Youth-led Human Rights Online Campaign in Malta

2020

Youth-led Human Rights Online Campaign in Malta

The gap between what is and what should be is larger than previously thought. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document which claims that every human is born with 30 different rights. But are these 30 rights in place and practiced or are they just a number, too many or too few?

The interest of Mariosa Caruana, Melania Formosa and Ruth Mifsud grew following their participation in an Erasmus+ project, which also dealt with human rights and activism. Their interest and commitment to developing this campaign assisted by a youth information officer led the young people to become youth ambassadors.

The campaign is featured on Agenzija Zghazagh’s social media channels, whilst youth workers are making use of the resources within youth cafes run by Agenzija Zghazagh. Other people are involved in the campaign, however all the material has been produced by the youth ambassadors. Young people deriving from different walks of life have been interviewed, presenting their own stories related to human rights.

Moreover, the campaign encourages young followers of our social media channels to interact with us, as the campaign provides interactive sources through which the young people can share their views and opinions and initiate discussion.

The human rights campaign began during the month of January and will come to end at the beginning of May. Each week will feature a different human right and focus on matters related to it. Each human right will also feature a particular event happening during the month i.e. where a specific topic is celebrated, for example – on 28 April the world celebrates World Day for Safety and Health at work – so the chosen human right relates to work.

This campaign is showing positive results as it has been followed by and engaged with many young people both online and offline.

*Aġenzija Żgħażagħ recognises and makes sure that human rights are adopted throughout its mission; hence why it has endorsed the idea of 3 young people who came forward seeking opportunities and ways on how to develop a ‘Human Rights’ online campaign.

For more information on this project, please contact: agenzija.zghazagh@gov.mt