While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.
Back in December we featured an episode about North Korea – but with a twist. Beyond the ritual condemnations of egregious practices under Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, it’s rare to get a close-up view of what the people who escape from North Korea think and feel about their lives and the future they want. Hanna Song, Executive Director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, reflects on what she has learned – a more nuanced and complex picture than is usually painted.
And in the Coda, a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer relies on soccer to keep things cordial. Music by Oliver Mtukudzi.
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Quick Links
Click here to read the Episode 48 Transcript.
Hanna Song bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanna-song-25055a114/
Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB): https://en.nkdb.org/
NKDB: 2024 White Paper on North Korean Human Rights: https://en.nkdb.org/activitynews/?idx=125777386&bmode=view
UN: Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-idprk/reportofthe-commissionof-inquiry-dprk
While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.
Coda #24 featured criminal justice and human rights expert Chris Stone reading and reflecting on a poem by Seamus Heaney, called Casualty. This famous poem of the Northern Ireland Troubles tells the story of an event that followed Bloody Sunday, the day in 1972 when British soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians in Derry as they were protesting internment without trial.
Quick Links
Seamus Heaney’s Casualty: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51607/casualty-56d22f7512b97
Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)
Chris Stone: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/christopher-stone
Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights: https://strengthandsolidarity.org/about/
While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.
Last April, in Episode 51, I talked with Negin Shiraghaei, founder of Azadi Network, about her work to build a network for Iranians in the diaspora – as a common space for advancing human rights and democracy at home. She talked about the complexity of the task, and the value of embracing lessons from failure.
Here's the orginal show notes:
In the quarter century since Iran’s Islamic revolution, thousands of Iranians have left their home to live in exile. Although they all have a country in common, that diaspora is hugely diverse – coming from different generations and with a wide range of origin stories, political allegiances and views about the change they would like to see in Iran. When in 2022 a young woman in Iran was beaten and killed by the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, anger across the exile community suggested favorable conditions for a diaspora movement for rights in Iran to emerge. But what form should such a movement take? The founder and co-director of Azadi Network, Negin Shiraghaei, reflects on the choices she and other organizers faced as they took up that challenge.
And in the Coda, Turkish eco-activist Burcu Meltem Arik shares a poem by Nazim Hikmet reminding us of what nature can teach us about resilience. Music Credit: Ben Sığmazam by Özge Arslan, 2023
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Strength&Solidarity is taking a break and that gives us a chance to re-up some favourite episodes.
Here’s Coda #3 in which US civil rights veteran Charles Cobb Jr looks back to 1963 and a chance meeting between some young black activists in the segregated south and a future Kenyan Vice President. That event went on to be celebrated in a song that became a favourite in the civil rights movement.
And don’t forget there are nearly 50 codas for you to explore – young activist poets in Sudan’s brilliant but sadly defeated revolution; a young US lawyer recalling the profound connection he found in 1980s El Salvador; a human rights ED who took up his guitar and sang us a lovely Mercedes Sosa song – not to mention favourite poems, music and activities – from wild swimming to reading to the kids at bedtime. It’s a treasure trove for you to explore - take ten minutes out to decompress and experience someone-else’s world.
It can sometimes seem as though fighting for queer rights in a hostile society is an unwinnable project. All too often, punitive laws, state violence, economic exclusion and social hostility are stacked against a community that is isolated and excluded. That’s certainly true in Tunisia and other North African countries. But in this episode, queer Tunisian activist Assala Mdawkhy tells host Akwe Amosu that creating safe spaces and building a movement for LGBTQI rights should be taken as indicators of staying power and eventual success.
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If you are one of the people feeling that things are not going to be all right, this one’s for you.
Coda #46 comes from Bill McKibben, veteran climate change activist and founder of multiple campaigns and organisations – check out Strength&Solidarity Ep. 57. He told us how hard it can be to stay optimistic, when the odds against success seem high. The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun is one of his go-to tracks for regaining his footing, so perhaps it’s no surprise that he is currently organising people to “rise up” for Sun Day, a day of action “for a sun-powered planet” next month, 21 September,
We’ve started releasing the Coda as a separate show, not just part of the main Strength&Solidarity podcast. You will find both of them in our feed here, or on our Substack page, with transcripts, and related links. If you subscribe at https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity, you will receive the “host’s note” accompanying each show.
