New Media Advocacy

Abby and Adam review films during a meeting.

by Abby Goldberg

This post follows the previous update on Adam and my trip last month to Nigeria.  We learned about many challenging human rights issues that local groups are facing. Some of the major challenges we were told about involve the struggle for freedom from violence and persecution, including the issues listed below that groups we met with are working to change.

Forced displacement (mostly of slum communities in Lagos): Forced displacement has long been a challenge for Nigeria’s poor. Lagos is attempting to develop a new waterfront area, informally named “Atlantic City”, which will largely service wealthy clientele, while displacing some of the most marginalized and impoverished communities.  The development of this area also provides an additional, illegal source of income for members of the government who, through corruption, take large sums of money off the top of developer contracts.    The sheer scale of the housing crisis in the sprawling megacity of Lagos is hard to imagine – there may be as many as 10 million people living in informal housing, and thus under threat of forced eviction.

Members of the Maroko community, for example, who we met with during the last day of our trip, told stories of their 23 year battle to “resist” government agents who come unannounced with bulldozers and literally move everything, people included, that are in the way as it destroys the homes and livelihoods of the poor.  The leader of the community, Samuel Aiyeyemi, shared stories of his work to organize Maroko inhabitants.   He said their organizing efforts would never have been possible without the important work of groups like Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC), which organizes slum communities and takes legal action on their behalf.  Historic communities like Makoko-on-Water, and massive slums that house many thousands of Lagos residents remain under threat. Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts of these lawyers and community organizers, this remains an uphill battle with powerful economic forces at stake.

Extrajudicial killing: The pervasiveness of extra-judicial killing, or unauthorized murder by state police and security forces, is a critical and urgent issue to address in Nigeria.  During one meeting with the Legal Defence Assistance Project (LEDAP), we met with a lawyer who showed us both video and a report LEDAP had compiled which contained hundreds if not thousands of individual stories of deaths at the hands of police and state agents. Many of these murders have gone unsolved without investigation, contributing to a culture of impunity in the country.

In a separate meeting, we also discussed the dismal conditions under which police work in Nigeria, including months without pay, minimal training, and poor treatment by authorities.  Just like so many other Nigerians, they struggle in poverty to survive.  While this situation is no excuse for murder, it is also important to understand the conditions that generate the extrajudicial violence and corruption in order to learn how we can make an impact.  In fact, some of the best sources of information about police abuse that our partners use comes from police who are unable to speak out for fear of reprisal but are appalled by the lawlessness among police in Nigeria.

Violence against women:  Sexual violence is one of the most pressing problems in the country, and it remains an under-reported crime, in part because sexual abuse and harassment by police discourage many women from coming forward with their experiences. Under the weight of this endemic violence, however, there are several NGOs working to address this issue.  For example, we learned how new model police stations in Lagos employ female officers and offer a specific desk for female victims of violence which is intended to encourage more reporting. It remains to be seen whether this will be an effective remedy, but I hope it will be a step in the right direction.

These are just three issues regarding freedom from violence and persecution. My next post will address another set of rights that Nigerians are working to secure: political, legal, and environmental rights. 

Participants of the N-Map workshop at the MacArthur Foundation in Abuja

by Abby Goldberg

Last week, N-Map Executive Director Adam Stofsky and I traveled to Nigeria as part of a year-long project supported by the MacArthur Foundation. Our goal is to explore how N-Map can support the work of local groups in Mexico and Nigeria to advance human rights through the integration of tactical video and new media into legal and advocacy campaigns.

Nigeria is not an easy or simple country.  With over 160 million inhabitants (on record), it is larger than the rest of West Africa combined.  The nation has a long history of political instability, which was exacerbated by the discovery of oil in the 1970s.

Over six days in Nigeria, we split our time between Lagos and Abuja.  The two cities could not be more different.  Lagos is a sprawling, boisterous city of millions (estimates range from 11 million to as high as 21 million!).  The city is an exceptionally vibrant mix of chaos and enterprise, of poverty and creativity.  It is hectic, noisy, sprawling, and traffic-ridden – but many Lagotians have a deep passion for their city. Abuja, the capital, by contrast, was designed by urban planners, and the city sports green vegetation and flowers, organized roads, and a much greater number of “oyibo”, or white people, as they are called.  There is also a much stronger Muslim presence than in the predominantly Christian south.

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On April 18, 2013, dozens of Uruguayan activists, politicians, and civil society members gathered at the Centro Cultural de España in Montevideo for the premiere of the campaign videos for Nunca Más Qué, (Never Again, What?). This campaign aims to mobilize support in Uruguay and abroad to ensure that the leaders in the country know that impunity violates the state’s responsibility to ensure the human rights of its citizens.

