Never Again mobilizes cultural resources to build an anti-racist youth network in Poland.  Through targeted music and sports events, the organization has been able to recruit and sustain popular involvement in anti-racist action. Youth mobilized through Never Again’s events often become involved as network anti-racism correspondents at the local level throughout Poland.  As a direct result of its youth-focused campaigns, Never Again has established a network of 150 voluntary correspondents who report on racist and xenophobic activity in their communities.  Never Again is able to share the correspondents’ reports on the national and international level.  It has also raised awareness about racism among a much larger cross-section of Polish society.

The Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) in Egypt uses arts and literature to engage people, especially broader society, in the human rights debate and demonstrate that human rights are celebrated in Arab cultures. This tactic is intended to show people in Arab Islamic societies that their cultures have always honored human rights values. CIHRS seeks out philosophers and artists (e.g. poets, writers, filmmakers, painters, etc.) who understand the debate between Islam and human rights and are motivated to respond to conservative elements. The network of artists is also encouraged to create projects that promote human rights in contemporary society. This includes collecting the ideas of artists as a way of identifying important issues and funding projects that focus on these issues.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

Using cultural resources to provide an alternative to mainstream perceptions of human rights

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

Established in 1989, Africa Network for Integrated Development (RADI) employs female paralegals and well-known actors to demystify laws around violence against women by using educational theater routines.  RADI first recognized the need for legal education following national civil law reform in 1999 that gave recourse to vulnerable people (i.e., women and children).  The tactic involves role-play activities that focus on real-life situations and highlight the dynamics of family violence. After the theater sketches, the paralegal presents participants with new changes in civil rights law and alternative behaviors to address violence against women.  The actors, on the other hand, creatively develop dialogue, plot and presentation. Women who have attended these performances go back into their communities and homes and share new information about their legal rights with others.  In particular, many women promote the sketches by word of mouth, noting the fun and creativity experienced by working with well-known actors.

Rassemblement Action-Jeunesse (RAJ) used pop culture to involve Algerian youth in human rights issues.  Although youth in Algeria represented 75% of the population, a history of government repression had led to a lack of youth participation in political life. RAJ hoped to change this by combining something youth already were involved in, pop culture, with human rights organizing.  Through concerts, films and other events, RAJ raised awareness about human rights and effectively taught many Algerians that human rights are part of their own culture and experience.

Buddhist monks, nuns, and novices offer practical and spiritual assistance to people with HIV and to their communities in an attempt to bring communities together and to fight the ignorance and stigma around HIV/AIDS.  The Sangha Metta project trains monks, nuns, and novices in all areas of intervention for people living with or affected by AIDS.  As a result, these traditionally significant individuals have become a new wave of AIDS educators. Their role is to improve the level of awareness in the community, to demystify the myths of HIV/AIDS with accurate information, and to provide emotional support and care to people with HIV and to their communities.  Through this tactic, more than 2,000 monks, nuns, and novices have been trained.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

Using traditional leaders to combat ignorance and to bring communities together

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) stages informance plays—performances meant to inform—on social issues ranging from women’s rights to children’s rights across the Philippines to educate the public. With its mobile theater, PETA uses informance plays as tools to engage the public to confront important social issues that remain unaddressed.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

Educating the public on social issues through street theater.

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

WITNESS empowers human rights organizations around the world to incorporate video as an advocacy tool in their work. Rooted in the power of personal testimonies and in the principle that a picture is worth a thousand words, WITNESS and its partners’ videos have been used

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building capacity

Objective: 

To strengthen grassroots movements for change by training them to create and use video evidence before courts and the United Nations

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

In Nepal, a project initiated by the National Democracy Institute and the Nepali Election Commission uses street theater to encourage participation in elections and to promote responsible voting practices.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

Increase public's knowledge and understanding of basic political and civic rights.

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

The Interactive Resource Center (IRC) has created a strong network of grassroots theater groups as an alternate system of community participation and social dialogue. The essence of IRCs work is to use interactive theater to trigger community dialogue through direct community participation on human rights issues.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

To use interactive theatre and participatory video techniques to prompt community participation and social mobilization

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

The Children’s Mandate for Peace and the Adults Mandate for Peace (El Madato por la Paz) were symbolic elections in Colombia where children and adults cast ballots for prohibitions of human rights abuses.  It had a strong symbolic effect, demonstrating the public’s disapproval with the current human rights situation and children’s and adults’ desire to strengthen human rights in the country.