"The western world can learn much from this investigation into the relationship between human rights and communication taken from studies in Africa."---Katy W. Hansen, Member, Board of Directors. United Nations Association-USA: past president, National Peace Coprs Association --

"This book provides a current examination of policy, practice, and theory relating to human rights and information, communications and technology and offers a comprehensive review of the topic and the exponential changes that have occurred through the last decade"-- Prové de l'editor.

As video becomes an important tool to expose injustice, an examination of how human rights organizations are seeking to professionalize video activism. Visual imagery is at the heart of humanitarian and human rights activism, and video has become a key tool in these efforts. The Saffron Revolution in Myanmar, the Green Movement in Iran, and Black Lives Matter in the United States have all used video to expose injustice. In Seeing Human Rights, Sandra Ristovska examines how human rights organizations are seeking to professionalize video activism through video production, verification standards, and training. The result, she argues, is a proxy profession that uses human rights videos to tap into journalism, the law, and political advocacy. Ristovska explains that this proxy profession retains some tactical flexibility in its use of video while giving up on the more radical potential and imaginative scope of video activism as a cultural practice. Drawing on detailed analysis of legal cases and videos as well as extensive interviews with staff members of such organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, WITNESS, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), Ristovska considers the unique affordances of video and examines the unfolding relationships among journalists, human rights organizations, activists, and citizens in global crisis reporting. She offers a case study of the visual turn in the law; describes advocacy and marketing strategies; and argues that the transformation of video activism into a proxy profession privileges institutional and legal spaces over broader constituencies for public good.

The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights offers a comprehensive and contemporary survey of the key themes, approaches and debates in the field of media and human rights. The Companion is the first collection to bring together two distinct ways of thinking about human rights and media, including scholarship that examines media as a human right alongside that which looks at media coverage of human rights issues. This international collection of 49 newly written pieces thus provides a unique overview of current research in the field, while also providing historical context to help students and scholars appreciate how such developments depart from past practices. The volume examines the universal principals of freedom of expression, legal instruments, the right to know, media as a human right, and the role of media organisations and journalistic work. It is organised thematically in five parts: Communication, Expression and Human Rights Media Performance and Human Rights: Political Processes Media Performance and Human Rights: News and Journalism Digital Activism, Witnessing and Human Rights Media Representation of Human Rights: Cultural, Social and Political. Individual essays cover an array of topics, including mass-surveillance, LGBT advocacy, press law, freedom of information and children’s rights in the digital age. With contributions from both leading scholars and emerging scholars, the Companion offers an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach to media and human rights allowing for international comparisons and varying perspectives. The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights provides a comprehensive introduction to the current field useful for both students and researchers, and defines the agenda for future research.

Human rights and communication are deeply connected: human rights need communication to expose violations and to offer platforms for dialogue, while communication needs human rights to provide standards for free speech and confidentiality. Together, they confront the reality of today’s social and international order in which justice and understanding often seem unattainable. In this book, Cees J. Hamelink guides the reader through the historical evolution of communication and human rights. In this original framework, he discusses topics such as the right to communicate and freedom of expression, as well as major challenges posed by the environmental crisis and digital technologies. With authority, he passionately argues that ‘communicative justice’ is the ultimate goal of applying the international human rights regime to different forms of communication. This goal can only be achieved if we manage to move from the prevailing ‘thin’ liberal conception of human rights to a ‘thick’ cosmopolitan conception of them. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars in this area, this wide-ranging book will be of interest to students of media and communication, human rights scholars, as well as practitioners, activists and anyone interested in applying the notion of justice to the basis of human existence: communication.

The Global Citizenship Commission was convened, under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the auspices of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study, to re-examine the spirit and stirring words of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The result – this volume – offers a 21st-century commentary on the original document, furthering the work of human rights and illuminating the ideal of global citizenship. What does it mean for each of us to be members of a global community? Since 1948, the Declaration has stood as a beacon and a standard for a better world. Yet the work of making its ideals real is far from over. Hideous and systemic human rights abuses continue to be perpetrated at an alarming rate around the world. Too many people, particularly those in power, are hostile to human rights or indifferent to their claims. Meanwhile, our global interdependence deepens. Bringing together world leaders and thinkers in the fields of politics, ethics, and philosophy, the Commission set out to develop a common understanding of the meaning of global citizenship – one that arises from basic human rights and empowers every individual in the world. This landmark report affirms the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and seeks to renew the 1948 enterprise, and the very ideal of the human family, for our day and generation.

Discover how modern technological realities shape freedoms of expression and opinion with this comprehensive resource. The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics delivers an extensive review of the challenges facing modern communication rights. It offers readers an examination of the interplay between communication law and ethics and the role played by communication professionals in protecting individuals’ rights to communication. Distinguished authors Loreto Corredoira, Ignacio Bel Mallén and Rodrigo Cetina Presuel walk readers through the fundamental ideas and concepts that represent universal common ground regarding communication rights. They compare communication rights theories developed in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Australia, and East Asia to describe how communication-related freedoms and rights are formulated and applied around the world. Finally, the meaning of the phrases “freedom of expression” and “freedom of the press” are examined in the context of national constitutions and international human rights instruments.The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics provides readers with: A diverse, global perspective on how communication rights are protected and challenged around the world A universal vision of communication rights that encourages dialogue rather than confrontation A comparison of the American First Amendment of the Constitution with European communication rights theories and other legal traditions around the world An exploration of the frontiers of communication rights concepts, terminology, jurisdiction, and territoriality Perfect for professors, graduate students, doctoral students, and postdoctoral researchers studying communication rights and freedom of expression around the world, The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics also belongs on the bookshelves of researchers studying issues surrounding freedom of the press in North America, Europe, and Latin America.

Though Jimmy Carter is widely viewed as one of the least effective modern presidents, the human rights agenda for which his administration is known remains high in the national awareness and continues to provide important justifications for presidential and congressional action a quarter-century later. The very elements of Carter's communications on human rights that engendered obstacles to the formation of a coherent and consistent policy--the term's vagueness, the difficulties of applying it, its uneasy relationship with national security interests, and the divergence between Democratic and Republican understandings--allowed "human rights" to become a useful rubric for presidents, both Democratic and Republican, who followed Carter. Stuckey discusses the key elements of how human rights came to the nation's attention.

Communication and Human Rights offers a conceptual scheme for understanding the dynamic interrelationship between communication and human rights. Claims that communication is a basic right, available-for-all, and taken-for-granted by all human beings, as stated in various declarations, incites heated debates and controversies in practice, including hate speech, propaganda, and even claims for publishing criminal diaries and pornography. This book examines the nature and context of these divisive declarations and provides a provisional conceptualization of the concept ""right"". To unpack these debates, this novel book delves into the position of various thinkers, scholars and intellectuals: from Milton, Locke, and Voltaire to Dewey, Habermas, and Schiller; concluding that a possible Right to Communicate would build on a notion of Habermasian validity, where this right is related to a specific type of communication-right-based communication-that is characterized by pureness, truth, and sincerity as well as the existence of a relative relationship between a claim of a right to send and the responsibility toward receivers.