Amnesty International trains young Moroccans in cyber-activism

2009-08-05

The 11th Amnesty national youth campus breathes fresh life into activism, using new technologies like social networks.

By Rachid Jankari for Magharebia in Ifrane – 05/08/09

[Rachid Jankari] Young Moroccans work with Amnesty International in Ifrane to learn high-tech strategies for activism.

The Moroccan section of Amnesty International held its 11th national campus for young activists from July 26th-August 1st in Ifrane. Entitled "Human rights and the internet: a new voice for dignity", the workshop immersed young people in human rights culture and revealed opportunities for cyber-activism.

"Forty young people from different regions of Morocco, aged 18 to 22, took part in this training meeting in Ifrane," said Touria Bouabid, co-ordinator of Amnesty International's human rights education programme in Morocco. "The objective: to discover the opportunities offered by the internet in the defence of human rights causes."

Using infrastructure available in the IT laboratories at Al Akhawayn University, the organisers ran themed workshops on the different tools available for activism on the Web.

"We made the young people aware of the possibilities offered by technology, citizen journalism and social networks to reach the maximum number of citizens, governments and NGOs, via tools such as blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr," said Otmane Taoufiq, Amnesty Maroc's information and communication officer.

Given the dynamic market for IT equipment and the use of the internet in Morocco, the potential for human rights activism is considerable. The kingdom currently has more than 840,000 internet subscribers, 8 million Web users and 127,000 members on social networking site Facebook's "Morocco" channel.

Cyber-activism has become an integral part of the landscape of political activism in Morocco, with several online campaigns launched in 2008. These included efforts on behalf of blogger Erraji, who in September 2008 was acquitted of writing an article deemed disrespectful of the king. Another beneficiary of cyber-activism was Fouad Mourtada, who in March 2008 was pardoned by the king after receiving a three-year jail term for posing as Prince Moulay Rachid on Facebook.

Capitalising on its international network, Amnesty International Morocco has enjoyed support from the Dutch section in running some of its campus-based work. Young Dutch members of Amnesty International led workshops looking at public action techniques and internet campaigns.

"My stay on the Amnesty campus has enabled me to get a clearer idea of the new methods of activism that can be used to defend rights, particularly podcasting and online multimedia publication techniques," said Dounia Mahbouby, a young student from Marrakesh.

The interest in information technology shown by Amnesty's Moroccan section is nothing new. In addition to the Ifrane event, a competition was recently launched to select the best blogs dealing with the issue of the abolition of the death penalty by countries in the North African region and the Middle East. Details about the competition, which is open to young people aged 18 to 25, can be found on the Amnesty Maroc website.

The Moroccan section of Amnesty International was founded in 1994. Today there are 11 groups and 7 specialist networks uniting youth, women, lawyers, doctors and journalists, among others. Amnesty International as a whole has two million active members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions.