2016-12-10

West Bank & Gaza

Human Rights Defenders / West Bank / Gaza

On the occasion of the international day of human rights and human rights defenders, which falls on Saturday the 10th of December, MUSAWA and the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Network launched a campaign on social media channels to “tweet” about human rights and the important role of the PHRDs Network.

The all-day-long campaign included a number of PHRDs members in Palestine. In Gaza, the members gathered along with the social media club to jointly launch several “tweets” that promote the culture of human rights.
The social media club’s Content Manager, Mohammad Al-Taweel, explained that the media club was responsible of developing content that addresses the issues of human rights and human rights defenders.

Al-Taweel added, “We developed the content for our Twitter campaign, and it proved to be very successful. We reached 26,000 tweets, hence listing our hashtag as ‘trending’”.

In the same context, the PHRDs Network held a small workshop to discuss the Network, its educational role, and its efforts to pressure competent authorities to endorse the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Declaration that would provide legal protection for the defenders. Serving the same purpose, the members participated in a protest in Hebron and raised slogans.

Several time a day each member would use the hashtag #PHRD (in English) or #شبكة_المدافعون (in Arabic) to promote for human rights. On the first day, the hashtag ranked number one on Palestine’s trending-list, and it came in second place on the day following the campaign.

The Palestinian Human Rights Defenders’ Project Coordinator, Najwan Berekdar, expressed her gratitude for the efforts made by the members, partner organizations and others who are involved in the field of human rights. She extended her thanks for the role they play in strengthening the culture of human rights in various fields, including social media.

Berekdar confirmed that a country where the culture of human rights prevails is at the core of what the PHRDs Network aims to accomplish in all governorates. She pointed out that the Network includes a legal clinic and a monitoring team that observes and documents any kind of violation against human rights defenders.

Human rights advocates, media persons and tweeters stressed the vitality of social media channels in delivering the messages of such campaigns to various community groups.