OVERVIEW

From November 2023 to January 2024, J4YP coalition member Al Amal Women’s Foundation conducted a multimedia advocacy campaign entitled Your Silence Hurts Me as part of their ongoing Women Peacemakers project. The Women Peacemakers project works through a network of female human rights defenders (HRDs) in Hadramout to monitor, document, and investigate human rights violations and strengthen local peacebuilding efforts and human rights protections. Female HRDs have experienced extreme resistance to their work, often to the point of harassment and violence, and the Your Silence Hurts Me campaign was initiated to combat stigma and raise community awareness of and appreciation for their important work. DT Institute has also published a report on challenges facing female HRDs, which you can read here.

IMPACTS

The campaign discussed and explored how silence in the face of human rights violations enables cycles of violence and repeat abuses by perpetrators. Media engagements received extremely positive response from the public audience, and in-person events resulted in female HRDs reporting over 50 previously undocumented violations against women in the local police force who had experienced gender-based discrimination.

CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

EVENTS

• 10 female human rights defenders from Hadramout attended a tailored focus group, during which attendees were encouraged to speak up about challenges they faced
• A defender protection workshop was held with various stakeholders, including lawyers, NGOs, and HRDs, to share experiences, support one another, combat disinformation about HRDs, and overcome obstacles to their work

MEDIA

• 10 podcast episodes in English and Arabic sending messages of support and resilience for HRDs. The campaign originally envisioned only 5, but they increased to 10 episodes due to the outpouring of positive feedback.
• AWSF published a series of social media posts advertising the important work of HRDs and providing supportive messages

VICTIM SUPPORT

• During in-person events, over 50 instances of human rights violations against women were identified and reported thanks to the supportive environment
• Over a dozen victims reported directly to AWSF in January 2024 for the first time, a significant increase over previous months

View the Your Silence Hurts Me campaign video from ASWF here. and follow ASWF on social media

A PDF copy can be found at: