Pushing the Frontiers of Activism: A New Generation of Human Rights Defenders
In 1989, when Chinese students faced down tanks in Tiananmen Square, the availability of a powerful new technology – the fax machine – enabled them to get word to the rest of the world about the crackdown that took the lives of hundreds of democracy activists.
Today, the next generation of activists has a plethora of new technological tools – Flickr, YouTube, blogs – to deploy in the struggle to advance human rights.
At our annual Human Rights Awards Dinner next week, HRF will honor two of these activists – Russian Oleg Kozlovsky, and Egyptian Nora Younis. Kozlovsky and Younis are using the power of new technologies to shine a spotlight on abuses in their own countries and mobilize others to act.
By blogging and posting photos, Younis has documented – in a real and immediate way – human rights abuses in Egypt, calling on both the Egyptian and international community to act. Kozlovsky saw the power of the Internet for grassroots organizing in a country where the television and print media are heavily monitored and controlled, using new and innovative methods to call for reforms.
These new technologies have advanced the frontiers of advocacy and strengthened the capacity of individuals to make a difference. But governments have also moved into this virtual space to try to shut down these new avenues of activism. In many cases they are using new media technologies to support their policies of censorship and surveillance, often increasing the risks to human rights defenders.
HRF is currently working to support these defenders and promote policies that will ensure that the power of new media technologies is used to advance human rights principles, not to suppress them. By supporting this new generation of human rights defenders, we affirm their innovative approach and the message it sends about the power each one of us has to cause change...Sometimes, sitting at a keyboard can be just as powerful as waving a banner, or standing in front of a tank…
Today, the next generation of activists has a plethora of new technological tools – Flickr, YouTube, blogs – to deploy in the struggle to advance human rights.
At our annual Human Rights Awards Dinner next week, HRF will honor two of these activists – Russian Oleg Kozlovsky, and Egyptian Nora Younis. Kozlovsky and Younis are using the power of new technologies to shine a spotlight on abuses in their own countries and mobilize others to act.
By blogging and posting photos, Younis has documented – in a real and immediate way – human rights abuses in Egypt, calling on both the Egyptian and international community to act. Kozlovsky saw the power of the Internet for grassroots organizing in a country where the television and print media are heavily monitored and controlled, using new and innovative methods to call for reforms.
These new technologies have advanced the frontiers of advocacy and strengthened the capacity of individuals to make a difference. But governments have also moved into this virtual space to try to shut down these new avenues of activism. In many cases they are using new media technologies to support their policies of censorship and surveillance, often increasing the risks to human rights defenders.
HRF is currently working to support these defenders and promote policies that will ensure that the power of new media technologies is used to advance human rights principles, not to suppress them. By supporting this new generation of human rights defenders, we affirm their innovative approach and the message it sends about the power each one of us has to cause change...Sometimes, sitting at a keyboard can be just as powerful as waving a banner, or standing in front of a tank…
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posted by Executive Director at
6:14 AM
2 Comments:
Kudos to those for having the courage to stand up for what is right. Keep up the good work.
Among the new generation, a HRD from France : see http://christianlesecq.blogspot.com and his ONG web site at www.xrisalis.org
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