Activism Academy

04/07/2022

Hello dear followers! We are taking a break for the summer to recharge:) we’ll see you again soon with new content 💪🏻 thank you for staying with us and we wish you a great holiday! The AA Team ❤️

30/06/2022

Monthly news are back 📸 Scroll through the post to get a quick catch up on news that might have gone under your radar!

24/05/2022

Check out the new episode of the Activism Academy Podcast with Jacopo Di Miceli! Jacopo is a freelance author for several Italian magazines and newspapers and the man behind (conspiracism watch), a project he created for a political and historical analysis of conspiracy theories. He joined us to help navigate the sea of news about the war in

25/02/2022

We know many are wondering how to help people in today. We have collected a list of resources and ways in which you can support. Check it out, and share it widely: https://activismacademy.com/2022/02/stand-with-ukraine-how-to-help/

Human Rights News Peace & War Resources Ukraine Stand With Ukraine – How to Help 5 mins ago Bjørn Ihler Picture from a subway station turned into a bomb-shelter in Kyiv last night. Photo by Yuliia Sachuk. As we, at the Khalifa Ihler Institute stated yesterday we stand with the people of Ukraine. ...

06/01/2022

Today, a year after the insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, calling for the death of those they viewed as political opponents in an attack that resulted in at least seven deaths, section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution is perhaps more relevant than ever. On the

20/11/2021

375 transgender people were killed in 2021, marking this year as the deadliest yet. In remembrance of them, of all unreported victims, of all those murdered for being who they are, the Actvism Academy observes Transgender Day of Remembrance to commemorate their lives and to remind you that trans people are people who deserve equality, safety, healthcare and opportunities.

Educate yourself. Understand. Have empathy. Reach out. Educate others. Support equality and be there for the transgender and non-binary community.

Sources: Forbes Online, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign

04/10/2021

Missed out on some news? Here's a handy overview of what happened - Germany's elections, the Haitian migrant crisis, climate change, indigenous communites fighting back and other news from around the globe!
Link in the comments!

08/09/2021

Norway-based Italian and advocate Agata Borghesan talks to us about the issue of conscious & responsible use of social media, the role of its algorithms in shaping our body image & affecting our mental health.

Tune in to the Activism Academy Podcast here: https://bit.ly/3DVBbxn

Agata Borghesan, aka Solitude Skinny Scars, is an Italian alternative model and performer who works worldwide to try to create different, dark and deep art. She has been internationally published in magazines (previously also on DBM) and books, and her pictures have been part of europewide exhibitions, either organized by herself or by photographers she worked with. One of her major topics is mental health awareness, a theme on which she also published e-books of poetry and a novel, both in her native language Italian and in English.

Follow her on instagram

18/08/2021

Multiple organizations and event organizers in Tunisia are trying to create a healthy discussion around sexuality and gender. Mawjoudin, Damj, Chouf and Falgatna as well as many Tunisian activists and human rights defenders are fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ community that is still being discriminated against, not only by an archaic penal law but also vague morality legislations in addition to social stigma and intolerance. We had the honor to speak to non-binary activist Weema Yahyaoui Askri to get an idea about q***r rights in Tunisia, how far the fight has come and what is being done to protect members of the LGBTQ community.

Listen to the podcast here: https://anchor.fm/activismacademy/episodes/6-LGBTQ-activism-in-Tunisia-a-conversation-with-q***r-activist-Weema-Yahyaoui-Askri-e163rv1

About Weema:
Weema is a non-binary q***r activist from Tunisia. They have joined Mawjoudin as the coordinator for Mawjoudin Q***r Film Festival in its third edition in 2019, and then started working as a project officer for the project q***r refugees in Tunisia. The project is for q***r immigrants, migrant, refugees and q***r asylum in Tunisia. They are also chair board of directors with the African Q***r Youth Initiative, where they have been a member since 2017. AQYI is a network of youth activists and organisations mobilizing, supporting and amplifying the voice of LGBTIQ activists in support of LGBTIQ youth in Africa.

Follow us on Twitter or Instagram:
https://twitter.com/ActivismAcademy
https://www.instagram.com/activism.academy/

12/08/2021

Aymen Bessalah wrote this analysis on the events of July 25th in Tunisia when President Kais Saied invoked article 80 and implemented exceptional measures including the freezing of parliament, the sacking of the prime minister and lifting parliamentary immunity off all members of parliament. Aymen shares with us his insights on the events, their background and the narrative around Kais Saied's moves.

You can read it here: https://activismacademy.com/2021/08/foreign-tunisia-experts-vs-local-voices-determinism-or-another-crisis-of-liberal-democracy/

Aymen Bessalah is a Tunisia based activist. He studied International Relations at the University of Tunis El Manar and holds an MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe.

06/08/2021

On July 25th, has gone through a major political upheaval. We invited Tunisian researchers/activists Belkiss Anane Heythem S. Guesmi and Habib Sayah to talk about 's measures and to find out how Tunisians perceive the unfolding events.

