Youth Spotlight

Interview with Hands Up For Your Rights

“Hands Up for Your Rights” is a campaign that promotes youth empowerment for human rights, gender justice and democracy in Mongolia, a country whose cultural traditions largely impede domestic support for youth activism. Although Mongolia’s “age-hierarchical” culture does not allow younger people to have much power, Hands Up for Your Rights encourages youth participation through creative marketing of human and gender rights, such as through art or theater performances. It emphasizes the positive representation of democracy and uses peer-training, comic books, an annual parade, and festival to get its messages heard.
For more information: http://www.monfemnet.org/en_hands_up.php

What is life like for youth in Mongolia?
Mongolia is a developing country located in Central Asia. The predominant Mongolian ideology is based on ancient traditions and culture. The majority of the population is made up of younger people whose lives vary widely based on where they live. In urban areas youth have access to many different resources and schools with better education. In rural areas the youth are forced to work very hard and have few or no resources for learning. There are other differences in the lives of young people from urban and rural areas, including culture and access to technology. In general, youth depend on their parents and do not have economic independence. They must abide by their parents’ wills and have no freedom to do as they choose. However, some younger people do have choices and are able to make their own decisions.   

How does Hands Up for Your Rights use pop culture and media to express democratic values? What inspires you to come up with new and creative activities?
The Youth campaign “Hands Up for Your Rights” is intended as a fun, dynamic, and participatory mechanism to support youth empowerment and youth activism for human rights, gender justice and democracy in Mongolia. Since beginning my participation in the campaign I have become happier, more self-confident, and more knowledgeable about democratic values. Use of media has helped put the issues in a context in which people can easily relate. Because we have very little money to commit to advertising, we have been forced to be very creative to devise new and interesting ideas to reach the public, as advertising our activities and beliefs through newspapers and TV is extremely expensive. The internet has therefore significantly helped us because it is inexpensive and we can spread our message easily and efficiently to others.

Do you find that using skits, dance, and other fun activities to express your message helps increase participation among youth? Especially among youth who do not typically participate?
Art is a very effective and inexpensive way to raise awareness because it is easy to understand and it provokes interesting conversations between people. Many events promoting democratic efforts are seen as boring, simply consisting of lectures and competitions. Skits, dance, and other fun activities allow for new and interesting ways to express our feelings about human rights.  For instance, we started a human rights theater in which we created the plays ourselves. The majority of our audience was made up of young people who generally do not participate. After seeing the play many became interested in our work, as the play helped them to understand the struggles of others, and what it is that we do. Simply stated, the human rights theater helped the youth better understand our values. We believe that using art in this way is a good first step to understanding other people because it comes from the heart.

How do people like your parents or professors respond to your work towards gender equality?
Many adults think that youth can’t make their own decisions and that they become obsessed with trivial things. They don’t seem to understand what youth will learn from this campaign and they believe that school lessons are more important than our efforts. Parents make assumptions about what messages the campaign is spreading without actually coming to understand it. They think that gender equality is only about women’s rights, and they believe women have enough rights. They also think living in a patriarchal society is only about women, but our message is that it is difficult for the whole society involved. Some people are beginning to understand our message, and this helps me to believe we can change people’s perceptions about gender equality.

What is the greatest difficulty for youth activists in Mongolia?
One difficulty is age hierarchy. If a young person tries to educate about human rights, adults don’t believe that the youth are old enough to be able to give this kind of information. They claim that they don’t have enough life experiences and could not know. Most people tend to believe or trust those that are older more than those that are younger even if they do not actually know as much. This is very frustrating for the youth. Many older adults also believe that youth are just trying to imitate western culture and their activism has nothing to actually do with Mongolia. They also think that the campaign is tied to a certain political party whose only intention is to get your vote. Lastly, many youth activists go to college full time and are challenged by balancing their studies with organizing activities. 

Submitted by campaign members:
Ts.Mandkhaikhatan
B.Batmandakh