I had the pleasure last week to represent Google and YouTube at an award ceremony in the Italian Parliament in Rome to celebrate the winning short films in a competition titled Action for Women . This initiative was jointly organised by the Parliament and the Council of Europe to raise awareness of human rights and, in this case, specifically of women’s rights and violence against women. YouTube served as the platform for the competition and aspiring film directors competed by uploading their short-film entries to Action for Women’s YouTube channel. A prestigious panel of judges, including the Venice Film Festival’s Enrico Magrelli and film directors such as Francesca Comencini and Jaco Van Dormael then shortlisted the entries, with YouTube viewers voting online to select the final three. The powerful winning films, shown during the ceremony, were: First-prize winner, Corrado Ceron, has been awarded a screening during the forthcoming Venice Film Festival in September. But just as important, all the eligible videos remain available through the Action for Women YouTube Channel, and therefore go on raising public awareness about the personal and societal damage caused by violence and aggression against women. During the ceremony, I spoke about how the Internet can help underpin fundamental human rights and raise awareness for social campaigns. Action for Women is a great example of this - a creative initiative that reached out to a global audience, mobilised public participation, engaged proactively with the wider community and which can now incorporate user feedback to inform future similar campaigns. As Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Lower House, underlined during the ceremony, the Internet is a fundamental tool for enabling democratic participation. Deborah Bergamini MP - behind the original idea for Action for Women - added that the Internet is an important space for women in particular to express themselves freely. Giorgia Meloni, Italian Youth Minister, called on political institutions to look at how they can take advantage of the Internet’s great communication opportunities rather than just focusing on its challenges. For our part, we were of course delighted to partner with this initiative - which brought together 516 films and generated more than six million channel views. We look forward to seeing more individuals and organisations make use of internet platforms such as YouTube to promote good causes and advance respect for human rights. Posted by Susan Pointer, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations, Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa
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