Posts Tagged ‘training’
April 8, 2014
On 8 April 2014 Sarah Cortes posted a short report on Cambridge Community Television about how Cambridge internet freedom advocates trained human rights defenders at the recent Civil Rights Defenders Conference in Stockholm.
Civil Rights Defenders [CRD] brought 121 human rights defenders from over 30 countries together last weekend to share their stories and participate in training by legal, security and technology specialists. One of them is Andrew Lewman from Cambridge-based Tor who provided training in internet and digital security to help activists who may be under surveillance from governments whose policies and activities they protest. “Activists may not realize the extent to which their governments may monitor their computers, cellphones and other devices,” said Lewman. “Learning to improve digital security may save their life, in some cases“. CRD itself has not yet published a general report.
The post describes also the Natalia Project, named in memory of Natalia Estemirova, a Russian activist murdered in 2009. See my earlier posts via: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/natalia-project/
via Cambridge Activists Train International Civil Rights Defenders in Sweden | Cambridge Community Television.
Posted in Civil Rights Defenders (NGO), human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Andrew Lewman, bracelet, Cambridge, Cambridge Community Television, Cambridge internet freedom, Civil Rights Defenders – Civil Rights Defenders, conference, digital security, Human Rights Defenders, Natalia project, Natalya Estemirova, protection, Stockholm, Sweden, training
February 1, 2014
Posted in books, HRW | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awareness raising, campaign, diplomatic pressure, HRW, human rights campaign, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, jo BECKER, model, training
January 22, 2014
This blog has often referred to the growing role of images in the protection of human rights. The Activists Guide to Archiving Video produced by the NGO Witness is one tool that can greatly help those who want to be part of this development. The term “archive” may turn off many human rights defenders as something boring or at least not deserving priority but to neglect it would be a big error. As the Witness guide explains very clearly:
- Do you want your videos to be available in the future?
- Do you want your videos to serve as evidence of crimes or human rights abuses?
- Do you want your videos to raise awareness and educate future generations?
The risks of not archiving are big:
- Your videos may exist somewhere, but no one can find them.
- Someone may find your videos, but cannot understand what they are about.
- Your videos cannot be sufficiently authenticated or corroborated as evidence.
- Your videos’ quality may become so degraded that no one can use them.
- Your videos may be in a format that eventually no one can play.
- Your videos may be accidentally or deliberately deleted and lost forever.
In further sections the Guide help to understand how videos can be made accessible (shared) and brings clarity to tricky issues such as the different formats and copyright.
Worth a visit!!
Activists Guide to Archiving Video | archiveguide.witness.org.
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: activists, archiving video, Civil society, copyright, documentation, Education, evidence, human rights abuses, Human Rights Defenders, human rights films, images, NGOs, short documentary, THF, training, video, video formats, Witness (human rights group)
November 29, 2013
The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC) celebrates International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (29 November 2013) by focusing on 4 areas:
1. Tools for Defence
The Online Directory of Urgent Responses for WHRDs is a mapping of “Urgent Responses for Women Human Rights Defenders at Risk”. The Online Directory outlines the diverse responses that exist and, where available, are specific to WHRDs. It is a tool for WHRDs to locate the best resources available for their protection, support, and wellness. Two new areas have been added: Digital Security and Training opportunities. http://urgent-responses.awid.org/
2. Training
Given the risk specialized training on various aspects of safety and protection are intended to strengthen the capacity of WHRDs to respond or prevent attacks. These training programs address the gender dimension that highlight subtle risks that WHRDs miss when they are exposed to gender based violence and gender specific risks. It is important that they multiply this knowledge with other WHRDs and members of the communities they work with.
