EachOther is really excited to announce not just a new film – but a whole new format – Spaces of Human Rights — a new series of videos looking at the different spaces where human rights have been or might be debated, fought for and forged.
Human rights’ spaces can be anywhere; physical, digital, large, or small and, as this series will demonstrate, every single one is significant. We’re going to be using the series to consider a range of places, physical and conceptual we might look at, from parliamentary buildings, or LGBTQIA+ bookstores, online platforms, to streets where famous protests have taken place.
Our aim with this series is to uncover the real world places that have had an impact on, or been impacted by, human rights. Easily seen as distant legal concepts that don’t affect our daily lives, human rights in fact permeate every aspect of our society – and we want to show you some of the key spaces important in shaping human rights’ past, present and future. Some spaces may be obvious, but some you may not have considered, which is what will make this series particularly insightful.
In this first episode of Spaces of Human Rights, we take a look at the role a channel like Twitter might play in the expansion of human rights. We explore for example how social media sites have been instrumental in many recent human rights movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. Yet alongside this, we also consider how digital platforms can lack nuance and urgency in tackling the problems their channels enable. We look at how important issues might be reduced to digestible morsels instead, along with easy access for trolls to abuse vulnerable people.
The film features Cara English, from trans-led charity Gendered Intelligence, and communications specialist Lee Pinkerton. Pinkerton works with Race on the Agenda, Runnymede Trust and the Black Training and Enterprise Group, an organisation that has brought up issues of microaggressions people of colour face online, and the under-reporting of incidents affecting black people, like the New Cross Fire back in 1981, that still happen today.
Discussing their Twitter campaigns and the struggles of advocating for trans causes online, this film is rounded out by social anthropology professor Dr. Paula Uimonen, who provides some greater context on the rise of social media, our increasing dependence on it, and how it’s shaped our societies.
EachOther is excited for you to join us as we embark on this journey.
