Consent
No recording exists on EWA without a person — and most often a community — having said yes in full knowledge of what for. This page describes how that yes is asked for, what it commits, and how it is taken back.
The four conditions
Free, prior and informed consent is an international standard, written into the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We add a fourth condition, not stated there explicitly but which seems to us inseparable from the other three: revocability.
Free. No conditional compensation, no pressure, no going through an authority the community does not itself recognise. A refusal carries no consequence — not for the person, not for their village, not for any ongoing project.
Prior. Agreement is obtained before recording, never during or after. Time to think, when asked for, is granted — even if it delays a mission.
Informed. The person knows who is filming, what for, where the content will be visible, who will be able to see it, what it may become — and what we do not control. We also explain what the internet is when the person has no use of it: often the hardest point, and the most important.
Revocable. Today’s yes does not bind forever. It may be withdrawn at any time, with no reason to give.
What we explain before recording
Six points are set out systematically, in the person’s own language:
- who we are, who funds the project, and what we get out of it;
- what we are seeking to document, and why;
- where the content will be published and who will be able to reach it — public, restricted, or strictly community-only;
- what online content can become: copied, quoted, translated, taken out of context;
- what will never be done: no sale, no transfer to a third party, no advertising use;
- how to reach us in order to change or withdraw the recording.
In what form
Consent is obtained in the person’s own language, with an interpreter from the community when we do not speak it. It may take three equally valid forms:
Filmed — the person states their agreement to camera, after explanation. This is the form we prefer: it is more faithful than a signature, and it does not require being able to read.
Written — a signed form, where writing makes sense in context and the person prefers it.
Spoken and witnessed — agreement is given before two members of the community, at least one of whom is not a family member.
Collective and individual consent
A person cannot consent alone to the sharing of knowledge that belongs to a group. Where the knowledge is collective — a rite, a song, a technique passed down a lineage, the use of a plant — we first seek the agreement of the body the community recognises as legitimate, then that of the person recorded. Both are required: neither replaces the other.
Particular cases
Minors. Agreement of the parents or guardians, and of the child. A child who does not want to be filmed is not filmed, whatever the adults think.
People in vulnerable situations. Where age, illness or exile make agreement uncertain, we ask for a relative to be present and we record the explanation as well as the answer.
People who have died since recording. Their words remain available if the original agreement provided for it, but the family may ask for removal or a shift to restricted access. Where a culture forbids showing the image or naming a deceased person, that rule overrides the original agreement.
Withdrawing consent
At any time, with no reason to give, and without having to write yourself: a message from a relative, a community member or a partner is enough to start the process. Content is unpublished first and checked afterwards — never the other way round. Withdrawal covers publication; the original recording is then destroyed or handed back to the community, as it requests.
Request a takedown or a change
What we keep as a record
For each item: the date and place of agreement, its form, the language used, the interpreter’s name where applicable, the community body consulted, and the access level agreed. This record is not public. The person concerned and their community may consult it as of right.
This protocol is a working document. It will be amended with each partner community, and their own protocols take precedence over ours wherever they exist.