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Learn from the experiences of human rights defenders by browsing and searching our previous New Tactics Conversations. You can search for a particular topic or geographic region and find human rights defenders you can connect with. Or, see the entire list of topics on one page.

Cultural Resistance: The Power of Music and Visual Art as Protest

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Protest art has been practiced throughout history, especially serving the anti-war movement in the mid-20th century. Today, art has become a powerful and international language to speak against all forms of human rights violations, along with other activism. For example, during the Arab Spring, the arts were used to make anti-authoritarian statements. The photographer and graphic designer, Nermine Hammam, captures the fundamental frailty of rule by force in the global community in her exhibition Cairo Year One by combining the realities of the conflict with a surreal and idealistic background. Tunisian folk-rock singer Emel Mathlouthi and rapper El General used music to rail against the state brutality and the suffering of Egypt’s youth and working class, which attracted considerable attention from protestors and transformed into a powerful protest song. The protest art of the Arab Spring has since joined a broader dialogue between protest art of the past and present, in mediums as diverse as books, film, performance art, and multimedia.

The Use of Data Visualization in Human Rights Advocacy

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Data visualizations can be an incredible resource for human rights defenders, but understanding what data to use, as well as when and how to use data can be an overwhelming and daunting task. As of 2014, IBM found that each day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created; that is a lot of information to sort and share. A simple online search will yield many statistics stating that humans understand and absorb information faster as visual representation than text-based. Interestingly, a 2010 study by S. Bresciani, et al found that even when accounting for cultural variances “the visual representation of information objectively increases understanding and recall.” In short, taking troves of data that human rights defenders come across in their work, both knowingly and unknowingly, and converting it into visual representations of that data, can be a powerful tool. However, used incorrectly data visualizations can be misleading and, in some instances, harmful or dangerous.

Autocuidado, una estrategia política en la defensa de los derechos humanos

Resumen disponible en español

Hay una realidad inocultable, la defensa de los derechos humanos en el mundo afecta la salud física, emocional, psicológica, mental, espiritual y las relaciones familiares, amorosas, sexuales, de amistad y de trabajo de quienes se dedican a este quehacer, pues nuestro sistema nervioso no está diseñado para resistir las amenazas, la presión, la inseguridad, el acoso, las violaciones, el sufrimiento, las injusticias y, en sí, la brutalidad humana, sin dejar consecuencias en nuestra salud integral.

The Role of Diaspora in Refugee Resettlement

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In September of 2016, a high-level summit on large movements of refugees and migrants was called, a first at the Heads of State and Government level, by the UN General Assembly. The goal was to seek a better international response to the growing refugee situation. As local conflicts and global tensions between countries have been exasperated in recent years, more than 65.3 million people are currently facing years of displacement after fleeing violence in their own homelands. Numerous issues have been raised, particularly focusing on the responsibility of host countries (countries that receive refugees) to protect, assist, and resettle.

Violence against Women: Advocating for Legal Reform

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Across the world, women are abused, trafficked, raped and killed. Violence against women is a grave violation of human rights, negatively affecting women’s well-being and precluding women from fully participating in society. It not only leads to severe physical, sexual and mental consequences to each individual victim, but tears their families, community and society apart.

Combating Corruption in the Public Sector

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According to Transparency International, a global anti-corruption coalition, sixty-eight percent of the world countries has a serious corruption problem and this includes half of G20. More than six billion people live in countries with serious corruption issues. The Corruption Perceptions Index is a global indicator of public sector corruption, providing an annual level of corruption by ranking countries. The characteristics of the countries which score well are countries with liberal open democracies with an independent judiciary and a free press. At the same time, corruption can be defined from several different perspectives.

Protection of Indigenous Land Rights: Challenges & Remedies

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There are estimated to be 470 million indigenous people in the world, from 5,000 different ethnic groups, living in 90 countries. James Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People, has defined indigenous people as "living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest." Despite the United Nations having issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples including land rights, the land rights of indigenous people have increasingly come under threat.

Using Social Networking for Innovative Advocacy

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Social networking tools have revolutionized the way that social movements and human rights advocates operate. In a world where the public creates the news in real time and information is readily available in a moment’s notice, the process of communication and dissemination has been largely democratized. Individuals can magnify their voice, not only through information consumption and generation, but through active engagement and organizing. For example, activists of the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong used a mesh networking tool, traditionally used at music festivals, to communicate.

Protecting Survivors and Witnesses

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Protecting survivors and witnesses of human rights violations is crucial to effective human rights work. Protection is important because when survivors and witnesses fear further persecution, they are unlikely to report their experiences, making redress and accountability much more difficult. The state is formally responsible for providing protection, but it is the state that is often the greatest source of perceived risk amongst witnesses and survivors. In this conversation, participants together with New Tactics in Human Rights and DIGNITY (Danish Institute Against Torture) discussed the various strategies to protect witnesses and survivors of human rights violations, the challenges faced and the role of civil society.

Global Health Action in the Face of Climate Change

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Since the start of the 21st Century, climate change has gained significant traction in being recognized as a prominent, worldwide threat. The wide array of expected environmental impacts will result in food and water shortages, increased displacement, and higher rates of disease worldwide, all of which will have pronounced effects on global health. In this conversation, participants from around the world together with New Tactics in Human Rights discussed the various challenges of combatting the relationship between climate change and health, how to best form partnerships in order to mitigate, and successful tactics that can be utilized in order to result in a more promising, heathier future.

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