Crowdsourcing Help for Human Rights
One of the many advantages of crowdsourcing is how it can bring together diverse individuals to solve problems and challenges for the common good.
Non-profit organization Advancing Human Rights has developed a project called Movements.org to help protect basic freedoms, particularly for those living in closed societies.
The platform is designed to match activists and dissidents living under dictatorships with volunteers who can help them, for example with legal assistance, to get information to policy makers or to spread the word about what is going on in their countries. Since the crowdsourcing initiative has been up and running there have been a number of success stories:
- A group fighting censorship in China needed help to form a non-profit association. A lawyer saw their post and agreed to help.
- A jailed Syrian poet asked for poems he composed in prison to be translated into English. A writer from the USA responded and translated the work.
- A Cuban blogger wanting to circumvent censorship in her home country asked for technological help to get round firewalls. A number of programmers and security experts showed her how she could protect her information.
How it Works
Anyone who wants to help creates a profile on the movements.org website, after which they can start posting offers and requests. Users are not required to reveal any personal information, and profiles can be Hidden, Secure or Public. Among the information required of volunteers are relevant skills, the areas of the world where they’d like to help and an indication of what they are able to do.
Offers of help can include building websites, translation services and organizing and distributing petitions.
Add your Comment
[LOGIN FIRST] if you're already a member.fields are required.