Olga Guzmán: Breaking the human rights bubble for everyone to understand
© point-of-views.ch
12 December2016 (OMCT) – What set off OlgaGuzmán Vergara was the inequality she herself faced in her country as awoman. Then her determination to fight injustice quickly moved onto todenouncing all violations of human, social, economic and cultural rights.
While hermotivation to speak out for others was easy to find, she was not prepared todiscover that her biggest challenge as a human rights defender would be herstigmatization by the general public, leaving her with few allies to count on.
“In, Mexicowhen you say that you are a human rights defender, people immediately think ofyou as a defender of criminals, that you are against security policies,” saidMs. Guzmán, currently Advocacy Director at the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los DerechosHumanos. “It might put you at risk because the authorities do notlike what you do, and even society does not support your work. So you have bothsides against you.”
The currentglobal trend towards populism is troubling for Ms. Guzmán who sees in this theconjuring of human rights defenders as “public enemies,” who can bare the blamefor society’s ills and someone to “declare a war against,” as did Mexico whenit launched in 2006 an all-out war on drugs that triggered a human rightscrisis. Yet this is a failure of the human rights movement to make its voiceheard outside of a “human rights bubble” of like-minded activists who are inthe know, but surrounded on the outside by a generally indifferent and misinformedpublic.
Becoming moresociety-friendly
“I think wehave to be more friendly with society, in terms of how we spread our messages,”she said. “How do we get out of this bubble? Because we don’t have to beconvinced that torture is a horrible crime, but I think that we haven’t beenable to convince the others on the outside.” Ms. Guzmán, who holds a Master’sdegree in International Political Science from Kent University, believes thatit is the work of human rights defenders to raise awareness and “to make peopleangry” that human rights violations continue to occur in our age. Putting thepublic in the victims’ shoes is the only way to do that.
Whenever shehas met people who were not angry after the disappearance of students, forinstance, and who think “they probably did something bad,” Ms. Guzmán remindsthem: “You could be the next victim of a human right’s violation. And if youdon’t want to become a victim, then support the movement in order to create thestructure to avoid this from happening again, and again.”
In September 2014,43 students from a rural school were enforcedly disappeared in the state ofIguala, Guerrero, triggering an uproar among the Mexican and internationalhuman rights community.
Working inconcert
Guzmánbelieves that furthering cooperation between groups, creating more coalitions,sharing ideas and innovating, the human rights movement will also speed up thedemocratization of the human rights challenges affecting us all.
“Indigenouscommunities, all the underdogs: women, LGBT communities, youth, they aregetting empowered and we are making our voice louder,” Ms. Guzmán concludes asher hope for a change which, she believes, will come from the grassroots.
Ms. Guzmán’sorganization, CMDPDH, is a long-standing partner of OMCT, and member of theSOS-Torture Network. Together they submitted before the UN Committee AgainstTorture a case against Mexico that they won, meaning the alleged crimes oftorture were recognized and sanctioned. OMCT and CMDPDH have also cooperated onadvocacy that will most likely lead to an anti-torture law to be adoptedmomentarily at the time of writing.
This articleis part of a series of 10 profiles to commemorate International Human RightsDay, 10 December, and to recognize the vital role of human rights defendersworldwide.
To see thecampaign video, please click here.
OMCT wishes tothank the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the OAK Foundation for theirsupport. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way beinterpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institutions.
