Beirut, September 13, 2024: The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) organized a training entitled “Human Rights in Times of Crises: Techniques and Strategies” with the participation of journalists and human rights activists. The training aimed at empowering civil society on capacities related to digital rights and how platforms work, as well as mainstreaming the concepts of human rights and internet governance.
Rouba El Helou, a journalist and lecturer delivered the training. In today’s highly digitized age, it is essential that people understand their basic rights so they can use the internet and digital media consciously and deliberately. This requires everyone to have a deep understanding of human rights so they can navigate the complexities. This includes understanding the history, tools and media, how these technologies have evolved and how they affect our daily lives, as well as understanding the risks people may face in this digital world.
During this training, participants learned about the history and development of the Internet, understanding what the World Wide Web (WWW) is and the global laws and procedures that have been put in place to regulate the Internet and assess their effectiveness. Participants also discussed the challenges of content moderation and the role of algorithms in the spread of online violence, especially against women and vulnerable groups. The trainer emphasized the importance of investigative journalism in uncovering facts. She also emphasized the need to verify information before publishing it to ensure the credibility of journalists, increase trust, and drive accountability.
The second section of the training touched on the topic of Internet governance, a multi-stakeholder process between governments, the private sector, and civil society, that aims to establish rules and procedures governing the use and development of the Internet – making it a safe space for all, where it contributes to the creation of new services and opportunities for cooperation and development. These measures have not prevented the emergence of new challenges such as crime, digital violence, surveillance, and the adoption of different policies in different countries. Internet governance aims to resolve these issues and to set clear rules on the basis of equality for all.
The conversation also centered on investigative journalism, which covers multiple forms of activities ranging from simple news investigations to undercover operations that combine a range of events, as well as the importance of documenting sources and reporting from a human rights and humanitarian perspective in Lebanon. Rouba El Helou also said, “I strongly believe that by equipping social workers, journalists and human rights defenders with monitoring and investigative methodologies and techniques, we create a community of freedom fighters.
This community will not only hold those in power accountable and question things, but also work towards safeguarding human rights and protecting each other amid crises”.
By combining data and information through investigative journalism techniques, such as acquiring the burden of proof through hypothesis testing; journalists and human rights activists can effectively address critical issues and expose corruption, harassment, and violence, whether in the real world or in the digital space.
This training was held within the framework of a project on content moderation in a safe digital world for all, in partnership with Oxfam in Lebanon.
About CLDH:
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) is a local non-profit, non-partisan Lebanese human rights organization. It was founded in 2006 in Beirut by the Franco-Lebanese Movement SOLIDA (Support for Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily). CLDH’s complementary components include advocacy, public mobilization, rehabilitation for victims of torture and families of enforced disappearances, the provision of pro-bono legal services for vulnerable groups regardless of nationality or status, and the organization of capacity building activities to key stakeholders in the human rights field.
www.cldh-lebanon.org
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