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Description
Over the last years the state of human rights in Bulgaria has become worse. Hate speech is on the rise and a growing number of people feel personally threatened: the main targets are the Roma, LGBTI and refugees. At the same time civil society organizations are trusted less and less by the public. In general the sector lacks capacity for campaigning, efficiently communicating its problems and solutions as well as organizing and mobilizing the citizens. There is no understanding of innovation, the use of diverse tactics and creative approaches. The project aims at boosting support for human rights in Bulgaria by holding an efficient campaign to raise awareness about human rights with an emphasis on hate speech and by boosting the capacity of the civil sector for campaigning. The project will considerably contribute to achieving the specific goal of the selected thematic outcome, namely increase the number, scope and efficiency of the campaigns for human rights. The project will raise awareness, sensitivity and intolerance to hate speech by preparing and unfolding a large-scale awareness raising campaign, boost the capacity of organizations and activists to organize compelling campaigns by promoting the strategic use of creative approaches and innovative tactics through a platform, guide and a series of training sessions, support communication efforts of organizations and activists by setting up a bank of visual materials (posters, illustrations, etc.) on human rights with an emphasis on hate speech to be freely used in campaigns and events, attract new communities as active allies in the fight for protection of human rights. The end beneficiary of the project will be the public and the main target groups will be civil society organizations involved in protection and promotion of human rights. The project will also benefit the three disadvantaged groups of the public, i.e. the Roma, LGBTI and refugees.
Summary of project results
Within the project, a large-scale creative campaign was implemented to raise awareness of human rights, with a focus on hate speech against Roma, LGBTI people and refugees/migrants in Bulgaria, including a number of creative components:
- Engaging creative video - social experiment LOVE SPEECH.
- Three art interventions in an urban environment in the capital, realized by the artists Nikolay Petrov-GLOW, Venelin Shurelov and Stanislav Belovski.
- Interactive installation "SAYING IS DOING" by artist Vito Valentinov with audience participation.
- Outdoor advertising (citylights with large-format posters) at key central locations in Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas, presenting selected visual works, the result of an innovative Fine Acts Sprints workshop.
In addition, the following were implemented:
- Platform for creative campaigns and tactics Creative Playbook (https://creativeplaybook.org/), containing diverse and accessible resources and information related to the development and implementation of creative campaigns.
- Innovative workshop Fine Acts Sprints with the participation of 30 Bulgarian visual artists who created over 80 visual works published for free use and adaptation under a Creative Commons license so that organizations and activists working against discrimination and incitement to hatred can use them free in its work.
- A handbook of creative campaigns and tactics for NGOs, activists and active citizens, published for free use and download on the platform.
- Two two-day hands-on trainings for civil society organizations on the topic of innovation in campaigning, as well as a webinar, the recording of which can be viewed on Creative Playbook.
In addition, three disadvantaged population groups – Roma, LGBTI people and refugees – were actively involved in the consultation of the project through meetings, surveys and focus groups. Their contribution was reflected in the conceptualization of artistic products, and communicated to the media.
With its diverse and innovative activities, the project reached a total of over 1 million people online and offline.
All the results of the project can be viewed at https://fineacts.co/active-citizens1, as well as on the subpages of the individual activities.