Strength & Solidarity

For people who have made defending rights their life’s work, the language of rights comes as second nature. But what about those facing repression, exclusion or loss of their land and livelihood – how do they describe what is happening to them? When politicians instrumentalize human rights language to justify their interests, does the idea of rights become fatally degraded? In this episode we dig into where the language of human rights shows up, and who can legitimately use it. We speak with Thailand-based human rights lawyer Emilie Palamy Pradichit, founder of the Manushya foundation, on her work with indeigenous communties fighting for rights to their land and what that has taught her about the language of human rights. And in our Coda,  Bangladeshi human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan celebrates his country’s national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

In this episode:

For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit www.strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast

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Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 7. Human rights leader Jessica Montell’s journey to insight and appreciation of Marge Piercy’s poem, To be of Use.

An old proverb says that a trouble shared is a trouble halved. That idea underlies a project to support leaders in human rights movements and organizations - the Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights. This project creates space for reflection twice a year, using case histories and readings from past struggles as provocation and invites those taking part to compare experiences. For eight days in February and March, some 20 leader-activists met online to discuss the challenges they face and how they might respond. In this episode, the Symposium’s four moderators reflect on the just-completed meeting and what issues seemed most critical to participants.

In this episode:

For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit www.strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast

Send us your ideas and your feedback at [email protected]

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 6. Brazilian activist Alessandra Orofino is enjoys the sly double-entendre of singer-songwriter Chico Buarque in his hit song against military rule.

In 2005, a small group of women began a campaign to make abortion legal in Argentina. While rich women might be able to find safe means to terminate their pregnancies, the poor were forced to seek backstreet abortions at grave risk of imprisonment, injury and death. As much as those building the movement believed in their cause, even they were stunned, a mere 13 years later, to see a million people in the streets of Buenos Aires supporting their demands. At the end of 2020, a vote in Senate brought final victory. In this episode, one of the organisers at the heart of the campaign shares the strategies that won the day. And, in this episode’s Coda, the Brazilian samba that seemed to be a lovers’ tiff but was a veiled attack on military rule.

In this episode: 

For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit www.strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast

Send us your ideas and your feedback at [email protected]

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 5. A seventeenth century nun, philosopher, composer and poet Juana Inés de la Cruz wins the admiration of South African human rights lawyer Kayum Ahmed.

2020 saw street protest erupt in multiple countries around the globe, sometimes responding to local oppression, sometimes provoked by experience protesters had in common, such as racial injustice or police impunity. Many of these movements mobilized without a centralized leadership or hierarchy, causing some to dub them ‘leaderless’ even though they were able to pack a powerful punch on the  ground; Hong Kong’s democracy movement was a case in point, bringing the territory to a standstill with occupations and strikes. But can a decentralized movement reach beyond its immediate locale and build powerful support internationally? We discuss that question with someone who played a prominent role in the Hong Kong mobilisation - Ching Yin Johnson Yeung, formerly the convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front and past deputy general secretary of the Federation of Students in Hong Kong.

In this episode:

For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit www.strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast

Send us your ideas and your feedback at [email protected]

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 4. Afghan champion of human rights Shaharzad Akbar shares a poem by American 19th century poet Emily Dickinson

When authoritarian governments want to hobble civil society and human rights activists, a favored strategy is to choke off their funding. Since money often comes from foreign donors, a law to limit access to support from abroad can hit activists hard. In China, where conditions were already very tough for rights defenders,  two such laws passed in 2016. Shawn Shih-hung Shieh, director of Social Innovations Advisory, tells us how affected groups are adapting and using innovative strategies to offset their lost income.

In this episode:

For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit www.strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast

Send us your ideas and your feedback at [email protected]

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 3. US civil rights activist Charles Cobb Jr shares a song commemorating the day that US civil rights activists met an African anti-colonial fighter in 1963.