Client
Iridia
Year
2023
Type of work
Campaigns
Irídia is a Catalonia-based association dedicated to defending human civil and political rights. They actively work against institutional violence and advocate for changes in public policy, through a varied methodology, employing strategic litigation and communication, interventions, and political action. To support their mission, we launched a digital campaign to raise awareness about their report on human rights violations at the southern Spanish border. The main goal was to inform the public about an ongoing issue, and encourage people to sign a manifesto challenging these injustices.
Given our desire to inspire action, we started to analyze the reasons behind inaction, and this shared feeling of powerlessness. Our research revealed that this lack of sense of agency among the general public is due to an array of factors - for instance, the overwhelming dimension of the issue, geographical distance, the opacity of information, the entangled network of agents... Therefore, the key challenge for this campaign became the following: how can we revert this situation and counter the dominant tendency towards collective paralysis?
Iridia’s report on human rights violations at the southern borders, covering data from 2021-2022, was quite long (162 pages!), so in order to make the information intelligible and impactful, without reducing the complexity of the issue, we proposed a narrative that focused on 5 key mechanisms that, under the justification of “protecting and securing the border”, instead enforce racist and violent practices.
By identifying these mechanisms we would encourage the public to face the violence and its role in migration and human rights. The five mechanisms are:
- Pushbacks (“Devoluciones en caliente”) - check the post out here.
- Detention devices (“Dispositivos de detención”) - post here.
- Systematic deaths and disappearances (“Muertes y desapariciones sistemáticas”) - post here.
- Lack of protection for children (“Desprotección de la infancia”) - post here.
- Technologisation of the border (“Tecnificación de la frontera”) - post here.
Each of these five racist mechanisms constituted the basis for a social media post that visually and verbally explained the mechanism, communicating key data and information from the report, in an understandable and accessible way. Visually, we referenced recognition technologies, typical of border zones, using analysis techniques, gestures, and identification processes such as: signing, showing the passport, surveillance cameras, etc. We appropriated the graphic language of these forms of aggression to encourage others to recognise them and demand their deactivation.
Beyond the five racist physical mechanisms practiced at the border towards migrants, emerged an overarching act of violence: the conscious and repeated decision by government institutions to keep migration information opaque, absent and biased, which is done with the intention of nullifying the agency of those who can contribute to the transformation.
By disseminating information on a very grave yet pressing topic, and using visuals to emphasize an escape from the pessimistic point of view, and in so doing, redirect to an empowering and hopeful future, we negated the “nothing can be done anymore” speech, and instead tried to help the audience understand how they can be agents of change.
Data impact:
- The manifesto reached 312 signatures through the online campaign
- 631 likes on Instagram on the campaign posts
Walking the Southern Border
What is the biggest barrier preventing you from taking action on the issues that matter most to you?
Number of answers:
