(New York) – Human Rights Watch has won two 2023 Webby Awards, the leading international prize honoring excellence on the internet.
One award is for a series of social media videos that draw attention to human rights abuses in Russia’s war in Ukraine. The second Webby is for an interactive campaign about online learning products that may have surveilled children and harvested personal data during Covid-19 school closures. Human Rights Watch also received a Webby Honoree distinction for the video #WelcomeToCanada, which is part of a larger campaign urging the Canadian government to abolish its immigration detention policies.
“Winning a Webby Award for our rapid response video coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine shows there’s a demand for reliable information, a demand to stop atrocities, and a demand for accountability,” said Ifé Fatunase, multimedia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s a great privilege to be able to tell these stories, and we are honored to have been recognized.”
The Human Rights Watch project, which won in the category of social media content on News and Politics, contains close to a dozen short videos posted to social media to shed the light on war crimes and other abuses committed soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
#StudentsNotProducts won a People’s Voice Award in the Websites and Mobile Sites
Responsible Innovation category. Human Rights Watch created an interactive online campaign and video that uncovers children’s rights violations worldwide by governments that authorized online learning products during the Covid-19 pandemic without adequately protecting children’s privacy.
“Children deserve to be safe at school, in person and online,” said Amanda Alampi, acting campaigns and public engagement director at Human Rights Watch. “Inspired by our groundbreaking research, the Human Rights Watch #StudentsNotProducts campaign gave parents, teachers, and children the tools to protect kids from government-recommended online learning products that harmed children’s rights.”
With two honors presented in each category, the 27th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 14,000 entries from over 70 countries worldwide, and a record number of social entries. Human Rights Watch competed against some of the world’s best and biggest news organizations, including Reuters and CBS News. Winners will be honored at a ceremony in New York City tonight, on May 15. The awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a network of over 2,000 members.
Ifé Fatunase, Laura Prieto Uribe, video producer and editor at Human Rights Watch, and Ziva Luddy Juneja, digital campaigner at Human Rights Watch will attend the ceremony and have the opportunity to deliver one of the Webby’s famous five-word acceptance speeches on behalf of the organization.
