The Advocacy Assembly team were inspired to build the project after running a number of on-the-ground workshops. Working with activists and organisations in at-risk areas or conflict zones meant we’d often have participants that could not attend for security reasons and had to pull out at the last minute, or that we’d have participants attending our workshops who had varied skill levels. This combined with the countless requests we got from activists and journalists to put our best training material online so they would keep their skills up to date led us to create Advocacy Assembly.
tina carr
Director, Rory Peck Trust
"Working in a new media environment is a challenge for freelance journalists in exile. Through our contribution to this online platform, we hope to provide both encouragement and practical skills that will help freelance journalists to adapt and thrive."
dr ahmed shaheed
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran
"By establishing a safe online space where human rights organisations can collectively offer training to human rights defenders, Advocacy Assembly has created what can only be described as the premier online university for the human rights community. It is a much needed initiative."
rose parris-richter
Executive Director of the Human Rights in Iran Unit, CUNY
"Efforts to document human rights violations have been invaluable to the human rights movement globally. Advocacy Assembly offers an opportunity to take pedagogy to another level. Its interactive and accessible platform is a safe tool for emerging practitioners and researchers to explore methodologies for human rights documentation, in addition to the ethical, privacy and security challenges posed by our work."
marco túlio pires
Former Programme Director, School of Data; Currently Google News Lab
"School of Data is very experienced in face to face training but we know we can’t reach everybody like this. We are very excited to break the geographic barriers and reach new audiences through this amazing online, multi-lingual platform."
Find out more
We’re looking for innovative organisations who have unique training material that can be adapted for the Advocacy Assembly platform. We have a comprehensive style guide you’ll need to follow to make sure our students get the same level of engagement with all courses, but we have a dedicated team on hand to guide you through the process. If you want to reach more students than you ever have been able to before and you are interested in finding out more about becoming a teaching partner, please get in touch.
Yvonne Ng is an audiovisual archivist and the Archives Program Manager at WITNESS. Working at the intersection of human rights, technology, and human rights, Yvonne supports and trains grassroots activists on collecting, managing, and preserving video evidence for advocacy and evidence. Yvonne holds an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University.
Felicia Anthonio
Felicia Anthonio works with Access Now as #KeepItOn Campaign Manager – leading a global campaign that unites over 280 organizations around the world working to fight against internet shutdowns. Before joining Access Now, she was a Programme Associate at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) where she coordinated the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a continental network of free expression organizations in Africa.
Maria Xynou
Maria Xynou has worked with the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) since 2016, where she manages community engagement and research on internet censorship around the world. Previously, she worked with Tactical Tech where she created privacy and digital security resources, investigated the data industry, and facilitated digital security workshops for human rights defenders.
Cathrine Anite
Catherine Anite is a Human Rights lawyer and freedom of expression expert. She is the Director of Global Programmes at Small Media Foundation, leading UPR engagements and championing digital rights in over thirty countries in Africa, MENA region and Central Asia under the UPROAR project. She is also the Founding Director of the Freedom of Expression Hub, an organisation working to promote and defend the right to freedom of expression in Uganda.
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