Front Line Defenders have launched World Cup campaign in Brazil, and worldwide local and international campaign to profile 42 human rights defenders. The campaign aims to draw attention towards these heroes of the societies who work at great personal risk, against seemingly insurmountable odds to secure fundamental rights and freedoms for others. Reproduced below is the press release. – Editor
Press Release
(Dublin, Ireland) – Front Line Defenders and Brazilian NGO partners Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos launched an online and social media campaign today to focus attention on the plight of 42 human rights defenders (HRDs) from each of the participating World Cup nations.
The World Cup campaign (www.sportshrd.org) is the latest in a series of campaigns held in conjunction with international mega sporting events (Sochi Olympics, London Olympics and Euro 2012). For the first time, however, this campaign is being conducted in two platforms – one local for Brazil and one international.
The Brazil part of the campaign features 11 Brazilian HRDs at risk from around the country (www.linhadefrente.org). Each of the HRDs in the campaign attended the launch event on Tuesday, 10 June in Sao Paolo, which was the first of a series of campaign events to be held around the country.
At the launch in Brazil, Guarani indigenous community leader Ládio Veron pointed out the significance of the campaign: “This campaign comes at the right time. I hope it will be heard throughout Brazil. We see what is happening in the whole country. What we need is visibility to our voices, to our stories. We will be able to face the challenges only if we are together.”
The international campaign kicks off today just before the first World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia with a Front Line Defenders event in Dublin at The Long Stone.
With global attention focused on the ‘beautiful game’, headlines from Brazil have suggested that there is much to be concerned about in terms of human rights. Additionally, for HRDs from participating nations, the real risks and threats they face in their daily work makes the action from the stadiums in Brazil seem insignificant.
“Front Line Defenders draws attention to these heroes in our societies who work at great personal risk, against seemingly insurmountable odds to secure fundamental rights and freedoms for others,” announced Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of Front Line Defenders at the launch of the campaign. “If just a fraction of the global atttention given to football could be given to securing human rights, we would all be celebrating victory.”
“Teamwork and a strong support base is fundamental to success at the World Cup – Front Line Defenders, and its partners in Brazil, are intent on providing that support to our teams of HRDs around the world,” explained Adam Shapiro, Head of Campaigns. “The campaign site allows visitors to send messages of solidarity, which we will deliver to the HRDs – such expressions provide much needed encouragement for those facing tremendous risk on a daily basis.”
Front Line Defenders has worked for over a decade to provide practical and rapid support for human rights defenders at risk, including emergency support, grants, training in physical and digital security, international advocacy and campaigning.
If you are on Twitter, please use #sportshrd so we can expand the reach of the campaign further. Thanks!
