Human rights witnesses protect vulnerable people in settings where abuse is predictable. It's well known that people generally only do the right thing when there are people watching who expect high standards of behavior and when accountability is enforced.
As an example, people who are visibly homeless in the United States can't medical care in an emergency room. They might be blocked from entering the door or threatened with arrest. This is also common for people with autism and invisible disabilities. This might also happen to people with visible disabilities, indigenous people, and people without insurance. There are people who may be able to enter the door, but not get treated- people who are transgender, people of color, women, and essentially anyone is isn't a wealthy, able-bodied, cis-het white male.
A human rights witness would advocate to get people the care they need, and would be a witness to human rights violations. They would be given the power to make changes required to prevent violations in the future, and provide consequences for violations that have happened. Their power would be higher than even an organization's executives.
Staff may be resistant to the idea of giving medical care to someone they don't see as a person, and institutions would fight tooth-and-nail against the idea of holding them accountable for crimes and preventing them in the future. Something that could be started right now are human right escorts- a person who goes with someone who is homeless, disabled, or autistic and advocates to get them the care they need, possibly posing as a concerned family member. People with disabilities already try to have a friend or family member do this when they can, but many people don't have someone they can count on. A program of human rights escorts could support them.
I gave the example of an emergency room but this idea can be translated to prisons, residential care facilities, schools, foster care facilities, housing programs, and even legislative body meetings or corporate meetings.
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