Engaging the Media in Human Rights Resources
General Resources
El Proyecto de Nuevas Tácticas en Derechos Humanos busca activamente individuos y organizaciones con interés, conocimiento y recursos para ayudar a traducir materiales relacionados con Nuevas Tácticas y el contenido web en otras idiomas aparte del Inglés. Además, organizaciones y otros proyectos con interés en el mantenimiento de partes de el sitio del web Nuevas Tácticas se les anima a ponerse en contacto con nosotros en newtactics [at] cvt [dot] org.
Communications and Media in Humanitarian Affairs
The Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia (WMC) uses accessible media tools, such as the radio and television, to address issues affecting women in Cambodia and to raise awareness and stimulate social change in Cambodian society.
Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) used its power as a media entity to influence individuals and groups who could help fix the situation in the Burundi’s hospitals, where poor people were being held against their will because they could not pay their bills. Eventually, in partnership with local NGOs, APR successfully pressured the government to order the people’s release.
Amader Gramer Khobor is a first-of-its-kind online rural news service that covers daily happenings in village society, as no online news service in Bangladesh practices rural journalism with the provisions of time-to-time updating in the same day. Amader Gramer Khobor, part of Amader Gram which means “Our Village Development Project,” is unique and effective because through this tactic, v
General Resources
The minimum wage system was introduced to the Korean labor market in 1988 as a buffer against income gaps. However, it has not performed well in this function as the legal amount was set too low. Furthermore, it often served employers' interest to fix low wages.
Photo cc: bloomsberries.
A mock tribunal is not a kangoroo court. The more your mock tribunal adheres to recognized standards of a fair trial, and resembles the existing proceedings in your country, the more credibility the endeavour can earn.
We have explained previously how citizen-based mock tribunals make good use of premonitory power, discussed the impact of repressed testimonies towards making truth and reconciliation possible, and covered 14 things to think about before you organize a mock tribunal.
In this last piece on paralegal forums, we turn to practical advice on conducting non-governmental "trials", with some ideas for follow-up activities that can prolong and widen the tribunal's impact.
Photo cc: JaHoVil
When faced with problems such as weak or no enforcement of human rights law, or even the lack of proper national legal instruments, how can you determine whether a mock tribunal is the right tactic for you? What factors should you weigh in before you decide?
And if you thought a citizen-based tribunal could be a useful tactic, how would you go about organizing it? What are some of the steps involved in setting up such a large-scale, public event? For instance, how should you choose those who will play a direct part in it, especially judges (or commissioners)?
In A Mock Tribunal to Advance Change, Mufuliat Fijabi has helped us answer those questions. The following checklist includes some of her advice, and other tips.
You can quickly scan through the list to see what organizing a tribunal entails. The checklist includes 11 "before you organize" items, and 3 "early prep" tasks.
This notebook shares how Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been deeply involved in a collective process which has shaped and influenced the Campaign for the Right to Information in India. MKSS makes the case that without access to information and transparency there can be no genuine participation of all members of society, particularly the poor, in democracy. The right to know and actual transparency of information provides the ability to demand and access rights.
photo cc: mick y
When whole systems were erected for the sole purpose of repressing and silencing you, how do you recover your voice?
On far too many continents, in far too many remote villages, tumultuous townships and forgotten urban alleyways, whole generations have witnessed their pregnant daughters being raped as evening entertainment for armed men, have survived the terror of disappearances in the dead of the night, and have seen the charred bodies of their sons in bombed car carcasses.
Where can these communities turn for a silver lining of justice, a possibility to heal and recover, a sense that the future may be livable?
When the level of atrocities finally recedes, what great big tide can come to cleanse with salty waters the bruised bodies and tortured souls left as wrecks on the shores of history?
Truth be told. Reconciliation is hard. But the only thing harder than that, apparently, is a lifetime of bitterness and hatred, being eaten away with fantasies of revenge, and the unspeakable grief that secret crimes beget.