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Freedom of Connection: Freedom of Expression

As a follow up to the 185th session of UNESCO's Executive Board, which called upon the Organization to reflect on the Internet, UNESCO launches its new publication, Freedom of Connection: Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. The launching event will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, on 30 May 2011.
Through this book, UNESCO aims to inform Member States about its strategy of promoting freedom of expression on the Internet. The http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifpublication explores the complex situation of freedom of expression on the Internet and provides a new perspective on the social and political dynamics behind the threats to expression. It develops a conceptual framework of ‘ecology of freedom of expression’ for discussing the broad context of policy and practice. Through its pioneering exploration of the various legal and policy mechanisms that are crucial for the free flow of information, the book provides guidance for policy makers and other relevant users on the creation of environments conducive to the freedom of expression.

Download here.

Use of ICTs and Social Media for Human Rights Work

The Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) will be offering an e-learning course Use of ICTs and Social Media for Human Rights Work from 15 June-30 August 2011. This e-learning course is intended for staff members of human rights and social justice NGOs and inter-governmental organisations who are responsible for information and communication (i.e. information officers, web editors, communication specialists) within their organisation.

Website Archiving: Human Rights Example at Columbia

Columbia has therefore bitten off a piece small enough to chew: 491 websites dedicated to the documentation of human rights efforts abroad. Human rights is a topic area that stands to benefit from website archiving, since many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that document human rights abuses in other countries publish reports on the Web that never make it into print, and these sites are more liable than others that publish original reports to vanish, taking their contributions to the historical record with them, say the Columbia archivists.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.

Conscious UK hip-hop at the British Library

"While hip-hop should reflect reality, it should also have the capacity to offer solutions and provoke debate as any art form should."

This is music that is mobilising Britain's youth and getting them to think about issues they might not otherwise have done.

Future of Public Libraries in the Twenty-First Century: Human Rights and Human Capabilities

"The Future of Public Libraries in the Twenty-First Century: Human Rights and Human Capabilities" by
Kathleen de la Peña McCook and Katharine J. Phenix
in
Introduction to Public Librarianship. 2011, Neal-Schuman Publishers.

2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

In the early 1970s the United States formalized its responsibility to speak out on behalf of international human rights standards. In 1976 Congress enacted legislation creating a Coordinator of Human Rights in the Department of State, a position later upgraded to Assistant Secretary. Legislation also requires that U.S. foreign and trade policy take into account countries' human rights and worker rights performance and that country reports be submitted to the Congress on an annual basis.

U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices