• Strategy: strong sense of the power of video for promoting social changes and defending human rights.
• Communications: Strong communication skills will be essential for working with the Brazilian team and Global staff as well.
• Technology: WITNESS works as a digital team (virtually) and comfort and familiarity with technology will be essential.
• Subject matter expertise: Human Rights Background in (or passion for) human rights; including the usage of communication and technology for advocacy and human rights incidence.
• Travel: Ability to undertake domestic travel (4-5 short trips/year) and attend a staff retreat (1 international trip/year)

Characteristics: Strong interpersonal skills and aptitude for cross-cultural communication. Team-minded. A doer. Is organized and follows through. Demonstrates good humor under pressure; inspires others.

Language: We are a global team that uses English as our shared language, as such this role requires a high proficiency in written and spoken English and Portuguese. Additional languages such as Spanish are a bonus.

Education: You can tell us about your degrees, but we’re more interested in what your passions are and what you can do. If your degrees are part of that story, great! (But no formal education is required).

Location: WITNESS operates as a globally-distributed organization but the location for this position is Brazil. The successful candidate must have the legal right to work in Brazil. We are unable to sponsor visas or relocations for this role.

Compensation: WITNESS operates a salary localization policy using a combination of regularly reviewed foreign exchange rates and salary adjustment multipliers for location. The localized gross annual salary for this position is BRL 255,550.

Duration: This is a full-time 1-year fixed-term contract

Benefits:

• Health: WITNESS offers competitive and robust medical benefits that cover an individual’s and their dependants’ medical, dental and vision at 100%.

• Life Insurance & AD & D: WITNESS provides life insurance and AD&D payable at one time (1x) the employee’s salary, to the beneficiary, in the event an employee were to expire while employed by the organization.

• Remote Work Stipend: WITNESS recognizes that flexible working arrangements are key to equity and inclusion in the workplace and we provide a monthly remote work allowance, we are happy to talk about the type of flexible arrangements that might work best for you. This remote work stipend is provided to all staff members to pay for extra equipment, electricity, stationery, internet, wellness, or whatever an employee deems necessary in order to work remotely. Please note that a computer and basic accessories are provided to all employees at the time of hire.

• Pension Contributions: After 1 year of service at the organization, WITNESS will contribute 3% of an individual's gross baseline salary towards a global retirement fund.

• Paid Time Off: WITNESS has a range of paid time off types that support our staff.
  • Vacation leave: that meets local statutory levels or 15 days whichever is higher, in addition to staff’s local public holidays.
  • The vacation allowance increases by 5 after 3 years of service.
  • Personal / Wellness leave: 5 days staff can use at any time to recharge in recognition of the importance of supporting positive mental well being.
  • End of Year closure: this usually is equivalent to a minimum of 5 days leave in addition to any public holidays across the last week of December and early January.
  • Sick Leave: follows local statutory guidance however;
    • WITNESS ensures a minimum of 10 days paid time off for occasional sickness and health related absences.
    • A minimum of 6 weeks of full pay in instances of longer-term absence.
  • Sabbatical Leave: At the 10 year mark we offer staff 10 weeks of paid time off in order to take a break, gain new insights and expand their horizons

• Work/ Life Balance : WITNESS believes in creating a healthy work environment in which flexible schedules are available, we also understand that sometimes an employee may just require a few hours to take care of personal issues in which case they can adjust their hours to make up for the time instead of taking a full day of leave. Both are allowable once agreed upon with the departmental supervisors.

• Mental Health Policy: WITNESS feels that all employees should feel supported both physically as well as mentally while they are at work and realizes that many times the issues that we deal with, the materials that we watch and the events surrounding some of the work that we do, can lead to feeling “unwell” and not in a “good space”. Should a situation arise in which an Employee requests support on mental health, WITNESS will award (10) days of “WITNESS” paid leave.

• Professional Development: In support of the growth and development of our staff, WITNESS regularly seeks opportunities for professional development, exposure to new skills and supports a culture of learning.
  • As part of this we offer staff Reading Days (1 day per month) where staff can take a day to read, study and connect more deeply with peers, partners and colleagues to further functional knowledge relevant to their role or deepen their general understanding and ability to support human rights work.

HOW TO APPLY

If you are interested in joining the WITNESS team, please apply through BambooHR: https://witness.bamboohr.com/careers. You will need to attach your resume.

Please note that if you are seeing this post in a 3rd party system (Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Zip Recruiter etc), be sure that you are submitting an application via WITNESS’ application link in BambooHR.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Applications must be submitted by end of day July 14,2024 to be considered in the first round of application screening. Depending on the outcome of this first round of applications, later applications may be considered. Please note that due to the volume of anticipated applications, we will not be able to respond individually to each applicant. We kindly ask that you do not send duplicate applications via mail or email, and no phone calls. No recruiters please.

WITNESS is a global human rights organization and aims to build an inclusive workforce that is reflective of the communities we work with. We are interested in building a talented team that brings their true selves with diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. We are interested in receiving applications from those who are marginalized and underrepresented.

WITNESS is an equal opportunity employer. People of all ages, races, ethnicities, national origins, religions, genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, and individuals protected by any other statuses under international federal, state or local laws, including but not limited to, disability, marital, domestic partnership, familial, caregiver, transgender, military or veteran statuses, are encouraged to apply.

http://www.witness.org