The guest of this episode has let his curiosity and constant questioning about the best way to have an impact on human rights guide his career. This less usual path led him to focus those last years on Hope-based communications because he strongly believes in our shared humanity and the need to stand in solidarity. “Hope is the idea that we can make change happen, and that human rights are too important to not be pursuing those goals. I suspect a lot of other people in our field, have this sort of this negative mindset (…) But actually, because if we never actually talk about what we're trying to achieve, it's less likely to happen. And so it's actually really important that we start to think about it.”
His compass in his work is made of his family history and the values he inherited from his families. “It was very clear to me actually, from a very young age, before I even knew what human rights were that I would work in human rights, quite simply because my family are Holocaust survivors. And I just always knew that I wanted to work to honour their legacy. Basically, if there was to be any meaning and what happened to my family, it was that it wouldn't happen again. And not just to Jewish people, but to any human beings.”
His entry point into the human rights world was through communication. This is the skill he thought he could contribute to the work of other actors. He insists that “communication is part of social change, work and human rights work. Just the work of raising awareness, letting people know that a violation is happening is traditional or basic communication. But strategic communication seeks to change people's minds, to change how they think, change their attitudes, and their behaviour.”
Thomas challenges everybody to think about “what it does look like to do human rights?”. He wants to bring across the idea that everybody can do contribute to human rights.
Therlt | Episode 13
