Why Human Rights Strategies Need Digital and Technical Innovation.
Mansoori sat cross-legged on the floor, with three other boys — aged 12, 16 and 18 — they make a couple of dollars a day for stripping about 1,000 components
We are standing at a critical point in history.
From Uganda to to India, civil society space throughout the world is shrinking at an alarming rate. As Poonam Joshi, European Director of the Global Fund for Human Rights, notes, “Recently published research shows that from 1993 to 2012, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries introduced laws restricting foreign funding to domestic civil society.” Since 2012, more than 60 countries have passed or drafted laws that curtail the activity of non-governmental and civil society organisations. 100 countries have taken other forms of action to restrict activity by non-governmental and civil society organisations.
Against this worrying backdrop, HELM Studio (Hands-on Education, Law, and Media) uses social design solutions to open up new spaces for programming, advocacy and resistance.
At HELM, we partner with human rights defenders and their organisations to ideate, fund and build social design solutions that promote human rights and access to justice. This approach combines grassroots experience-based expertise with legal, media and technology proficiency. Together, we use cutting-edge education, legal and media tools to magnify human rights violations and support marginalised communities to claim their rights and access justice.
How? For instance, when the Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), sought to work on restoring a trust deficit between civilians and law enforcement in India, they consulted HELM.
With more than 20 years of experience working on police transparency in India, CHRI recognised two things: people were afraid of police stations; and officers needed better training to keep up to date policing guidelines and policies.
Working with CHRI, HELM Studio created the Virtual Police Station (VPS) — a dual purpose tool for training the police and educating the public.
Inside VPS, users can navigate encounters with the police, whether talking to a woman who has come in to complain about sexual assault; or a witness who is being treated unfairly by other officers. Users can learn about the best and worst practices in their various situations. The public learn their rights while police officers learn how to protect responsibly.
Soon to be implemented in police academies and stations across four states, the tool will help to seam some of the social fabric that has torn over the years.
Regardless of the size of the task at hand or the organisation, the location of the project or the complexity of the issues, HELM is dedicated to prioritising education and advocacy by embracing innovative and accessible digital design.
Backed by professionals with backgrounds in international human rights law, journalism, media production and digital design for some of the world’s most reputable media organisations, each project has its own unique proposal.
And while our portfolio is wide, our mission is clear: We support communities who are oppressed or suffering injustices and help to expand the reach and impact of human rights organisations working to solve these issues around the world.
