Human Rights Writing Evolves: The Rise of Graphic Reporting

Earlier this year, Routledge Press published a new edited collection titled Graphic Justice, the first book of its kind to examine comics and law.  Included in the book is a chapter co-authored by Law professors Jeremie Gilbert and David Keane:”Graphic Reporting: Human Rights Violations Through the Lens of Graphic Novels.”  The chapter is summarized here.  As defined by Gilbert and Keene, “[g]raphic reporting involves the overt and intentional depiction of human rights violations or conflict situations in graphic novel format.”  Though the authors believe that human rights reporting in graphic format has significant potential, they note that currently, “graphic novels are not afforded any human rights character or weight, and are considered merely as fiction.”  Human rights films abound, but only a handful of human rights artists/authors/activists work through the medium of the graphic novel.

It may be accurate, however, to say that interest in graphic reporting is growing, just as use of the graphic novel format increases more generally.  The recent publication of La Lucha, about Mexican lawyer and human rights activist Lucha Castro, is one example.  And in the publication “March,” U.S. Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis used the graphic novel form to reach new audiences with stories from the civil rights era.

Further, graphic activists are developing networks worldwide.  For example, the Graphic Justice Research Alliance, is a self-described research network exploring “the crossover between law and justice and comics of all kinds.”  

This is a far cry from the longstanding use of comic formats to target children with human rights information in ways that will engage them.  Rather, as Gilbert and Keene suggest, human rights writing is evolving to find new powerful ways to communicate across cultures and generations about human rights issues and truths.