3. Digital Security
Women defenders face many unique threats and obstacles both offline and online. Technology is transforming activism, and the promotion and defence of human rights but awareness there are also digital dangers to WHRD’s freedom of expression and association online and knowing how to communicate securely is important in ensuring a holistic approach to security for WHRD’s. WHRD IC hosted a train-the-trainer workshop for a global group WHRDs in digital security and is currently supporting their in-country activities. In 2014 it will assist WHRDs to access further training in digital security. Examples of attacks:
– On 21 September the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network’s (LACWHN) website was hacked and disabled. The attack occurred immediately following the launch of several campaign activities on September 19th and 20th including the #28SAbortoLegal social media campaign as well as the posting of a photo album and posters. This was a deliberate attempt to silence legitimate feminist voices, suppress dissent and stifle women’s political participation in the public sphere on these issues by stigmatisation and sabotage.
http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/statement_whrdic_LACWHN.php <http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/statement_whrdic_LACWHN.php>
– In 2012 the offices of Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) were raided, staff arrested and authorities confiscated documents, computers and other material from the centre. They demanded passwords and read emails and correspondence, which seriously compromise the privacy and security of staff and members of WONETHA.
4. Celebrate, honour, remember
This tribute takes the form of an online photo exhibition <https://plus.google.com/photos/110714837166729000165/albums/5947969816908571489> launched on November 25th 2013, Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with a special slide show featuring 16 WHRDs from around the world and will end on December 10, International Human Rights Day. The tribute features photographs and biographies of women’s rights leaders from around the world. Each day of the campaign AWID will share the story of a WHRD(s) on its website as well as through Facebook and Twitter using hashtags #16days and #AWIDMembers and link back to the full online exhibit which will commemorate and celebrate the work and lives of WHRDs who have passed away since January 2011. http://www.awid.org/eng/Our-Initiatives/Women-Human-Rights-Defenders/WHRD-Tribute.
The new THF Digest of Human Rights Awards features several awards for women human rights defenders: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, AWID, digital security, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, Latin America, THF, training, twitter, Uganda, Urgent Responses for Women Human Rights Defenders, WHRD IC, women human rights defenders, Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, Women's rights
November 11, 2013
Tactical Technology Collective and the New Tactics community start their on-line conversation on Visualizing Information for Advocacy as from today November 11, until 15 November. People around the world are using digital tools and visualization techniques to expose injustice and abuse, creating narratives to challenge the status quo and mobilizing for action. In the words of the organisers: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in films, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy, creative commons, digital security, Facilitator, films, images, Knowledge Management, New Tactics, on-line conversations, Open Knowledge Foundation, Tactical Technology collective, training, video, visualization techniques, Visualizing
June 14, 2013
On 13 june 2013 Nigeria‘s Daily Post contained a nugget of gold for Human Rights Defenders: Apparently the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has invited the NGO, Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Group, to educate the military on the need to respect human rights. The Agency’s Assistant Director of Operations, Mr. Vincent Dung threw the challenge when the group paid a courtesy call to the Agency. According to him, “The soldiers especially those maintaining peace on the Plateau need to be sensitized on the need to respect the rights of civilians. I challenge you therefore, as defenders of those whose rights are violated to educate the military.“ [The military working on the Plateau have allegedly violated the rights of many people, especially at the checkpoints.] Dung advised the military working in crisis prone areas like Plateau to imbibe the culture of civil-military relations in order to avert further crisis. Dung also tasked the group not to restrict the campaign to the military alone, but that the campaign should be extended to other paramilitary establishments in the State. The NGO assured him of their readiness to protect the rights of individuals in the State and said they were willing to take the campaign against human rights violations to the doorsteps of all organizations, whether military or non-military.
via Human rights violation: NOA tasks human right group to educate Military – DailyPost Nigeria – DailyPost Nigeria.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Africa, checkpoints, Dung, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Group, Jos, military, National Orientation Agency, Nigeria, NOA, positive news, training
April 24, 2013
Rule of law, freedom of the press, women’s rights – these were just a few of the issues recently discussed at a conference which brought together human rights defenders from Central America and the Caribbean. Twenty human rights defenders from 13 countries and representatives from the German embassies attended the event, which took place from 17 to 18 April in Panama and was organized by the Federal Foreign Office. Also participating were the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, Markus Löning, and the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Thomas Karl Neisinger.
