Chile's DDHH Campaign - Jon Jacobsen

Personal Project

Digital campaign largely focused on notifying international journalists and citizens about
Human Rights abuse at the hands of Chilean security forces, supported by the current government amidst the Estallido Social (lit. social outburst) movement that took place in October 2019.

Civil protests took place throughout Chile in response to a rise in corruption, cost of living, privatisation and inequality prevalent in the country. While authorities avoided spreading this news around the globe, social media became an important vessel to inform and viralize the magnitude of these events.

Social Media Strategy

By taking reports from the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) as direct reference, a series of weekly informational posters for Instagram were created, detailing the cases of human rights abuse with impactful, symbolic images featuring recurring elements in these events, such as the eye (injured by rubber bullets), the star of the Chilean flag, and school students – who were the main participants in the wake of this social movement. Additionally, I collaborated with journalist Charis McGowan, who wrote short articles to fill the captions of each viralized post.

These reports were later used to create a newsletter directed to international journalists and personal contacts around the globe.

City Interventions

Although the campaign was created for digital platforms, some of these images saw the lights in the streets through installations supporting the cause
.
♦ The image on the left features a suffocated being holding a broken star inside his head and was installed at the Angeles Custodios church in Santiago de Chile.

♦ The right image features a macro image of a fearful eye reflecting the Chilean star and it was installed near Plaza Dignidad, the main center point where demonstrators would gather.

Researching Process

Each poster makes a direct reference to the symbols observed during the protests, mainly featuring the star (present in the Chilean flag), the eye and the figure of a young student.
Ocular trauma from rubber bullets was one of the common cases of abuse from security forces during the demonstrations. With over 450 cases, the eye became a symbol of Chile’s unrest.
Young students from lower-middle-class families were another emblem of this period. Exhausted from the inequality they experience in their lives, they became the first ones to go out in the streets to protest.