Martin Roth-Initiative Publication
2020
Kenyan Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are engaged in many different fields, including sexual orientation and gender identity, women and children rights, reproductive health, police killings and corruption. Their work exposes them as well as their home communities to threats, trauma and stress and has led to stigmatisation and loss of status in some cases. Therefore, defenders seek and are offered temporary relocations, where they are placed for a limited period of time in order to rest, build up capacity, extend their network and continue their work while being away and after returning home. This study focuses on the impact of temporary relocation programmes on HRDs’ home communities, an aspect that is often overlooked. The study is mainly based on data from a focus group discussion and individual interviews in 2019/2020 with 16 defenders, seven family members and seven NGO practitioners who assisted the defenders in the relocation process. The data shows that the home community mainly benefits from psychosocial well-being and safety improvements, knowledge sharing, new contacts and capacity building of the HRDs after returning home. Main challenges were related to unrealistic expectations of the home community, especially in financial terms, negative profiling due to association with controversial political affairs, strenuous application processes and socio-economic challenges as a consequence of the HRD being away. The study closes with practical recommendations to strengthen the home community, among others by engaging more with the HRD’s home community throughout the process and involving alumni in the programmes.
2021
Este documento sintetiza las principales conclusiones y recomendaciones de un estudio y cartografía de los programas de reubicación temporal para artistas y trabajadores culturales en América Latina. El estudio examina los elementos necesarios para impulsar colaboraciones entre las instituciones artísticas y las organizaciones de derechos humanos con el fin de brindar una mayor protección a artistas en riesgo y promover la libertad artística y de creación. El sector de los derechos humanos y de las artes abordan estos temas desde diferentes perspectivas, con diferente terminología y diferentes enfoques. El estudio invita a estos dos sectores a buscar sinergías en sus estrategias para atender mejor las necesidades de las y los artistas en riesgo tanto a nivel regional como a nivel de cada país en toda su diversidad.
2021
This brief summarises key findings and recommendations of a report that maps existing temporary relocation programmes for artists and cultural workers based in Latin American countries. The report investigates the prerequisites for partnerships between arts institutions and human rights organisations as a means to better protect artists at risk and to promote artistic freedom. The human rights and the arts sectors approach these aims from their different perspectives, with different terminology and different focuses. The study calls upon these two sectors to develop synergies in their strategies to better meet the needs of artists at risk in Latin American regional contexts in all their diversity.
2020
More systematic collaboration between temporary international relocation initiatives is necessary to guarantee that persecuted civil society actors will be provided with protective relocation in the safest and most effective way. This study identifies conditions and next steps for a more formal and structural collaboration of existing and developing initiatives. It addresses questions of case referral systems, data protection and security standards, knowledge exchange and joint monitoring on safe return, inter alia.
2021
El objetivo de este estudio es establecer un mapa inicial de los programas de reubicación temporal y redes de apoyo para artistas y trabajadores culturales en América Latina. Además, se examinan los elementos necesarios para impulsar colaboraciones entre las instituciones artísticas y las organizaciones de derechos humanos con el fin de brindar una mayor protección a artistas en riesgo y promover la libertad artística y de creación. El sector de los derechos humanos y de las artes abordan estos temas desde diferentes perspectivas, con diferente terminología y diferentes enfoques. El estudio invita a estos dos sectores a buscar sinergias en sus estrategias para atender mejor las necesidades de las y los artistas en riesgo tanto a nivel regional como a nivel de cada país. Para hacerlo, proporciona información sobre los desarrollos actuales en algunos países, por ejemplo en México, Argentina, Costa Rica y Colombia y presenta diferentes modelos de reubicación temporal.
2021
This study is a mapping of existing temporary relocation programmes and support networks for artists and cultural workers based in Latin American countries. It investigates the prerequisites for partnerships between arts institutions and human rights organisations as a means to better protect artists at risk and to promote artistic freedom. The human rights and the arts sectors approach these aims from their different perspectives, with different terminology and different focuses. The study calls upon these two sectors to develop synergies in their strategies to better meet the needs of artists at risk in Latin American regional contexts in all their diversity. As such, the study provides insights into current developments, e.g. in Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica and Colombia.
2022
Temporary international relocation initiatives (TIRIs) for artists and cultural workers are a form of international solidarity. Yet they are embedded in a context shaped by colonial history and global North-South power dynamics. In this report, the authors draw on the experiences of relocated artists as well as those of team members within TIRIs and host organisations to examine if TIRIs are currently equipped to identify power asymmetries, injustice, discrimination and racism at individual, institutional and structural levels and to effectively mitigate them. Finally, they develop holistic practical recommendations for greater equity and justice as well as an anti-racist approach for TIRIs and host organisations. This report addresses decision-makers and teams in TIRIs and host organisations, arts institutions, funders and policymakers. Both recognizing the existence of structural, systemic and individual injustice, racism and discrimination, and contributing to their eradication requires discomfort and constant self-reflection. Therefore, this report is an exercise in sitting with discomfort. The authors see this discomfort as a catalyst for change processes - an engine to sustain pressure to enact this change that cannot simply be dissolved by individual action. The full report can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.17901/akbp1.22.2022.
2022
Temporary international relocation initiatives (TIRIs) for artists and cultural workers are a form of international solidarity. Yet they are embedded in a context shaped by colonial history and global North-South power dynamics. In this report, the authors draw on the experiences of relocated artists as well as those of team members within TIRIs and host organisations to examine if TIRIs are currently equipped to identify power asymmetries, injustice, discrimination and racism at individual, institutional and structural levels and to effectively mitigate them. Finally, they develop holistic practical recommendations for greater equity and justice as well as an anti-racist approach for TIRIs and host organisations. This report addresses decision-makers and teams in TIRIs and host organisations, arts institutions, funders and policymakers. Both recognizing the existence of structural, systemic and individual injustice, racism and discrimination, and contributing to their eradication requires discomfort and constant self-reflection. Therefore, this report is an exercise in sitting with discomfort. The authors see this discomfort as a catalyst for change processes - an engine to sustain pressure to enact this change that cannot simply be dissolved by individual action.
2022
Covid-19 pandemisi kültür sanat sektörününde ağır bir darbeye yol açtı, sanatçıları daha fazla risk ve kısıtlamalarla karşı karşıya bıraktı ve sınırötesi hareketlilik ve iş birliği olanaklarına ket vurdu. Bu metin, pandeminin dönüştürdüğü bir dünyada sanatsal ifade özgürlüğü alanlarının nasıl koruna... mehr
2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the creative and cultural sectors hard; it has led to further risks and restrictions for artists, particularly for those who were already vulnerable, marginalized, or persecuted. It also hindered opportunities for cross border mobility and collaboration, thereby creating major obstacles for mobility and temporary relocation programs which aim to enable artists from restrictive political contexts to continue their practice. By learning from the experience of the Covid crisis, and particularly from restrictive contexts such as Turkey, this report explores how to support artists and maintain spaces of artistic freedom despite these circumstances. The report provides artists' perspectives and experiences related to the challenges of the pandemic, and presents the strategies they used to cope with them. As Covid exposed the interlinkage between economic, political, and psychosocial risks, the report provides a critical perspective on the concept of "risk" and of being "at-risk." It also examines the challenges and opportunities that affected the work of organizations supporting artistic freedom and mobility, and how those organizations were able to respond to the needs of artists in this period. Drawing on practices that emerged in response to the pandemic, the report develops recommendations to guide future attempts to expand transnational solidarity for artistic freedom in the face of the pandemic’s long-term impacts, as well as any future threats or obstacles of similar nature.
