Voice of Witness is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit book series that empowers those most closely affected by contemporary social injustice. Using oral history as a foundation, the series depicts human rights crises around the world through the stories of the men and women who experience them.

Our mission is to:

- Empower those most closely affected by contemporary human rights injustices

- Engender greater awareness, discussion and action in response to these injustices

- Provide our readers—from high school students to educators, policy makers and advocates—with compelling, reality-based human rights documentation that can be used for teaching, training and advocacy.

Voice of Witness books provide a reality-based understanding of ongoing injustices in the United States and around the world. They have been taught in colleges and schools throughout the world, and have been adopted as key resources by national advocacy groups and their member affiliates, including the ENOUGH project, STAND and the Save Darfur Coalition.

PRAISE FOR VOICE OF WITNESS

“These books are amazing…beautifully produced, with incredible editing and literary sensibility. Voice of Witness has done a better job than I’ve seen anybody do with having people tell their stories in a way that really engages you.” Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, Air America

“The series does not so much weave a tapestry from different experiences as braid a rope, a lifeline by which we might haul ourselves into a less ignorant, more actively compassionate future. In them, the specific illuminates the general, destroying preconceptions, stereotypes, and cop-out responses along the way.”
Richard Vernon, Sojourners Magazine

“In a time when history is told in cheap television re-enactments, if at all, and personal tragedy is gobbled up in rapidly digestible magazine photos and reality shows, this project goes against the grain.”
Guardian UK

So far, Voice of Witness has produced four books—Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath, and Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives. The fourth book in the series, Out of Exile: The Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan was released this winter.

Every month we send out a newsletter to keep readers informed of current projects, upcoming events, special offers and ways to get involved. If you would like to receive this newsletter, send a blank email to newsletter_at_voiceofwitness_dot_com with “subscribe” in the subject line.

As a non-profit, we rely on your support to continue our mission of giving voice to those most affected by human rights injustices. We are currently raising money for our forthcoming projects on Zimbabwe, Burma and Congo. If you would like to help us, please visit our DONATE and VOLUNTEER links on this site.

VOICE OF WITNESS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dave Eggers
Author, Publisher

Lola Vollen
Visiting Lecturer &  Scholar
Human rights Center, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Director
DNA Identification Technology and Human Rights Center

Jill Stauffer
Asst. Professor of Philosophy
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

VOICE OF WITNESS BOARD OF ADVISORS

Roger Cohn
Former Editor-in-Chief
Mother Jones

Mark Danner
Author, Professor
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Harry Kreisler
Executive Director
Institute of International Studies
UC Berkeley

Martha Minow
Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

Samantha Power
Professor
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University

John Prendergast
Co-chair
The ENOUGH Project

Orville Schell
Dean
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

William T. Vollmann
Author

FOUNDING ADVISOR

Studs Terkel (Deceased)
Author, Oral Historian

VOICE OF WITNESS STAFF

Mimi Lok
Executive Director

Chris Ying
Managing Editor

Voice of Witness is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.