Screencap from an animation video that highlights human rights abuses in Myanmar
A group in Myanmar uses animated videos to promote human rights, equality, and justice across the country.
Equality Myanmar has developed these multimedia resources for their human rights education and advocacy programs to empower people and inspire social transformation. In the past 15 years, the group has trained women, university students, monks and pastors, activists, school teachers, community leaders, farmers, and workers who are now part of their network of human rights trainers and advocates.
Through these workshops, the group is able to address some of the social problems which Myanmar is facing today. Aside from becoming aware about these issues, the participants also learn to understand the relevance of human rights in building a more democratic and inclusive society.
The videos are simple yet educational. They can be used too in other countries because the topics are universal and easy to understand.
Elections
The most recent video uploaded by the group tackles the upcoming election. The video features several voters who were exposed to some of the problems linked to elections such as coercion, cheating, censorship, and various human rights violations:
Women in politics
This video promotes women participation in politics. It tells the story of a young Myanmar girl who dreams of becoming a public servant after she saw the need for better social policies to fight poverty and injustice. Initially, her family discouraged her but she persevered and went on to become a member of the parliament:
Child labor
This video, developed by Maung Maung Aye, exposes child labor exploitation. In the video, a woman rejects her boyfriend after seeing that he is wearing a shirt made by a company that employs child workers:
Hate speech
Another relevant video reminds the public about the dangers of hate speech. The video shows a village living in harmony, but chaos ensued when a vulture (representing hate speech) arrived spreading hostility and animosity. Fortunately, a dove flies above the town spreading love and peace.
This should be widely promoted since online hate speech has intensified in Myanmar, inflaming tension and communal conflicts in various parts of the country.
Diversity and discrimination
Maung Maung Aye has developed a video promoting diversity and encouraging the people not to discriminate against others based on gender, race, religion or skin color. Again, this video is useful to counter the rising racism and ethnic discrimination in the country. Myanmar has more than 100 ethnic groups and majority of the population are Buddhists.
These creative videos offer a better understanding of Myanmar society as well as demonstrate the value of promoting human rights education in advocacy work.
