Activist Artists Management has recently announced that they have signed Human Rights Watch (HRW) to create fresh scripted and unscripted storytelling opportunities across film and television. Activist’s Bernie Cahill and Jon Kanak will represent HRW, as well as its 40+ years of human rights research and advocacy, to help the organization extend its reach.
HRW is an international organization that aims to promote and defend human rights worldwide. The organization is known for investigating international human rights violations by governments and other powerful actors. The organization’s mission is to help build a world where human dignity is respected, and all rights are protected, regardless of when or where we are born.
HRW has won the Nobel Peace Prize as part of its International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The organization is not affiliated with any government or funding and has uncovered war crimes in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. HRW has also documented attacks on activists, women, and LGBT people and confronted autocracy globally.
HRW has developed methodologies that allow it to work on some of the worst human rights abuses in countries such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia that are closed to independent researchers. The organization has been instrumental in setting up global tribunals like the International Criminal Court to try individuals responsible for serious international crimes. HRW’s staff of 600, based in more than 50 countries, includes experts on the rights of women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, older people, and children, as well as racial justice, poverty, inequality, and the right to health.
Activist is honored to partner with HRW to amplify the important stories of its decades-long fight for justice, dignity, compassion, and equality for people everywhere. Other notable clients of Activist Artists Management include musicians and bands like The Lumineers, Empire of the Sun, The Grateful Dead, Dead & Company (with co-manager Azoff/Moir), Bobby Weir, Dwight Yoakam, Young The Giant, Brittney Spencer, and Michael Franti & Spearhead, as well as actors Ken Watanabe and David Alan Grier, screenwriters Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean, Godzilla vs. Kong), White Collar creator Jeff Eastin, the Oscar-winning media company Lion Forge Animation (Hair Love), and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director, Tirana Hassan, said that if people want to live with dignity and justice, they need governments and corporations to respect their human rights. She further added that HRW is excited to work with Hollywood to spread that message and equip committed activists, advocates, and artists standing up for justice through the stories they tell.
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