Musician Peter Gabriel is the co-founder of WITNESS, which distributes digital cameras to empower people to document human-rights abuses. A founder of the band Genesis, Gabriel is now a solo artist and record mogul, championing world music and innovation.
Why you should listen to him:
In 1988, Peter Gabriel embarked on the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour. During his travels, Gabriel encountered people with horrific stories to tell: stories of torture, murder and abuse that had been denied and forgotten by those in power. Gabriel became convinced of the profound need to shine a spotlight into these unseen corners of the world.
In 1992, he co-founded the watchdog group WITNESS, which arms ordinary people with digital cameras, enabling them to create and distribute films about the states of their own lives, transforming individual stories of abuse and violation into powerful tools for justice. In 2007, Gabriel and WITNESS launched "The Hub," an interactive media space for human right, which features video, stories, and action campaigns aimed at ending global human injustices. The following year, he received the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. His tireless advocacy has helped build WITNESS into one of the world's great engines of citizen journalism.
"Peter Gabriel is recognized around the world for his activities for peace and humanity."Mikhail Gorbachev
Quotes by Peter Gabriel
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“The dream is a world in which anyone who has anything bad happen to them has a chance of getting their story uploaded, being seen, being watched.”
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“Whenever there’s a camera around, a video or film camera, it’s a great deal harder for those in power to bury the story.”
