
On the 25th January, 2020, the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda held an editathon to celebrate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] into practice.
The day started with the guest speaker, Ms. Patricia Humura, sharing with us what she understood by human rights and it generation. They are inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled because they are human. She added that human rights are founded on two ideas- dignity and worth, the value of individual to live a dignified life. The team got to appreciate the three aspects on which human rights are built;
- Inalienability; they can’t be taken away and are more valuable because there is really no situation which requires human rights to be taken away. A lot of people refer to it as trump card because they are inherently inalienable.
- Universality; they apply to everyone. This is usually associated with the natural law.
- They are Indivisible ( interconnected, related)
Humura further talked about liberty, the civil and political rights that deal with the participation of an individual in the society for instance in voting, ownership of properties, speech and religion; Equality which is economic, social and cultural rights; and Fraternity which means collective rights that deal with things that are little bit more cutting edge like the environment, natural resources and participation in cultural heritage.

Sandra Aceng, from the Wikimedia User Group Uganda, gave a brief introduction to #WikiForHumanRights Editathon. She informed participants that the campaign began in November 15, 2019 and was to end on January 30, 2020. Its purpose was to celebrate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by strengthening the factual coverage of human rights on Wikipedia. She further stated that this year’s theme was “To claim your rights, you need to know your rights”.
Aceng mentioned that as part of the above theme, the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda highlighted individual activists and organizations in Uganda that were championing Human Rights, to recognize the positive role or participation in collective movement in Human Rights. She added that Articles and Wikidata of Human Rights Activists and Organizations working on Human Rights in Uganda was created to contribute to the theme.
The Editathon was held to build awareness about gaps on Wikipedia in Human rights and to introduce new editors to the topic of human rights, and to build Wikipedia editing skills among participants and support more experienced editors creating content.

Geoffrey Kateregga from the user group gave a brief detailed overview of how to create WikiData items for Human Rights Activists and Organisations. Additionally, Erina Mukuta from the Uganda user group also presented and took participants through various steps and rules for creating Wikipedia Articles on Human Rights Activists and organisations in Uganda.
The event was then concluded with the #WikiForHumanRights Edit-a-thon where Wikipedia articles and WikiData items of Uganda Human Rights activists and organizations were created by participants.
During the editathon, a total of 10 articles were edited, 112 total edits were made, 16 editors participated, 3.75k words were added, 34 references were added, 46.9 articles views and 1 Wikimedia commons upload was made. Also, WikiData items were created. Follow link below for details: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Uganda/Wiki_For_Human_Rights_Uganda_(January,_2020) This we believe improved the quality and quantity of human rights content on Wikipedia and contributed to the shared commitment to increase access to human rights information and promote freedom of expression and information on the topic.
The Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda would like to extend their sincere gratitude to all the participants who took part in the editathon. The edit-a-thon contributed to increased knowledge on Human Rights activists and organizations in Uganda online.
Written by: Sandra Aceng