Educators can leverage their students’ proficiency in online platforms to connect and empower the next generation of human rights activists. Learn more about this exciting opportunity and how to get involved.
Despite their challenges, many women defenders find sustenance in persistence and progress. Join us to hear their inspiring stories and to learn how you can support their work.
Connect with Like-Minded Peers
Having young children involved in human rights activism helps to raise awareness of issues, encourages participation, and provides the knowledge and skills needed for future advocacy. Moreover, children’s testimonies can have an even more significant impact on change than those of adults.
Some facilitated a discussion on new ideas for integrating human rights into the classroom, and participants joined lead educators from the School for a film workshop where they learned how documentary storytelling can be used to highlight the work of human rights defenders like Mohamed Soltan.
This was the first time many of these participants had worked with film, and their final films were a great way to showcase what they learned throughout the institute. Afterward, the group had an opportunity to connect and share their experiences working in the field. This is important because working alone can be highly challenging.
Embrace the Spirit of Youth Engagement
Young people are highly engaged with the world around them and keen to fight for human rights. Moreover, they are generally more supportive of multilateralism than older generations.
Yet they face a series of barriers to meaningful engagement, including limited financial resources and restricted networks, limiting their scope and impact. Furthermore, the weight of their activism often takes a toll on their mental health.
Despite these challenges, young human rights defenders remain tireless in pursuing justice and dignity for all. Their commitment inspires us to stand up for our beliefs and push for change.
The workshop’s interactive sessions and discussions will help you hone your advocacy skills, gain the knowledge you need to engage with local and national governments and connect with like-minded peers. This will set you up to be a voice for the next generation and an agent of change in your community and beyond.
Gain the Knowledge and Skills You Need to Become an Activist
Activists have many tools at their disposal to push for change. Some common strategies include letter-writing and petitioning, protests and marches, and boycotts and strikes. The best way to become proficient in these techniques is to volunteer your time to an organization that supports your passionate cause or start your group!
As you learn more about your cause, identify how to join the movement most effectively. Focusing on local activism is often a great place to begin, as it allows you to create immediate change while gaining experience and momentum.
One skill handy for activists is the ability to read a strategic situation, which includes assessing supporters’ and opponents’ numbers, networks, resources, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. You can hone this ability by reading books or asking people in your community who are familiar with the cause you support for recommendations. It is also important to remember that progress can be challenging and may take years before it is seen.
Engage with Local and National Governments to Amplify Your Cause
After a brief break, some associates returned to lead participants in further discussions of new ideas for leveraging classroom learning about, through, and for human rights. She introduced attendees to a new set of tools that allows students to explore human rights defenders’ stories from around the globe through no-cost, standards-aligned digital content.
While the international community has made significant progress in improving the protection of human rights defenders, much more must be done. This includes ensuring that any efforts at the UN are interlinked with national implementation and that they are designed to address specific country contexts where threats persist.
Youth can play an essential role in helping to amplify these efforts by raising awareness and encouraging people to take action on human rights violations they witness and experience. This will help to rebuild trust in the international human rights framework among younger generations and support a sustainable legacy of commitment to the cause.
