Voices from the 18th OXHRF: Global voices - what does resilience mean to you?

 EL Laskar writes: 

The Oxford Human Rights Festival held a global competition this year which was instigated by one of the planning committee, Geena Whiteman. 

Young people aged 11+ and adults of all ages were invited to submit a short essay on their personal experiences of resilience and human rights. 

The Junior (11 -17 years) entrants were asked “What does resilience mean to you in your local community?” And the Senior(18 years +) entrants were asked “Explore Human Rights and resilience as you understand the two. How do you think your view will differ from how someone from a country currently facing mass human rights violations? 

Geena Whiteman, who administered the competition, said “We were delighted to have entries from almost every single continent in the world (besides Antarctica!). This is the first year this competition has been run, with an overwhelmingly positive response and an abundance of incredible entries that took a long time to get through. Many people shared their stories, their opinions and their lives with us, telling us what resilience means to them and their community, and in the context of human rights.” 

The judges had a challenge to pick a winner in each category - each individual shared their experiences, challenges and aspirations. We were struck by the passion and storytelling of each entrant. All the essays were bound together and exhibited as part of the festival exhibition experience.

Reading the essays at the opening of the festival on 13 March

For us as humanitarians, academics, policy makers and students, individual stories matter  - they are lived experiences and they help guide us in how we can better support human rights violations. With over 50 entries from across the globe, we introduce the winning essays in both the senior and junior categories.

The Screaming Womb: Life Amid Despair

 Grace Khawam writes:

Artist: Joan Abou-Haidar, August 2020

She was born in the Golden Era. She was as beautiful as the sunshine in fields of wheat on a hot summer day. A happy childhood, playfully spent in carnival-like markets full of colored silk, rose water soap, scents of thyme and jasmine flowers. Visitors came from all over the world to see her, to admire her beauty as she turned into a shy teenager. Movie theaters, concerts, cultural spaces, were bursting with admirers, where poetry and music intertwined, drunken souls dancing through endless nights. Nothing predicting what will happen to her next. A bus attacked and all its passengers killed. A war declared. Scared, naïve, she is caught in the clashes, with nowhere to hide. Her body is bruised from beatings, punctured by gunfire. She endured, silently, crying tears of blood, as she witnessed hatred, greed and terror. Fifteen years of civil war, but she withstood. She stood up, an unyielding fierce young woman, prepared to pick up her shattered pieces and ready to give again. And she gave. With generosity. With love. With peace. She became the symbol of cultural diversity, of metropolitanism, of urban prosperity, of religious tolerance. This is when her fathers, her kin, but also strangers started to take interest in her. Strong, greedy men of power. Warlords. “We will save you” they told her. She needed no saving, but they did not listen to her. The self-proclaimed protectors spread out their grasps, clutching her throat, trapping her with their wretched claws. She became a prisoner. A prisoner of their narcissism and corruption. A prisoner of their business deals. She gave birth to sons and daughters, the product of her rape. She raised them with so much care and affection, with much respect for themselves and love for their country, only to see them runaway to faraway lands, escaping the clenches of the greedy powerful men. They carry with them their dreams and their memories, and her blood running through their veins, wherever they go. She is an older woman now. With heavy steps and painful memories, she moves on, as she has always done. We can still hear the songs written for her by long lost lovers. Many will chant her name, in the faint hope of reawakening her beautiful youthful days. 

Until it happened. The day that changed her forever. A massive explosion blows her body, ripping her from the inside. An explosion caused by them, the greedy evil men. Betrayed by her lovers, abused by her protectors, she lies still on the floor, her bloodied hands on her butchered womb. From the top of her collapsed lungs, she screams in pain and agony. "What have you done to me?" she cries in despair. "What have you done?"

We all know her story. We all know her name. She is Beirut. 

Why humanitarian action must promote healthier homes for all

Emma Weinstein-Sheffield and Sue Webb write:

World Humanitarian Day on 19th August reminds us that “in 2020, nearly 168 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection. This represents 1 in about 45 people in the world, and is the highest figure in decades” (UN website). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus how poor housing quality and overcrowding can be detrimental to both mental and physical health.

Housing and humanitarian shelter programmes can contribute to the Global Humanitarian Response Plan to COVID-19, especially its strategic priorities to “contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease morbidity and mortality”. Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, noted recently that “housing has become the front-line defence against the coronavirus”. Currently though, many aspects of inadequate housing, in rich countries as well as poorer ones, contribute to significant inequalities in mortality and morbidity.

Prioritising indoor air quality in building design can mitigate future airborne viral outbreaks, discussed in recently published research on how poor indoor air quality can amplify the effects of airborne viruses such as COVID-19:

“Rather than promoting health and wellbeing, our built environment often worsens air quality through inadequate ventilation, air recirculation, material specification and the additional pollution load from mechanical heating and cooling.”

This is arguably particularly true in humanitarian settings where people are frequently living in poorly ventilated, crowded conditions and with insufficient access to clean water and sanitation facilities. Responses to humanitarian crises can provide an opportunity to ensure that ‘healthy housing’ is an integral part of future shelter responses. Indeed, good humanitarian shelter programming can have beneficial impacts on mental and physical health that can reach beyond the current pandemic and contribute to healthier lives in the short- and long-term.

Voices from the 18th OXHRF: What is the role of tech in human rights?

El Laskar writes:

As part of the festival this year, committee member Geena Whiteman organised a Human Rights Lab challenge where participants were invited to place human rights at the forefront of technology, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. With a focus on resilience and through the support of a series of workshops, participants would have had one week to formulate, plan and pitch their ideas to a group of distinguished judges. Sadly COVID-19 took centre stage and the programme had to be cancelled. 

Geena’s Hackathon idea highlighted that technology has an enormous role to play in human rights and the humanitarian sector. Tech For Good Global says “Tech is neither good, nor bad and definitely not neutral. Which is why we need to be intentional about the use of tech in tackling the world's pressing social and environmental challenges.” A movement popularised in the 90s, when hack weekends were organised to bring web developers and the third sector together to create solutions, we have seen a swell of interest in #techforgood over recent years.