Changing the conversation on human rights

With fake news and social media trolling now firmly part of the everyday media landscape, a growing challenge for human rights groups is to develop new and effective ways to communicate with journalists and with the community.

This challenge was the starting point for a media and communications workshop with the Commission of Human Rights of the Philippines, held in Quezon City from 14-16 February 2018.

A group of 24 senior managers and staff from across the Commission took part in the two-day program that encouraged frank discussions about the difficulties of communicating in an environment where human rights have increasingly been framed as a barrier to safe communities

James led a series of discussions and practical activities focused on:

• Translating human rights into plain language
• Communicating with shared values
• Using storytelling to connect people to ideas, emotions and action
• Developing campaign goals, messages and tactics.

The workshop also looked at different ways to engage audiences on the Commission’s social media platforms, as well as strategies for responding to a media crisis.

In addition, there were small group sessions for staff of the Commission’s strategic communications team on writing for the media and on digital storytelling.