Empowering Human Rights Documentation on Wikipedia: My Experience Training with KontraS

On 20 May 2025, I had the privilege of leading an advanced Wikipedia training (Wikilatih) session in collaboration with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS). The event, which spanned about seven hours at the Mercure Hotel Cikini, aimed to introduce the world of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement to participants, specifically enabling 15 human rights advocates from various regions to document local human rights violations. My goal was to equip them with the skills to do this both textually on Wikipedia and visually on Wikimedia Commons.

The session kicked off with a foundational discussion of Wikipedia and Wikimedia. I emphasized Wikipedia’s crucial role as a platform for credible information transmission, especially vital in an era dominated by AI-generated content. For these human rights advocates, the platform is an essential channel to ensure that information regarding the violations they handle is widely accessible and enduring.

Following the general overview, the training shifted to the technical aspects of editing. I guided the participants through the steps for writing an article and creating an infobox—two fundamental components for textually documenting human rights cases on the Indonesian Wikipedia. The focus then moved to Wikimedia Commons, where I walked them through the process of uploading their prepared images, complete with accurate file names, descriptions, licensing, and necessary categorization. The entire training concluded with a brief discussion on editing security and the procedures for starting a local Wiki Community.

My experience as the trainer was mixed. On one hand, the varying levels of participant understanding proved to be a significant challenge. Despite the “Advanced” label of the training, some advocates struggled with basic Wikipedia concepts, requiring me to repeat foundational material. This highlighted the need for more detailed assessment and material customization in future sessions.

However, the enthusiasm of the participants was genuinely inspiring, particularly during the Wikimedia Commons photo upload session. They had meticulously prepared their visual evidence, and most successfully completed the uploading process. We did encounter some technical hurdles, namely account issues and accessibility problems. A few advocates had globally blocked IP addresses due to their necessary use of VPNs in their daily advocacy work.

The most rewarding part was seeing the tangible output of our efforts. The training successfully produced 9 new sandbox pages, 4 new articles on Indonesian Wikipedia, 8 articles were expanded, and most significantly, 14 images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

Beyond the numbers, the most profound takeaway came at the close of the event. The human rights documenters from Ternate expressed their strong desire to form a local Wiki Community in their region. This demonstrated that the training not only enhanced individual editing capabilities but also ignited the potential for sustainable local community initiatives at the forefront of human rights advocacy.

This collaboration with KontraS is a demonstration on the importance of Wikimedia movement as a tool in supporting the critical work of human rights organizations. I sincerely hope that initiatives like this will continue to expand to enrich free knowledge and ensure that crucial truths are documented.