British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) Photography competition
BIHR is an independent human rights charity which promotes human rights throughout the UK, through awareness-raising, training, and information. Whilst there are many human rights issues in the UK that need to be addressed, such as the lack of provision of safe accommodation for women experiencing domestic violence or discrimination towards people/communities experiencing poverty or malnutrition in care homes or a lack of support for disabled people to live in dignity in their own homes, we have found that awareness that these problems are human rights issues remains low. This means that the huge potential of human rights to help the voices of people and communities to be heard, especially in terms of challenging poor policies and practice is being lost.
The photography project is part of a broader programme of work run by BIHR, changing the face of human rights, which aims to raise awareness of how human rights are important in people?s everyday lives. The project aims to educate community groups and the people they work with about the relevance of human rights in their lives and in their work, and to give them a voice to tell their own stories through photography.
A series of 80 portraits of people from all sectors of society will be taken. Participants will include: human rights activists, both well-known and unknown, community groups who work with vulnerable and disadvantaged people, and these people themselves ? those who human rights can most help.
Each participant will work closely with a photographer, Nadia Bettega www.nadiabettega.com to create a portrait. If you are willing to take part, Nadia will contact you and arrange a time to visit, at your convenience and location of choice. She will ask you to think in advance about what human rights means to you in your own life, and think of an object that represents this. This may be anything from a wedding ring to a passport, from food to a religious symbol.
Nadia will take a portrait and conduct an interview ? asking you about why you chose this object and what human rights mean to you personally. This would take up to 45 minutes of your time. The output from this photography session would be a photograph, and a short story/ article of around 250 words. The materials will be made available to participants for their own use in their awareness raising work.
We believe that this project will be extremely valuable in terms of raising awareness of the different issues groups are facing and the relevance of human rights to these issues in the community sector and also to the wider public. Your participation would be hugely appreciated and help us to demonstrate how human rights are for all of us, from those working hard at the policy and legal level, to those who suffer as a result of not having their rights realised.
If you are able to take part in this project, or have any further questions, please email Nadia nadia@nadiabettega.com or call (+44) 07803038534
Article published:2009-05-26
Expires:2009-05-26
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