Listen to the podcast here: https://anchor.fm/activismacademy

About the speakers:

Belkiss Anane is a Washington, DC- based Tunisian consultant. Mathematician by training, she holds a minor in MENA studies from Northwestern University and has pursued African Studies at the African Leadership Academy. Belkis has been active with several NGOs in the U.S. and Tunisia, largely focusing on the Arab region and specifically on women empowerment and Palestinian affairs.

Heythem Guesmi is a 30-year-old researcher in rural politics and peasants struggles. He belongs to the "Youth of the Revolution", is interested in the history of transitions and the establishment of cultural hegemony.

Habib Sayah is a Tunisia-based consultant and researcher. His recent work has focused on security sector reform as well as the effects of disinformation and propaganda on social cohesion, community resilience, and polarisation. He holds a Master’s degree from the War Studies department at King’s College London.

06/07/2021

Eliza Rutynowska warns against the crumbling of the rule of law and the human rights infringements happening in total impunity in Poland. If you want to know more, you can read her article on the Heinrich Böll Stiftung website or stay tuned to catch her talking to us on our podcast, tomorrow at 2 pm.

Eliza Rutynowska is a lawyer at the Civil Development Forum in Poland and a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Criminal Law at Warsaw University and advocate trainee at the Warsaw Bar Association. She is a Graduate in Law of the Faculty of Law at the University of Warsaw and Graduate with merit of the British Law Center Diploma in English and European Law at the Warsaw University in cooperation with University of Cambridge.

05/07/2021

New Op-Ed is up 🥳! Intersectional q***r feminist Mouna Abid talks about in the African context and the hurdles the community faces.
Read it here https://bit.ly/3hBOwAD
If you want to submit your own pitch or piece, don't hesitate to read the submission guidelines and contact us here: https://activismacademy.com/tips-submissions/

23/06/2021

To celebrate Pride Month, we launch our podcast with a conversation of the LGBTQ+ struggle in Italy with professor Angelo Schillaci and your co-hosts Hella Grichi and Miriam Fanin. Although part of the EU, Italy is severely lacking in protecting the LGBTQ+ community. The far-right parties are now endangering it even more by purposely delaying the approval of the new “Zan Law against hate crimes towards women, disabled and LGBTQ+ people”. With homophobic aggressions being recorded everyday, we
analyse the struggle for civil rights in one of the oldest countries in the world.
You can listen to it via this link on Spotify or on other major podcast platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/6h88Ch6JTVwqonXMhNpPxh?si=FG-07Jv0R7ShAvdm7bQ5Wg&dl_branch=1

Happy Pride everyone! Be strong, be brave, be yourselves! We got your back!

22/06/2021

Hurray! The Khalifa Ihler Institute is relaunching the Activism Academy, a platform for activists, changemakers and those passionate about human rights, politics and countering extremism to share their own views, explore others' activism and be part of a global community of fighters. We're relaunching during so this post goes out to everyone inside or outside the closet, to the LGBTQ+ community in all its richness and myriad facets and to everyone fighting for a better world.The Activism Academy got your back! If you'd like to contribute an article, head over to our website and submit your proposal! We also take podcast suggestions! Drop your submissions at www.activismacademy.com

18/06/2020

Follow the 2nd iteration of the Extremely Together Digital Discussions here:

03/06/2020

‘We Demand Justice for George Floyd’ - An open letter by Fatima Zaman and Yasmine Ouirhrane, undersigned by ‘the Collective of Voices’, an international group of activists, journalists and supporters of the movement.

An open letter by Fatima Zaman and Yasmine Ouirhrane, undersigned by ‘the Collective of Voices’, an international group of activists, journalists and supporters of the …

01/06/2020

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protest-safely-surveillance-digital-privacy/

Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here's how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

01/06/2020

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world w. 655 incarcerated pr. 100k citizens – when broken down by ethnicity are however even more shocking as amongst the white population the rate is 450 per 100k while among the black population the rate is 2306 per 100k.

By these stats, black Americans are more than five times more likely to be incarcerated than white Americans. The systemic racism here should be visible for all to see.

There are some key factors behind these numbers, all of which are building on structural racism:

1. Direct racism from the police who are way more likely to even just stop black people

2. Direct racism in the courts, judges and juries that are way more likely to sentence, and more harshly sentence black people.

3. Social inequality based on racism, giving people fewer options and opportunities – upwards social mobility is close to impossible even for white Americans, and racism ingrained in the people makes it even harder for minorities who often are subjected both to overt hate and to less visible “suspicion”.

This less visible “suspicion” is a deeply rooted issue with severe consequences, making it harder for black Americans, and minorities everywhere to get a decent job, a decent education, a new apartment – or walking down the street without getting stopped and frisked, or even killed.

Most people don’t define themselves as racists, most people don’t become skinheads, most people don’t beat up people, most people want to be good guys – yet a lot of people who think they’re the “good guys” still embody this “suspicion”.

This form of racism is part of a structure violently oppressing minorities.

This is the form of violence that has justified the imbalance in the incarceration-rates, that for centuries have been embodied by policy and culture telling the masses what to believe about people – this is the form of violence that is used to justify police brutality.