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Quick Links
Bio: Bill McKibben: https://billmckibben.com/
Sun Day: Day of action, 21 September 2025 :https://www.sunday.earth/
Wikipedia: The Beatle’s Abbey Road: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Road
WikipediaL Nina Simone’s O-o-h Child: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-o-h_Child
What’s your image of an activist? Someone in a bandanna facing down a line of cops? Or chaining themselves to a tree? You may well have imagined someone young because that’s the stereotype: the student ready to take on the world - until they get bogged down in work obligations and childcare. But veteran climate justice organizer Bill McKibben thinks that cliché is due for retirement. Four years ago he co-founded Third Act, a campaigning organization in the United States for the over-60s, working on climate, democracy and racial justice. He tells host Akwe Amosu how well that bet has turned out, and about a game-changing development in renewable energy that’s giving him hope.
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Quick Links:
A young boy growing up in South Bend, Indiana, goes to the library every week with his mother and comes back with a brown grocery bag full of books. He doesn’t know it then, but it’s the start of a lifelong journey of involvement in the human rights movement. Listen to Chris Grove, executive director of ESCR-Net explain how books showed him a lineage of struggle he could join, and how they are still guiding him – and his young son.
From now on we are releasing the Coda as a separate show, not just part of the main Strength&Solidarity podcast. You will find both of them in our feed here, or on our Substack page, with transcripts, and related links. If you subscribe at https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity, you will receive the “host’s note” accompanying each show.
Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org
MUSIC
Abdullah Ibrahim - Mannenberg (live)
Abdullah Ibrahim - Ancient Africa (live)
The levels of stress and – at worst – burn-out in the human rights field are, anecdotally at least, at remarkably high levels. That may not be surprising in an era of rising authoritarianism, shrinking funds and expanding abuse of rights. But is the impact on those who organize and work in human rights sufficiently understood and recognized? If the rights movements and organizations are to meet this moment, is there a need for a new strategy? Host Akwe Amosu seeks the view of Trine Christensen, coach and formerly the secretary general of Amnesty Denmark, until she herself burned out.
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These are stressful times for human rights activists where every day, a new development may cause despondency or rage. Feminist activist and campaigner Francoise Girard explains why you really need some seventeenth century music in your life.
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We are now publishing our newsletter on Substack, if youwould like to subscribe: https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity
Contactus at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org
We are now publishing our newsletter on Substack, if youwould like to subscribe: https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity
The United States has gone, in less than six months, from being seen by many as a defender of democracy and human rights, to being the latest – and most powerful - administration to embrace authoritarianism. Amid a head-spinning flood of presidential orders and harsh policies - towards women, immigrants, the poor, the disabled and the sick, it’s hard to know where to focus. In this episode, veteran Turkish journalist and human rights activist Murat Celikkan tells host Akwe Amosu what he has been paying attention to, and reflects on how Turkey’s human rights movement has been trying to strengthen its own work.
And in the Coda, why a dose of Baroque music might ease your mind.
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Quick Links
Interview
Bio: Murat Celikkan: https://hakikatadalethafiza.org/en/team
LitHub: Murat Celikkan: Another Turkish Journalist in Prison for ‘Unspecified Reasons’ https://lithub.com/murat-celikkan-another-turkish-journalist-in-prison-for-unspecified-reasons/
StrengthandSolidarity.org: Murat Celikkan reads Ariel Dorfman: https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcast/rebuilding-a-movements-culture-after-crisis/
Hafiza Merkezi: https://hakikatadalethafiza.org/en/en/why-hafiza-merkezi
Chatham House: The future of the Trukish opposition after Imamoglu’s arrest https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/05/future-turkish-opposition-after-imamoglus-arrest
HRW: Turkey Events of o2024 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/turkiye
Wikipedia: Gezi Park protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gezi_Park_protests
Wikipedia: Saturday mothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Mothers
Coda
Francoise Girard: https://www.fmus.org/about
Feminism Makes Us Smarter (FMUS):
https://www.fmus.org/
Wikipedia: Baroque Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
FMUS podcast: https://www.fmus.org/fmus-podcast
Music credits:
Juditha triumphans, RV 644: Air "Veni, veni me sequere fida" by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by Lea Desandre, Jupiter Ensemble, Thomas Dunford
Juditha triumphans, RV 644: “Air Armatae face et anguibus” by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by Jupiter Ensemble
Ariodante, HWV 33, Act 2: Aria. "Se l'inganno sortisce felice" (Polinesso) by George Frideric Handel, performed by·Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco
“Forêts paisibles” from Les Indes Galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, performed by Les Arts Florissants
Strength&Solidarity podcast:
What are the big takeaways from five years of conversation between 200 human rights leaders from nearly 70 countries? How did activism and solidarity get sidelined as vehicle for human rights work, in favour of the multilateral review bodies and government advocacy? Why do many younger leaders avoid creating organisations? And what do activists from the US civil rights movement or South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement have to teach today’s activists? These and other questions get an airing as the moderators of The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights, look back over the project and reflect on its final meeting.
