Friday, November 28, 2008

How Do We Create Awareness? Let me show the ways....

Very little people actually know about the issue of detention. So how do we create public awareness?

The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights made suggestions on how to create awareness:
  • Publicize the human rights of human detainees and which have been denied
  • Create a documentary hightlighting the matter and violation of human rights treaties
  • Facilitate roundtable discussions and training regarding creating awareness. Include local social services in the event.
  • Organize events and campaigns with keynote speakers such as former detainees
  • Organize information campaigns for journalists, regarding the impact of detention on the individual and their families
  • Contact talk shows and discussion shows and ask them to speak on detainees
  • Arrange meetings, discussions with organizations and the government
  • Produce radio shows and newspapers and newsletters
  • Suggest the topic of detention and human rights as a theme in educational theater
  • Identify feature stories. Highlight moving or shocking situations, and prepare former detainees who are willing and able to give media interviews on detention-related issues.

Further, the online community is a great way to create public awareness. An electronic form of 'by mouth' is Facebook Groups, such as: Adil Charkaoui - The People's Commission on Immigration Security Measures can easily create awareness. Join the group, ask others to join.

Also the creation of websites for public awareness is very effective. Refer to: The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui (http://www.adilinfo.org/?q=en/taxonomy/term/3). For example, they are advertising an event on Dec 10th to gain solidarity against 'secret trials'.

Overall, there are many ways, from detailed to simple, to create public awareness. See the following link to learn more:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/60UDHR/detention_infonote_2.pdf

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, so many ways, but people do so litle.
Why is that?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the action points.
The fine line usually though is between the reading of taking an action and actually acting upon it.

Anonymous said...

I think its a very thick line.
Black and white.

faa-T said...

While I think the action points listed are really great, I think there needs to be a push for systematic education as well -- why are we not educated about this stuff in our classes? Why is this kind of knwoledge limited to the human rights and sometimes, sociology, sphere?

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I question how one cannot help?! There are sooo many ways that you listed and all of which make perfect sense. What is stopping people?