Youth For Rights: Meet Kinja from the Philippines

Meet Kinja Tauli, a young WHRD from the #Philippines working on the rights of indigenous peoples. She is one of the 40 young human rights defenders who took part in the 2023 Vienna Youth & Child HRD Conference, organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Learn more about young human rights defenders on our website:
srdefenders.org/young-hrds/
TRANSCRIPT:
"90 seconds with a young human rights defender"
-- "Can you introduce yourself?"
I am Kinja Tauli, I am 32and I am from the Philippines.
-- "Why did you become a Human Rights Defender?"
My family is a family of activists, and ever since I was young, I was exposed to their work. They were also youth activists, youth human rights activists. They are all indigenous and they all fight for indigenous rights. So since I was young, I have always watched these people. They are so brave. So it also inspired me to work on indigenous issues.
-- "Is there anything you are particularly proud of in your work?"
Right now, we try to document indigenous knowledge. I think this is very important because the indigenous identity survives as it passes down to the next generations. And it is not just learning from the elders to the youth, but also the elders learning from the youth in an inter-generational exchange. And this is how knowledge evolves and gets passed on. So, when we document this knowledge, I feel like it keeps the culture alive and it lets others appreciate the indigenous culture.
#YouthForRights
CREDITS:
Footage: Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
Music: 'Clean ecology' by Evgeny Bardyuzha, via Pixabay