Migrant Worker Wins National Human Rights Video Contest

September 7, 2010 – A nationwide video contest on human rights in the United States concluded its first round this August, and the winner is ready to tell the United Nations his story.

The Testify! Project collects two-minute videos illustrating human rights conditions in the United States, as told by those affected. After the initial 50 submissions were narrowed to six by public vote, a panel of judges with expertise in human rights and video activism selected a video featuring Florida migrant farm worker Romeo Ramirez as the winner.

In the two-minute video, Romeo describes how he and his fellow tomato pickers work to put food on the tables of families across the U.S., yet can hardly feed their own families, facing sub-poverty wages and frequent abuse from employers. He explains how the United States could be a global leader in gaining recognition of labor rights as human rights by ensuring a living wage for all workers and holding employers and the large corporations accountable for their actions.

Romeo will present his video at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland late this September in preparation for the U.N. examination of the U.S. human rights record known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Romeo joins a delegation organized by the US Human Rights Network, which helped coordinate the Testify! Project.

The video contest is ongoing, and all are encouraged to submit their own 2-minute testimonial. Information on uploading your video to YouTube, as well as the videos themselves, can be found at www.TestifyProject.com. Submissions will be accepted through October 8. The 10 top entries, as determined by public vote and an evaluation by the judging panel, will be screened in their entirety in Geneva preceding November’s UPR. A compilation video from all the submissions will also be screened.

To vote for your favorite video, find your preferred video and click “I love it” on www.YouTube.com/group/testifytotheUN, “Like” on www.Facebook.com/testifyproject and by comments on www.TestifyProject.com

To read more about the Universal Periodic Review and view the comprehensive report, please visit http://ushrnetwork.org/campaign_upr. Information on the Testify project can be found at www.TestifyProject.com.