seeing the invisibles

here is a gorgeous example of the tactic I've blogged about recently - of how famous people can use their voice to open space for the voices of those less likely to be heard. In this case the gorgeous Gael Garcia Bernal talks to 'invisibles' - watch it to see who they are. It's a short film in four beautiful and hearwrenching parts, this is just the first, the others are here. It's well worth watching until the end just to see the train.

protection manual

Protection International has a new online Protection Manual for Human Rights Defenders (3rd Edition)

Research and text by Enrique Eguren Fernández and Marie Caraj, 2009, 213 pages

chapters include (for live links to these and more PDF's go their site)

CH 1.5 - PREVENTING AND REACTING TO AGGRESSION - download: PDF

* Assessing the likelihood of different kinds of aggression taking place..
* Preventing possible direct aggression against defenders..
* Carrying out counter - surveillance..

CH 1.8 - IMPROVING SECURITY AT WORK AND HOME - download: PDF

* Assessing security at work or at home.
* Planning, improving and checking security in offices and homes.

CH 1.9 - SECURITY FOR WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS - download: PDF

* Looking at security from the perspective of women human rights defenders.
* Providing both women and men human rights defenders with additional security/protection knowledge and tools.

CH 2.2 - MAKING SURE SECURITY RULES AND PROCEDURES ARE FOLLOWED” - download: PDF

* To think about what makes members and organisations unable or unwilling to follow security plans and procedures, and find appropriate solutions.

CH 3.2 - DETENTION, ARREST, ABDUCTION AND KIDNAPPING OF A DEFENDER” - download: PDF

CH 3.4 - SECURITY AND FREE TIME - download: PDF

they have lots of other great publications here

EAPPI: Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel

EAPPI has a one of the best "who we are" pages of any accompaniment group, here, with this photo (love the candles) and short bios of each of their current 36th group serving, made up of 26 accompaniers from eleven countries (Australia, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US). One of the Swiss accompaniers is originally from Colombia. His bio reads:

Jorge

Originally from Colombia, Jorge has been living in Switzerland for the last 5 years. He has a BA in Psychology, a MA in Psychosocial Research and is about to finish his PhD in Neuroscience. He has researched stress, emotions and the psychobiological mechanisms related coping with chronic stress. Now he is interested on going from the lab to the field and as a EA he wishes to focus his efforts on the area of mental health in the conflict. As a Colombian, he is constantly mistaken for an Arab or Israeli, so decided to come and look for his roots!

Several of the EAPPI accompaniers have blogs, listed here with their bios. One recent intriguing entry is titled, Give young people a space - not a place - but sadly the rest of the entry is in Swedish!

"In the Company of Fear"

I *finally* got my hands on this documentary about accompaniment in Colombia made in 1999 by Velcrow Ripper (yes, yes, get past the odd name), with funding from the fabulous National Film Board of Canada. I'm afraid there is no trailer online to embed here, so I hope you will take my word for it - it's worth watching! Even eleven years later it is still timely, true, and well done. It includes some truly amazing footage. I wish it were more easily available! I've encouraged Velcrow to put it online and you can too. He's easy to find on facebook!