2 October 2019

Human rights charity René Cassin has launched its annual essay competition, which this year has the theme ‘Social media: friend or foe of human rights?’

The winner of the ‘Human Writes’ contest will receive £100 and a copy of East West Street, Philippe Sands‘ acclaimed account of the Jewish legal minds who sowed the seeds for human rights law at the Nuremberg trials.

All shortlisted entries will be published on the René Cassin website and we will also highlight them on Liberal Judaism’s social media channels.

The judge is Adam Wagner, a friend of Liberal Judaism and former speaker at our Hot Potatoes panel events. Adam is a human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and the Founder and Chair of RightsInfo, the digital human rights charity.

Introducing this year’s competition on its website, the charity explained: “Social media provides activists with a platform for mobilisation, and holding public officials to account. A campaign can be launched with a few characters and the click of a ‘post’ button.

“However, its rise also exposes people to the risk of privacy violations. Social media censorship can go too far and threaten freedom of expression, or not go far enough and allow abuse and human rights violations to go unchecked. So, does social media help to protect human rights, does it threaten it?”

The competition is open to all and the age of the applicant will be considered. The deadline for entries is midday on Monday 11 November.

Adam has said he is looking for “for well researched, well argued and well written essays”.

For full entry details, please click here.