Ideaccess

Ideaccess aims to make social justice-centred resources and human rights information available to citizens, activists, women’s rights defenders and organisations by providing professional translations of needed resources into local languages in the Middle East and Central Asia. Ideaccess works with translators all over the world committed to human rights and civil society, and whenever possible, translators are based in the countries where resources are used. Ideaccess also makes these resources available in print and electronic formats.

Ideaccess distributes human rights and social justice information through a network of community-based libraries (CBLs) throughout the Middle East and Central Asia - partnering with existing organisations or libraries, as well as helping to found new CBLs. The CBLs aim to provide a place where these resources can be accessed easily at the community level, as well as provide opportunities to activists and organisations to engage in exchanging of ideas, offering advice and supporting each others’ social justice activities.

The Resource Selection Committee of Ideaccess reviews proposed resources for consideration for translation, publication and distribution three times per year. Resources that are submitted for review by this committee are considered “priority texts”, meaning that there is an urgent need for the text to be accessible in a certain language. The committee reviews texts that contribute to the building of civil societies, human rights movements and women’s movements. The Committee uses a set of criteria that assesses the quality of the work, the use of a human rights framework, the presence of a gender perspective, and contextual necessity. If you would like to suggest human rights resources for possible translation, please email info@ideaccess.org

In order to make information as accessible as possible, the Ideaccess website includes the e-library, an on-line database of electronic rights resources in Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Tajik, Russian, Pashto, French and English. The database is organised by categories including women's rights and gender equality, law, human rights theory, and tools for skills-building. The website also includes information about Ideaccess and the resource selection process.

Human Rights

Ideaccess's strategy is based on the belief that "for civil society to counter extremism, insecurity and conflict, societies must have the tools to build a culture of peace. For human beings to be active agents in building free, equitable, secure societies, they must have access to ideas and innovations, as well as to the conditions whereby they can develop their own ideas, questions and criticisms to change the world in which they live."