The New Media Advocacy Project (N-Map), along with its partner the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), launched this innovative effort to push the frontiers of current work that seeks to implement regional courts’ decisions, in this instance, the Gelman case in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. N-Map and CEJIL produced two short videos, Nunca Más Qué, a shorter film seeking to engage all Uruguayans about the relevance and important of justice in their nation today, and Romper el Muro de la Impunidad, which includes interviews with victims, experts, academics, and leading politicians to target the judiciary and encourage them to overturn the amnesty law. Together, these videos privilege the voices of Uruguayan citizens whose lives are affected daily by the official silence surrounding this dark period in the nation’s history and aims to spur the implementation of human rights guarantees.

Just days before the launch, the Inter-American Court highlighted the importance of these efforts when it reaffirmed the Gelman ruling, stating that the Uruguayan state still had an outstanding obligation to investigate, prosecute, and if necessary, punish those responsible for serious human rights violations committed during the nation’s military rule from 1973-1985.

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Our newest film, made in collaboration with our wonderful client, The Constitution Project, was screened last Friday evening at the Department of Justice!  Check out this photo of  Attorney General Eric Holder introducing segments of “Defending Gideon” to member of the DOJ.

N-Map and our partner, The Constitution Project, just finished producing, Defending Gideon, a short documentary narrated by Martin Sheen.  The film profiles personal stories that illuminate one of the most significant human rights problems in the United States today:  lack of access to lawyers for poor criminal defendants – and, as a result, the denial of a fair trial to thousands of Americans.  Segments of the film were screened on Thursday at the Department of Justice, introduced by Attorney General Eric Holder – and the full film will screen tonight at the DOJ, and on Tuesday in Congress presented by Congressman Scott.

50 years ago, Justice Hugo Black, speaking for a unanimous Supreme Court, wrote: “Reason and reflection require us to recognize that, in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided to him.” The landmark case had a transformative effect on the country’s many criminal justice systems –for the first time, states were constitutionally required to provide lawyers to every defendant in a felony case who could not afford an one.

Unfortunately, 50 years later, it has become clear that the country has not lived up to the great promise of the Gideon case. Although there are many dedicated, talented, and tireless defense lawyers working heroically in very challenging conditions, the overall system has failed profoundly to provide adequate counsel for many defendants. This has resulted in an explosion of guilty pleas and, in the worst case, wrongful convictions.

The Constitution Project and its National Rights to Counsel Committee are fighting to change this. Their thoughtful analysis of ethe issues facing indigent defense systems and a call for reform can be found in this report: Justice Denied.

The Constitution Project asked N-Map to produce a documentary about Gideon and the right to counsel to be released on the 50th Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision. For the last few months, we have been working with them to tell the stories of the eminent lawyers and journalists involved with the case, as well as many other judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and defendants for whom the issue of adequate counsel is of paramount importance.

Start taking action now. Watch the video. Share it with your networks. Follow the conversation at #defendinggideon. Help us realize the great promise of Gideon and ensure the right to a fair trial for all Americans.

N-Map is thrilled to announce our newly released video for Women’s Link Worldwide’s Gender Justice Uncovered Awards!

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According to UN and World Bank research, societies with greater respect for women’s rights are more likely to develop economically and to promote the rule of law, and are less violent. However, despite great efforts to promote gender equality and justice, discrimination against women and girls continues, with detrimental impacts on society at large. The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards is helping to change that. By highlighting the importance of judicial decisions in the lives of women and their communities through real stories and cases, the Awards encourage greater attention to the critical role of judges – and all of us – in advancing gender justice.

The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards sheds light on court decisions made around the world that negatively and positively affect gender equality.  The Awards solicit nominations of judicial decisions, and later, involve the public audience in voting for the winning cases – both sexist decisions (bludgeon award) and decisions that advance equality and human rights (gavel award).  All nominations are entered into a Gender Justice Observatory – a database of legal decisions related to gender justice used by advocates and lawyers from around the globe and managed by Women’s Link Worldwide. Whether focused on reproductive rights, gender violence or discrimination, the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards raises awareness about the influence that court decisions have on women and society at large, and promotes accountability through the engagement of the public.

N-Map and Women’s Link Worldwide (WLW) have joined forces for the 2013 Gender Justice Uncovered Awards in an innovative campaign using a short animated video as a central component for our outreach. In addition to raising awareness, the video educates and empowers civil society by inviting them to participate as nominators and voters, while also populating the Gender Justice Observatory.  Our goal is to reach the greatest possible audience through direct outreach and a video that people will share online.

We need your help sharing the video, nominating judicial decisions, voting, and spreading the word! 

Here is what you can do:

• Share the video online and promote it on your websites, social media pages, and other outlets;
• Share the Observatory as a resource for gender justice advocates;
• Encourage the nomination of cases to the Awards;
• Support the People’s Choice Awards – the public voting process this spring… stay tuned;
• Translate the piece into your language!  As part of the effort to build the campaign’s reach and expand the regional diversity of those participating, we are looking for volunteer translators to help distribute the video in other languages (We have begun Arabic, Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Turkish and Armenian). If there are other languages you or someone you know could help with, please let us know.

Please visit the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards Campaign page for more information about the campaign and how to participate.

Thank you from all of us at the N-Map team!