About Core Partnership
At any given time, WITNESS is engaged in intensive relationships with 13-15 Core Partners working on campaign-specific projects of 1-3 years in length. After receiving an application, we choose a new Core Partner carefully based on the strength of its human rights work, the clarity of its advocacy focus, and the ability of video to enhance its campaigns. Once a partnership is formed, WITNESS' primary role is one of facilitator and intermediary, providing equipment and training and brokering the necessary relationships to enable our partners to become more effective advocates for their own causes. We look for collaborations involving specific campaign opportunities where video can play a critical role in helping tip the balance between success and failure.

Since our partners often lack even the most basic camera skills, providing equipment alone does little to improve their advocacy efforts.  We also provide hands-on training in camera techniques, strategic planning for incorporating video into advocacy, intensive instruction in video editing, and ongoing feedback to create powerful documentaries.  And we collaborate with our partners to create multi-dimensional campaigns around completed productions that include broadcast and distribution platforms, collaboration with other organizations and networks, targeted screening before audiences with the power to make a difference, and opportunities for individuals to take action.

Footage from our partners also enters the WITNESS Media Archive, where it is available upon partner approval as a unique resource of human rights information to the global community.