Pawah! is a tool to record reliable and auditable proofs of human rights violations without being detected, so they can can be used afterwards in legal processes, journalistic investigations and public denunciation.
It is great that you are interested in our project!
We are an organization committed with the defense of human rights and free speech in Latin America. We want to strengthen democracy in Latin America by empowering emerging leaders and promoting spaces of free debate. More about us can be found here
The name Pawah!, actually came from a play of words that refer to a local kind of avocado (Pagua) and the word: Power (🥑 + ✊). But no, we are not building a powerful avocado, despite the idea is appealing.
Social protests (street manifestations) in Latin America have been another important way of political expression. One of the largests studies of social protests done in Latin America (UNDP, 2013), accounted more than 4,750 street protests across 17 countries in one year. These protests have become larger in scale with a more extensive use of digital technologies (Bianchi et al., 2017). Nevertheless, governments, criminal organizations and other groups of interest have become more aggressive and violent against free speech and opinions that can affect them, at the point to criminalize social protests and free speech. According to a report by the Center of Legal and Social Studies, governments are introducing extremely coercitive bills against social protests and free speech. The results of this legal framework have been grievous. In Peru, between 2010 and 2015, at least 80 people have been killed during conflicts. in Mexico, in the last 5 years, hundreds of activists (journalists, students and politicians) have been disappeared or killed by either the narco cartels or even the Government, being the Ayotzinapa case the most known. In Colombia, the Anti-riot squadron has been called responsible of 3,950 agressions between 2002 and 2014, including sexual harassment.
Mobile phones have become a powerful tool to do activism and generate live footage of important events going on, nevertheless security forces (police and the army) and malicious perpetrators are aware of this. That is why, they won´t hesitate to destroy or seize these devices, spoil the records taken with them or worse, violently intimidate to witness and human rights defenders. Therefore, it is necessary to have tools that can reinforce plausible deniability of having took records while at the same time securing them in a way that can not be corrupted or erased.
We think Pawah! can become a powerful tool for defending human rights and contribute to actions rooted to generate accountability and redress of victims of human rights abuses. Or in sophisticated words, transitional justice. We address this in two ways:
a- As a tool for deterring human rights abuses in situations of over exposure of activists, journalists and citizens. Mobile phones already are a powerful tool for activism in generating live footage of important events. Yet, security forces (police and the army) and malicious perpetrators are aware of this. That is why, instead of following due legal processes, they won´t hesitate to destroy or seize these devices, spoil the records taken with them or worse, violently intimidate witness and human rights defenders. Pawah! has two counter-measures for that: it has a fake front-end that helps to avoid “blow the whistle” and it encrypts and hides the records within the device, so it can reinforce plausible deniability. This is the Pagua in Pawah!
b- As a way to record reliable, authenticated and auditable proofs for legal processes, journalistic investigations and public denunciation. Even if the witness or victims manage to get records of human right abuses, those records need to prove they are authentic if they want to be used in legal trials or journalistic investigation. Therefore, it is important to have a way to provide authenticity and reliability of the files. For that, we will use blockchain. This is the Power in Pawah!
This tool uses a fake-front end to record pictures, audio or video and in that way it strengthens plausible deniability. The recorded files are hidden and encrypted in your device´s memory. You can only find it typing a secure passphrase into the app. In that way even if the device is taken by someone else, they will not be able to access the files.
Once you are connected to the internet, Pawah! will send the encrypted file with a second encryption layer and convert into a block in a secure blockchain. This will make your file reliable and authentical so you can use it for further legal matters or public denunciation.
We need volunteers to finish Pawah!. We need cryptographers, coders, designers, lawyers and activists who want to test it. If you are interested in Pawah! please send us an email at [email protected] or at [email protected].
Thanks for your interest in contributing to Pawah! There are many ways to contribute. To get started, take a look at CONTRIBUTING.md.
This project adheres to a code of conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report unacceptable behavior to [email protected].
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