For more than 30 years The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee has been working hard on specific topics
that represent the most serious problems for the state of human rights in Bulgaria. They do not simply reflect systematic and widespread violations of basic human rights, but also those in which entire groups of people are threatened by a lack of effective protection by the authorities.
A large number of Bulgarians aren't aware of all their human rights. And, when you don't know
your rights, you can't really fight for them. Human rights are rarely a topic of conversation
in the media and the feeling is like we think of our rights only when they're being violated.
That's why we decided to use some non-traditional tactics
to change that.
Our main goal was to raise awareness among the active young Bulgarians.
It had to be a little bit shocking, yet not excessive or so annoying that it could backfire.
We also had to be very careful when bringing up the NGO sector because of the many misconceptions about it. A large portion of the population is negative towards it because of widespread political populism, fake news, and racism towards ethnic groups.
We had to act in a very direct, honest, and unusual way. Instead of talking about a certain group's
rights, we talk about everyone's rights. Because striving for the rights of one is the key to the rights
of everyone.
The video we created was very different from the "typical" NGO videos. We hired a well-known Bulgarian actor and put him on a bright colorful background, symbolizing our happy social bubbles.
Our message didn't blame anyone directly, we didn't raise our fingers, we didn't "know too much".
We didn't need sad black & white images of sad children and homeless old men - we did put
all the imagery inside the viewer's mind through the script. Instead of guilt tripping the viewers,
we reminded them they have rights, too. And they could be violated regardless of their race,
social status, or political views.
But a video wasn’t enough. We wanted to bring that feeling into the real world. So, we chose a popular music event and instructed the bartender at the bar to deny some people a drink because of random discriminatory reasons. "We don't serve women here". "We don't serve people who look like prisoners". "We don't serve your kind here", he said to some shocked customers.
After the initial shock in the customers, the bartender instructed them to go to our special tent
to complain. There we informed the people about their rights and gave them an empty beer can,
ready to be filled with human rights. And of course, a free beer for the trouble, so that the "victims"
were left with a positive feeling from the whole experience.
