Get Involved, Spread the Word

Become a Blogger for Human Rights

Human Rights Watch has been committed to upholding the right to free expression since its beginnings in the 1970s. The Internet, and blogs in particular, have made it easier for people to express themselves to a potential audience of millions. They have also created an enormous opportunity for disseminating information about, and ending, human rights abuses around the world.

If you are a blogger, you can use your bully pulpit to stand with the victims and activists to prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, protect people from inhumane treatment in wartime, and campaign to bring offenders to justice. You can expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. You can challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.

We can help you. Human Rights Watch offers dozens of RSS feeds on pressing human rights issues, classified according to theme and region. We also offer a host of free e-mail newsletters in several languages. If you find this helpful, show your support for the cause of human rights for all. Display one of the following buttons on your blog and link back to http://www.hrw.org. Please also spread the word about human rights abuses by tagging your posts as related to human rights.

Not All Fun and Games
Speaking up takes courage. Depending on where you live, it can have real consequences. Human Rights Watch is committed to protecting the right of every individual to express her opinions. Over the years, Human Rights Watch has actively campaigned for the rights of bloggers and cyber-dissidents around the world. The cases of Iran and China are particularly instructive:

Iran
During 2005 the authorities also targeted websites and Internet journalists in an effort to prevent online dissemination of news and information. Between September and November of 2004, the judiciary detained and tortured more than twenty bloggers and Internet journalists, and subjected them to lengthy solitary confinement. The government systematically blocks websites with political news and analysis from inside Iran and abroad. On February 2, 2005, a court in the province of Gilan sentenced Arash Sigarchi to fourteen years in prison for his online writings. In August 2005, the judiciary sentenced another blogger, Mojtaba Saminejad, to two years in prison for “insulting” Iran’s leaders.

China
Critics have labeled China’s ever more sophisticated system of controls on the Internet the “Great Firewall of China.” More than sixty individuals were imprisoned at this writing for peaceful expression over the Internet. 

In early January 2005, the head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee signaled that controls over publishing, the Internet, and short messaging systems (SMS) would be significantly tightened to ensure social stability. In September, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council introduced new regulations on Internet news which prevent distribution of any uncensored version of a news event or commentary. Internet portals, e-mail systems, and SMS were all affected.

More than 103 million Internet users face sophisticated filters, registration of all personal domestic websites, and personal responsibility for all content. The government closes websites without warning. In October, two Mongolian sites and Yannan, which tracked a rural protest, were shut down. 

Internet café users, after presenting identification, are issued user numbers which make it easy to track their web use. In February, education officials cut off hundreds of thousands of users by decreeing that only enrolled, on-site college students, using their real names, could access university Internet message boards. 

In an increasing number of instances, global Internet companies have been complicit in the repression, insisting they must abide by the rules and regulations of the countries in which they operate. Google does not list links to sites banned in China; certain words may not be used as titles for Microsoft blogs; and Yahoo!, which three years ago signed a Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry, provided information that helped Chinese authorities arrest Shi Tao. 

More HRW work on free expression online.

Be Safe
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has useful tips on and tools for blogging anonymously. Those of you living in countries particularly hostile to free expression online should be more careful. Cover your tracks and communicate with your sources in private.

Need Help?
When you blog for human rights, you're joining a community. Human Rights Watch can help put you in touch with its international network of bloggers, Internet privacy experts, free-expression activists, and human rights researchers. If you get in trouble for using your blog to campaign for human rights, we want to hear about it. Write to us at blogs at hrw dot org. We can't guarantee that we will take up every case, but we can guarantee that we will at least refer you to useful resources.