Although the Symposium is ending, this podcast will continue. We’re grateful to have you along!
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Quick Links
Click here to read the Episode 54 Transcript.
About Symposium Moderators:
Strength&Solidarity podcast:
Fleeing your country to avoid persecution is a deeply disruptive experience, whether it is the loss of contact with loved ones, being marginalized from the work or activism that gave you purpose, reckoning with the danger you escaped, or simply feeling isolated in a new place. With repression increasing in the Central American region, many more people are being forced into exile and where they most frequently end up is in Mexico. Two Guatemalan exiles, Gabriel Wer and Bettina Amaya talk about the center they are creating for exiles in Mexico City – a place of community, activism and solidarity.
And in the Coda, Venezuelan human rights lawyer Mario D’Andrea Canas who was last year forced to go into exile, misses the mountain that towers over his hometown of Caracas but he is learning to love the sunsets in his new city
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When Venezuelan human rights lawyer Mario D’Andrea Canas, escaped from Venezuela last year, he could no longer glance up every morning at the mountain that towers over his beloved home city of Caracas. Nature’s grandeur makes our problems feel more manageable, he reflects, as he learns to cherish Peruvian sunsets.
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Music by Charlie Papa - "La Cima"
Passionate political debate is a cherished pastime in Nigeria. There’s a rich tradition of active participation too, whether it is in support of a favoured electoral candidate, or protesting against oppressive practices by security forces and price hikes that hit a struggling population hard. On the face of it, that tradition is being upheld – there have been several big campaigns in recent years to defend rights and democracy. But two civil society leaders tell host Akwe Amosu that all is not well with grass roots activists and that the government of President Tinubu – ironically once an activist himself – is coming down hard on those who challenge his policies. Yemi Adamolekun of Enough is Enough, and Funke Adeoye of Hope Behind Bars break down the causes of the malaise.
And in the Coda, Lebanese human rights defender Farah Abou El Sel reflects on the music of Fairuz and how it has guided her path.
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Farah Abou El Sel recalls the mornings in her Lebanese childhood, when the silken, plangent voice of Fairuz could be heard in every street, welcoming the day. Farah grew up hearing and loving the songs without thinking much about the lyrics. But in hindsight she sees how profoundly Fairuz’s empathy and humanist message has shaped her life choices, including her decision to work in human rights.
https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/
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We are now publishing our newsletter on Substack, if you would like to subscribe: https://strengthandsolidarity.substack.com/
Music credits:
Fairuz - Wahdon, 1979
Fairuz - Le Beirut, 1989
In the quarter century since Iran’s Islamic revolution, thousands of Iranians have left their home to live in exile. Although they all have a country in common, that diaspora is hugely diverse – coming from different generations and with a wide range of origin stories, political allegiances and views about the change they would like to see in Iran. When in 2022 a young woman in Iran was beaten and killed by the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, anger across the exile community suggested favorable conditions for a diaspora movement for rights in Iran to emerge. But what form should such a movement take? The founder and co-director of Azadi Network, Negin Shiraghaei, reflects on the choices she and other organizers faced as they took up that challenge.
And in the Coda, Turkish eco-activist Burcu Meltem Arik shares a poem by Nazim Hikmet reminding us of what nature can teach us about resilience. Music Credit: Ben Sığmazam by Özge Arslan, 2023
https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/
Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org
When Burcu Meltem Arik first read Nazim Hikmet’s poem, The Walnut Tree, she exhaled with relief at its message. She reflects that nature has much to teach us - especially the value of community and connectedness for resilience – but we don’t always notice the lesson.
Music Credit: Ben Sığmazam by Özge Arslan, 2023
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Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org
The Trump Administration’s freeze on US aid has caused a global outcry. Poor and vulnerable communities in famine and war-afflicted locations are suddenly without food, and without the medications that keep people with chronic conditions alive. That aid also helped to protect persecuted activists and human rights defenders who are now at greater risk from violence and authoritarian abuse. But the freeze has also made obvious the scale of dependency around the world. Now that the danger of relying on donor funds is so clear, what can those who need the services do? Farnoosh Hashemian, global health expert and Dzikamai Bere, National Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association discuss the implications with host Akwe Amosu.
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In 2011, nearly 50 years of military dictatorship came to an end in Myanmar, allowing LGBTQ activists to organize publicly to repeal a homophobic law, and advocate more positive attitudes towards SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression) rights. They were making big strides in their campaigns when a military coup returned the generals to power, making open activism impossible. Despite that, Hla Myat Tun Executive Director of LGBTQ group, Colors Rainbow, says the gains they made are holding strong and they continue to work underground.
And in the Coda, an Indonesian activist tells us why books mean so much to her.
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