The Power of Blogging

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights, May 15

Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or support 3rd world countries.

It is an interesting perception of the power of blogging, and reminds me a bit of Howard Rheingold’s concept of Smart Mobs.

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15. What those topics may include — the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the Internet. What is important is that on one day, thousands of bloggers unite and share their unified support of human rights everywhere.

Previous campaigns were

• 17 Dec 2007 - Acts of Kindness
• 7 Sept 2007 - Bloggers against Abuse
• 18 July 2007 - Organ Donor Awareness Campaign

The site contains information from Amnesty International about human rights.

Closer to home, people might look at information to be found on Australia’s Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). They have some excellent education pages, providing resources and information for teachers, students, media, legal services, and business groups. Their focus is what human rights are, where they come from and how they are protected in international and Australian law. Most importantly the resources encourage people to explore the relevance of human rights in their own communities.