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Description
Lithuanian public space is dominated by a few HR questions, which are often exploited to induce fear and polarize Lithuanian society. Less controversial issues are hardly discussed, leaving HR discourse associated with only a few vulnerable groups. In this way, the problems of some vulnerable groups remain invisible and inaudible. Moreover, experts of less-represented HR topics are not very recognizable by journalists because of their lack of communication skills, and the lack of reliable high-quality HR information allows for the spread of disinformation. The main goal of the project “My Rights: Strengthening Qualitative HR Discourse in Lithuania” is to strengthen the high-quality HR discourse and increase public awareness of different HR issues by enabling experts of different HR NGO’s to communicate about those issues and by strengthening the biggest HR website manoteises.lt. The target groups of the project are journalists; the moderate part of the society affected by negative attitudes; active part of the society interested in HR (manoteises.lt readers); politicians at the national level. A network of HR NGO experts representing different areas of human rights will be set up to address the identified problem. Experts will systematically deepen their representation in the media skills, use the acquired knowledge and prepare columns for the HR website manoteises.lt and the major mainstream news websites as well as will increase their representation in the media and reach the moderate part of the society affected by negative attitudes. The content created during the project will also support the further involvement of the manoteises.lt audience and will encourage it to spread the news. The project plans to engage at least 8 HR NGO experts, to publish at least 35 articles on different HR topics and raise awareness of HR and the principle of equal treatment by introducing HR ideas and the principle of equal treatment to at least 160,000 target audiences.
Summary of project results
Lithuanian public space is dominated by several human rights (HR) issues, which are often used to scare and polarize the public. Less controversial, long-standing issues are hardly discussed in the public sphere, and NGO experts on less heard HR topics are not well recognized by journalists and often lack effective communication skills. The lack of quality information on HR topics gives space for disinformation narratives to spread. In this way, issues of some vulnerable groups remain invisible and unheard. The main goal of the project "My rights: Strengthening the qualitative discourse of human rights in Lithuania" is to strengthen the qualitative discourse of human rights (increasing public awareness of human rights, their diversity and issues) by enabling NGOs from different HR fields to communicate on topics relevant to the public groups they represent and by strengthening the largest HR website manoteises.lt The target groups of the project are journalists, the moderate part of society affected by negative attitudes, those interested in human rights, the civil part of society that reads the portal manoteises.lt, politicians at the national level.
To solve the identified problem, (1) a network of human rights NGO experts representing different areas of human rights was created; (2) organized 7 networking sessions of NGO experts and 8 competence-enhancing reports; (3) a total of 47 comments were prepared, of which 23 were published on major news portals and at least 35 times proactively communicated by experts in the media on other topics; (4) the analysis of alternative financial possibilities of LŽTC and the manoteises.lt portal was carried out, the organization was registered on the Contribee platform, the Support button was installed on the portal, the narrative was clarified and visuals were created, communication on collecting the financial support was started; (5) 5 training-workshop sessions for writing expert comments organized, strengthening communication skills, and finding and strengthening common advocacy goals of NGOs in the field.
The project was essentially focused on the long-term impact on the human rights discourse in Lithuania, the activities were focused on investing in the human capital and organizational growth of all project participants, strengthening the cooperation of organizations, creating an active network of NGO experts that had not previously existed in this format, and at the same time developing the independence of each organization to represent the social groups it represents in the public space. Thus, throughout the project Lithuanian public space and the media news outlets were provided with engaging, of high quality and important HR content.