As part of the United Nations celebration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, celebrities from Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi to Canadian pop singer Alanis Morissette are announcing their allegiance to principles of global civil liberty. Thanks to Amnesty International, your average netizen will be able to join the festivities, too. Combining online activism with a dose of pop culture, Amnesty's Human Rights Caravan site hopes to convince a new audience to join the fight for human rights.
"Our right to pick up a telephone today is in the Declaration of Human Rights," says Amnesty's project coordinator Beate Kubitz. "Freedom of speech, freedom to move, freedom of information - it's all there in the Declaration. People don't realize that those rights are there to protect, and if we don't cherish them we're going to lose them."
The Human Rights Caravan site launched on 13 December 1997 and will follow the UN's yearlong string of events until the official anniversary on 10 December 1998. During the year, an oversized "book" containing the declaration will be carried around the world to be signed by dignitaries, celebrities, politicians and others, reaffirming the world's dedication to civil liberties. The Web site will document the events going on around the world - both in the form of a calendar and in photo essays of important occasions and notable signings, by people like Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. Digital art by 30 artists on the site creatively (though blurrily) depicts each of the 30 articles of the declaration.
Perhaps more important, the site will allow visitors to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (so far, over 3,300 visitors have signed the online version of the "book") and participate in related Amnesty actions. Concerned citizens can read the stories of people like Fred M'membe, a Zambian journalist being stifled by his government, or Mirjana Galo, a Croatian human rights activist threatened because of her work, and then write letters or send email to the appropriate authorities demanding their freedom.
Although this is Amnesty International's first big online campaign, Amnesty USA has been implementing online letter writing for almost a year. According to Web coordinator Roberto Quezada, featured actions have proven successful with an average of 400 letters and emails a week. But while the Amnesty USA group has found that the simplicity and directness of email makes activism easier and therefore draws fresh audiences, they've also discovered that the letter-writers are often overwhelmingly American, which can be diplomatically problematic. Additionally, email is often ignored or discarded, making it necessary to back up those emails with physical letters documenting the names of people who sent their objections digitally.
Besides pushing causes, the Caravan site also plans to push superstars. One area proffers a series of rock covers of Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand Up" anthem; another includes interviews with Michael Stipe and Harry Belafonte, plus a future lineup of video and audio clips from the likes of Alanis Morissette, U2, and Jackson Browne. Amnesty is no stranger to pop stars - since the 1980s, its been pursuing mainstream audiences via celebrity cachet (as seen in the Human Rights Now! concerts in 1988, which featured Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Peter Gabriel).
"It's important that people in the public eye and who are committed to human rights say so - they shape the minds of young people," Kubitz explains. "Someone who might not listen to their mothers saying 'support Amnesty International' might listen to Michael Stipe or Bono."
Kubitz and Quezada point out that Amnesty's target demographic - young, liberal, active people - dovetails nicely with an online population heavy with students, twenty-somethings, and liberal thinkers. As a way of promoting the projects, the Caravan site is being sponsored and advertised by Excite - a partnership, it is hoped, will bring a new generation to Amnesty to both rediscover the declaration and get involved in activities to support it. Perhaps a student in Nigeria will read about the celebratory soccer match taking place, attend the event, and then get inspired to write a letter that will help a political prisoner get freed.
Says Kubitz, "The whole idea is to take the Declaration of Human Rights into the world and to get as many people as possible to make what's in the Declaration - the world's best kept secret - into a reality."
