Creative tools for human rights advocacy: Peace narratives through digital story-telling and filmmaking

From 10 – 15 October, as part of the Peace Narratives Project’s implementation, the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) launched the first of five participatory workshops aimed at training youth activists to engage creatively within the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda in Iraq and promote human rights through cartoons, digital storytelling, and short films.

Through the “Peace Narratives Project”, UNAMI and OHCHR previously commissioned a report and mapping that highlighted the role of Iraqi youth as catalysts for positive change in building sustainable peace. The project presented examples of youth-led human rights initiatives from different communities across the country and illustrated the essential role played by Iraqi youth in promoting social cohesion and protecting the human rights of religious minorities. By documenting narratives of youth-led volunteer projects which cut across community boundaries, the project sought to encourage increased youth representation and participation in the promotion of peace and security as envisaged by Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. 

In continuance of this successful project, UNAMI/OHCHR will convene five training workshops with youth across Iraq to explore creative tools for human rights advocacy, such as ‘Cartoons’, ‘Digital Story Telling’ and ‘Participatory Film Making’. Using creative media encourages participants to tell their own stories to a national audience, allowing their testimonies to be integrated in investigation processes and their voices to be heard by policy makers.

UNAMI believes that human rights defenders, activists and organisations will achieve greater impact if they can go beyond telling stories of others and empower people to share their own experiences.  With the accessibility and vitality of social media, human rights activists from diverse backgrounds can self-advocate, sharing their own engaging stories, reach out to the wider community and start important conversations on minority rights. In this way, narratives can be more authentically communicated.

The trainings focus on how to tell a powerful story that can trigger empathy, urgency, and inspire tangible change, based on the conviction that art can transform underlying social norms.  The workshops will empower participants to design and develop their own advocacy strategies and public campaigns, with a particular focus on storytelling for human rights through a variety of mediums and methodologies.

The first workshop held in Erbil this week worked with participants to produce short digital films that can be used in advocacy to promote and protect the rights of religious minorities, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.

The immediate outputs of the training include:

• Youth trained in new creative ways to share their human rights work. Focused primarily on Cartoons, Digital Storytelling and 2-minute Short Films.
• Youth empowered to reach wider audiences and advocate for change.
• Training resources on creative media advocacy that can be shared on the Peace Narrative website
• New advocacy resources that can be shared nationally on the project website
• Networks of youth activists for the protection of human rights of religious minorities developed and strengthened