Human Rights Day in the Philippines: A Community Outreach[edit]

Abstract/description[edit]

Our group has been involved in advocating human rights in the past several years, from climate justice through the Philippines Climate Change Translate-a-Thon, freedom of the press, the right to a healthy environment through participation in the WikiForHumanRights Campaign, and labor rights. The result of these campaigns has been several articles being translated and improved, editors becoming regular volunteers, and constant support from the global organizer of WikiForHumanRights. Outreach in the community provides us with information on the visible impact of the programs we have run and questions to ponder too. Are these articles enough for people to know their basic human rights? Have we provided a sufficient amount of information? This is how the Wiki Advocates Philippines goes beyond just editing. We took time to live the same lives these non-editors are living. We talked with our end users.

Relationship to ESEAP or to the theme[edit]

For some affiliates in the ESEAP region, we’ve experienced being threatened by state forces for our works; we are even being too cautious in editing sensitive political articles. There is still a way we could pursue to bridge this, a safer way we can inform the public concerning issues of human rights. After all, what we intend to do is bring about the right and neutral information to be accessed by our community. This session provides alternative ways we can amplify our advocacies while also maintaining our stand as Wikimedians, as open-knowledge advocates for communities. Similar experiences among the affiliates in the region could help our work be grounded in the same values the Wikimedia community holds.

Username/s[edit]

Speaker 1: BiancaBrazal
Speaker 2: Teddybear41422

Session type[edit]

Lightning talk

Duration[edit]

15 minutes

Session outcomes[edit]

Affiliates can learn what areas of Human Rights advocacy they can work on
Learning the difference between activism and outreach
A clear strategy on how to work on sensitive topics more safely for editors