Topic Talk: Defending Human Rights

I’ve had a chaotic week and unfortunately didn’t get to finish Persona 3 Portable or Chained Echoes yet to start those games. However, I’ve been seeing the discourse on the game and I want to share some thoughts. I also will not use the game’s name or publicity because I don’t want search engines to draw attention to this because what I will sketch out is only a rough idea. How do we defend human rights when it seems like whatever we do or don’t do helps someone violate human rights?

In my full-time job, I administer grants for organizations defending human rights so I want to think about campaigns from an advocacy and co-enforcement perspective. If I were going to deal with “she who shall not be named”, here is an approach I would use from tactics of groups I have funded.

Step 1: Awareness

Human rights violations are often marred into the fabric of society and remain relatively hidden, especially in the modern world. If it were not for the work I do, I would not have run into anyone suffering from wage theft, trafficking, housing discrimination, slum landlords, etc. I live in a quiet neighborhood and being an introvert, I’m not one to go out of my way to explore anywhere too much. It takes some work to find the groups who are raising awareness of injustices in the neighborhood. Step 1 of any campaign is awareness. Awareness campaigns often include door knocking, social media posts, and gathering people to an event to raise what a call to action would be. Awareness campaigns are community building events to try to invite solidarity with others who share their experience suffering from human rights abuses.

Awareness campaigns also include boycotts. This might make me a little unpopular, but boycotts are not the be all and end all of advocacy. Boycotts are step 1.5 of a larger plan to disrupt problematic actors. However, boycotts also backfire a lot and so in modern organizing aren’t used as a tactic. Even labor disputes do not use boycotting of products often because it has a counterproductive effect. The prime example of this phenomenon is Catholicism’s banning of books, movies, speakers, and singers. The Catholic Church has banned a lot of things and honestly it just made more people curious. The Catholic Church had no real plan after a boycott of Billy Joel and it just sold him millions of albums. Yes, boycotts raise awareness of problems, but there needs to be a long term plan and call to action after a boycott. This includes more than just donating money to a charity which supports the cause. Yes, this is one form of risk mitigation by supporting healing and recovery work but it is not addressing the root cause.

Step 2: Research

Research is sort of step 0 and step 2 in this model because you have to research the problem to build an awareness campaign. But I put this as step 2 because this is where you build the power map to understand how the people leading the human rights abuses collect their power to do so and find areas where you can intervene. Royalties from sales of products are a part of gaining power and so is building a cult following. Twitter and other social media are also ways problematic people can advertise and amplify harmful messages. But there is always some key or keys that unravels the rest. A strong group of affected people and good research can help find those key points to go after next after your awareness campaign(s). Step 1 and 2 are kind of interchangeable because as you research more, you will find other items from which you can gain further communal support.

Step 3: Evidence Gathering

Evidence Gathering is vital in any advocacy campaign. Recorded clips, tweets, and material from the people committing human rights abuses is vital. Screenshots from “the game which shall not be named” would be a vital addition to any tweets or other source material because it shows a continuing pattern of abuse. Unfortunately, court systems need mountains of evidence to go after powerful people because of the ability of powerful people to buy their way out of justice. This is where a full boycott is actually a little harmful here. You need some people who support your cause to work with you to document evidence in the game which would support the human rights abuses. If the three public outcries against “she who will not be named” are violence against trans people, promotion of slavery, and anti-Semitism, then mountains of evidence are going to be needed to actually respond in a way other than for feeling good for the protest of the day. Evidence gathering is also best done with coalitions of affected people or with a literature about problematic phrases so people educate themselves and know what to screenshot. A coalition of Jewish, trans, and people affected by slavery coaching some people to play the game and gather information would be good for a human rights civil suit in England, the home country of “she who will not be named”.

Step 4: Implementing Resistance

After gathering evidence and finding which point(s) are going to be most likely for success in your efforts, then you have to find willing people to help implement your resistance. In this case, a team of human rights lawyers in England would be the place to start. Resistance efforts often take years of diligent planning, luck, and perseverance. However, there are human rights experts in England who see what is going on and have concerns. It is always a concern when a billionaire can use money to promote and fund opinions which hurt others but how “she who shall not be named” has apparently been using references in children’s material for decades and hasn’t been dealt with. “She who shall not be named” is deplorable in that regard above and beyond the harm she is causing many communities around the world. Advocates need a plan which includes a response based on the proper jurisdiction.

In this case, a civil trial in England would be the goal of resistance, especially if the trial ends up being brought to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. That would be a high profile move to both draw attention and seek resolution. An example which has worked in America is against Alex Jones. He called the Sandy Hook shooting in America a host for years and all of that evidence ended up getting used against him in a civil suit which lost him hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s hard to keep oppressive power when having to liquidate assets and try to prevent bankruptcy.

Step 5: Protection

There has to be a plan to protect the people who are implementing major resistance actions. Rich people have a habit of hiring people to eliminate threats and I would assume this hypothetical example to be no different. It would also take a lot of bravery of the people involved to know harm might come to them and their families because of this pursuit of justice. A good community protection plan is essential, and don’t involve the police, that will not help in a situation such as this. (probably more likely to get your key leaders killed.)

Step 6: Resolution and Evaluation

There will be a long chain of trails, motion, counter-motions, appeals, and a tie to basically try to prevent the plantiffs from seeking justice. Rich people win a lot just because they make the people they’ve harmed run out of money or energy to continue fighting. There is a lot of community support work which needs to be done to prevent this burnout. However, after the long struggle (again probably 5-7 years in this case), then there will be a resolution. You might get the result you want, or you might not. Advocacy can be very heartbreaking sometimes. However, sometimes in failure, other opportunities are opened because people are less afraid to combat a behemoth figure.

Once a resolution happens, it is important to evaluate your strategy and develop new means for the next campaign. It is also important to have organizational development in case you are asked by a local or state government to assist with co-enforcement of new policies.

Conclusion:

Advocacy is a long and winding road, and far too often has no real sight of an end goal when implemented. End goals are important to inspire both movement and growing engagement. However, I have seen abusive landlords get served justice, I’ve seen the banning of a practice which allowed women to be shackled to tables while giving birth, and I have seen workers get back millions of dollars in stolen wages. I share these insights because some part of all of these practices I have seen be utilized to great effect. Human rights abuses for me are about so much more than “will I boycott the game which shall not be named?” Human rights abuses are about coming together and protecting our community with a long-term action plan. Yes, this is an oversimplified and admittedly rough sketch of a plan, but if this helps the organizing effort, then please steal this idea and don’t worry about giving me credit. I want to see actual effective advocacy to make our world better because I’m tired of vanity campaigns and advocacy with no sight of an end goal. Our gaming heroes do better advocacy and fight injustice and so can we.