Until we’re done with this less visible form of racism we’re not done with racism and the structures that support the violent oppression, the murders, the mass incarceration, the enslavement, the discrimination of minorities.

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world w. 655 incarcerated pr. 100k citizens – when broken down by ethnicity are however even more shocking as amongst the white population the…

31/05/2020

If you choose to follow the line of the authorities, the line of white supremacists and those who choose to call these protests "riots" in an effort to delegitimize those protesting for their rights to live, to breathe, to be free - then you stand on the side of the oppressors, the side of the far-right - if so; you are on the wrong side of history.

I’m pretty annoyed with people saying “the protests have violence and looting so they’re riots and the authorities are justified in wanting to shut them down.” First of all,…

31/05/2020

The Far-Right has dreamt of “race-war” for decades – they’re out in the streets now, hiding in the crowds, instigating violence.

Remember – this is not their war – this is people protesting for their right to live and thrive in their homeland.

This is a struggle between those who want an apartheid state and those who do not.

A protest for freedom and life.

It started with yet another black man murdered by the police. A white police officer kneeling on the throat of a man named George, begging for his life, begging to breathe. Anyone with any fibre of…

30/05/2020

The greatest threat to freedom in America is the President - Bjørn Ihler is trying to make sense of a few very messy and disturbing days here:

Twitter is not a threat to freedom of expression – the people deploying the army against protesters protesting for their right to live without fear are! It’s been a disturbing couple of…

29/05/2020

Paul Omar Lervåg shares some perspectives on the rhetoric of Trump and his followers - check it out:

If one thing is certain to everyone, is that President Donald Trump tends to run away from responsibility. How does he do this? By performing a hit and run on America and its citizens. One would th…

19/05/2020

Editor Bjørn Ihler shared his perspectives on extremism and the Norwegian far right with the podcast Political Bark - give it a listen here:

In this week´s episode of Political Bark we discuss right wing terrorism and how we talk about right wing terrorists. With us, we have Bjørn Ihler, Utøya survivor, peace activist, and part of the Kofi Annan "Extreme Together" foundation, that works on combatting terrorism. Ihler gives us the nece...

16/05/2020

Today is the International Day of Living Together In Peace - let's mark it by recommitting ourselves to standing united in diversity, together for peace. https://activismacademy.com/2020/05/living-together-in-peace/

Today, May 16th is the International Day of Living Together In Peace. The day was established in 2016 by UNGA resolution 72/130 as a means of regularly mobilizing the efforts of the international c…

15/05/2020

Since appearing on CNN yesterday Greta Thunberg has been under attack - we see time and time again that conservative, patriarchal voices try to silence what they see as the greatest threat against their way of life, young, female activists, as we support this threat to this vastly unacceptable way of life we stand with Greta and hope she and other young, female activists will keep pi***ng off asshats.

Fellow activist and environmentalist Greta Thunberg participated in a live CNN Townhall dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While we welcome the participation of the young activist her part…

14/05/2020

We have a n**i terrorist problem. And the first step to solving a problem is to admit that we have one. The ongoing trial against Philip Manshaus, as well as the way in which it’s being discussed, is a clear indicator of that, and a clear indicator not much has changed since the trial against Breivik in 2011 – except that we seem a bit more jaded, a bit less surprised now.

https://activismacademy.com/2020/05/norway-has-a-terrorist-problem/

We have a n**i terrorist problem. And the first step to solving a problem is to admit that we have one. The ongoing trial against Philip Manshaus, as well as the way in which it’s being discu…

11/05/2020

In today's post, we've invited Verónica Celis Vergara, the CEO and founder of EnlightAID to share her insights from building a new app to promote transparency in the aid sector. The post was originally published on Enlight Aid's Medium Site here. After about a year of design and coding work, we are finally (almost!) ready to launch. You might be wondering what exactly EnlightAID is and does. [ 1,556 more word ]
https://activismacademy.com/2020/05/new-tech-brings-transparency-to-aid/

In today’s post, we’ve invited Verónica Celis Vergara, the CEO and founder of EnlightAID to share her insights from building a new app to promote transparency in the aid sector. The pos…

10/05/2020

We are happy and proud to present our first post by Paul Omar Lervåg; Feasting on Insecurity - The Fashion Industry and Our Expectations
https://activismacademy.com/2020/05/feasting-on-insecurity/

I often think that certain patterns of sexual attraction and excitement are socially conditioned and somewhat rehearsed. I’m not talking about sexual orientations, but more about the superficial fe…

09/05/2020

In late March the UN Secretary General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire in response to the outbreak of the global Covid19 Pandemic. Let’s not forget that in war-ravaged countries, health systems have collapsed. Health professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. António Guterres In response to the call, the UN Security Council started working on a resolution. [ 363 more words ]
https://activismacademy.com/2020/05/the-us-blocks-vote-on-global-ceasefire/

In late March the UN Secretary General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire in response to the outbreak of the global Covid19 Pandemic. Let’s not forget that in war-ravaged countries, hea…