The discussions were dominated by the key issues affecting the region, such as the rule of law and women’s rights. Special attention was given to the subject of coöperation between embassies and human rights defenders as well as building networks and strengthening regional civil society. Despite the different situations in countries such as Honduras, Costa Rica and Jamaica, many states in the region face similar challenges. Consequently it is especially important to improve civil society networks so that human rights defenders can learn from one another’s experiences and coöperate more closely in the future.
This event was the fourth regional human rights seminar organized by the Federal Foreign Office. This format is to be retained for future events, for example in Southern Africa in June 2013.
Auswärtiges Amt – Latin America – Better networks for human rights.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Central America, civil society organisations, conference, Germany, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights policy, Latin America, Markus Löning, networking, Non-governmental organization, Panama, southern africa, training
January 21, 2013
Chris Collier has written a very practical Training Guide for human rights NGOs and activists to help you through the complex maze of EU and its obscure machinery. It is jam-packed with useful tips and brings to you every EU tool available. It helps to spot the most appropriate actors for different types of action. This guide comes with a toolkit that provides you with a compilation of good practices showcasing how other NGOs have achieved the desired impact.
http://www.euromedrights.org/eng/2013/01/15/emhrn-training-guide-and-toolkit-on-eu-advocacy/
Posted in books, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Chris Collier, Civil society, EMHRN, EU, European Union, funding, human rights, Non-governmental organization, training
January 14, 2013
From Monday 14 – Friday 18 January 2013 Tactical Dialogue and New Tactics in Human Rights are organizing again an on-line conversation on Using Humor to Expose the Ridiculous.
All over the world, human rights activists use humour, irony, satire, parody and lampooning to express dissent and challenge the absurdities of institutional power.
They expose the lies, deceptions and sheer absurdities in their speech.
However, this is not without risks, which are particularly high in times of political turmoil.
So how exactly do activists in different parts of the world use humor to take on institutional power? How do they choose their tactics? What are the challenges they face in their work? And how do they overcome them? This online conversation will be an opportunity to exchange experiences, lessons-learned and ideas among practitioners using humor to challenge regimes and societies, and provoke citizens to reevaluate the way they think, and sometimes even push them to join them in their campaigns.
A few years ago, the same organizations hosted a conversation on a topic similar to this month’s conversation. It was called “Tactical that Tickle: Laughing all the way to the win”. Lessons from that exercise are available on-line via:
Using Humor to Expose the Ridiculous | New Tactics in Human Rights.
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Civil society, dissent, human rights movement, humor, media, New Tactics in Human Rights, on-line dialogue, Tactical Dialogue, training
November 13, 2012
Protection International announces the 2nd edition of its “Postgraduate Diploma on Integral Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Social Activists”.
It will begin in January 2013. It is organised jointly with the Universidad Pablo de Olavide.
This Diploma is the first of its kind, since it is the only international Postgraduate Diploma addressing the need to protect defenders.
The course addresses that protection in a comprehensive way, covering the existing national, international and regional laws and protection mechanisms; also studying security management, psychosocial support, the design of protection programs, etc. The course will also include an introduction to the protection of witnesses and victims.
The two institutions running it are:
– The Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain) which has been offering Post-graduate education in human rights for many years, and has introduced to the university the critical theory of human rights.
– Protection International (Brussels) which offers an extensive experience working directly for the protection of defenders in over fifteen countries in Africa, Asia, America and Europe.
Directors: Rosario Valpuesta Fernández and Luis Enrique Eguren
Dates: January 2013 – July 2013
Credits: 30 ECTS
Enrolment fees: 800 Euros (certificate fees not included)
Pre-registration and enrolment: Online
Languages used during the training process: Spanish or English
Online Course: Postgraduate Diploma on Integral Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Social Activists | | Protection InternationalProtection International.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: academic, Human Rights Defenders, Non-governmental organization, on-line, Protection International, training, Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 