WikiForHumanRights Renaming and Coordination

After a lenghty process that included two workshops with organizers and a community consultation in 5 languages, we have a new name for the campaign Wiki for Sustainable Futures.

The campaign will be launched in April 22, on Earth Day, and will run till July 7, which is World Rural Development Day. Join us!

Background

In 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation proposed a transiton process for the Wiki for Human Rights campaign. After several deliberations, including a meetup at Wikimania 2025, it was agreed among campaign organizers to take the following steps:

Name of the campaign. The campaign "Wiki for Human Rights" needs a change in its name to ensure for the safety and security of the people running it, and to better reflect the topics that are being adressed in the campaign (mainly, climate change, sustainability, and environmental issues). A campaign called "Wiki for Human Rights" and focused strictly on broader human rights issues could exist from August-December, but it has to be community led.
Renaming the campaign. There will be a community led process, stewarded by the Working Group on Climate Justice and Wikimedia, to rename the (ex) Wiki for Human Rights campaign.
Calendar. The (ex) Wiki for Human Rights Campaign will run from April to July. Organizers will be able to do activities under the name of the campaign during that time period.
Global Coordination. Global coordination will happen through a community led process, initially supported by the Working Group on Climate Justice and Wikimedia Projects. This global coordination will pick the global yearly theme, identify needs of organizers, and create opportunities for collaboration. The global theme can be adapted to whatever suits better in the local context. Lastly, the WG will assist for the first two years in creating the main Meta page for the campaign and providing some Comms support.
Regional Coordination. Support for regional coordination can come either through Rapid Grants or, for affiliates, through General Support Funds. Each region can self-organize in the way that they think works best for them.
WMF Support. The Wikimedia Foundation will provide support through the Regional Partnerships managers. Resources will be requested through the regular Rapid Grants and other processes, with the expectation that for Q1 2026 there will be a process that follows the subsidiarity principle, allowing for more involvement of organizers in deciding the projects that get funded. Additional support (in tools, organizing, etc.) could be potentially requested on a case-by-case basis. WMF staff will attend the global coordination calls but won't play a decision-making role.

Renaming the campaign

The renaming process run through Nov 2025-Feb 2026. The process consisted of:

A first survey for understanding what we needed.
Two workshops, open for campaign organizers. The first workshop was focused on finding some common ground and what we think it's important for the campaign in terms of topics and actions. We also did some rapid prototyping. Building on that, the second workshop, led by consultant Ross Findon, laser-focused on the criteria, proposing a "territory approach" to the names, which will allow us to expand on the metaphor of the name.
Interviews with some individual organizers to understand some of the concerns around the name "Wiki for Human Rights" and what we expected from a new name.
A survey to vote on the three names that the organizers came up with. This survey ran from January 28 to February 9.

Regular global calls

The first global coordination call will take place in November, after the new name has been established, to start with organizing plans for the 2026 Campaign.

Tentative calendar for the transition process + renaming

Timeline	Activities
Nov-July	Establish a global call (monthly or bi-monthly) for Campaign Organizers, improve based on iteration and feedback.
Oct-Nov	Open call for renaming the campaign. One or two workshops for renaming the campaign and choosing next year’s theme. Launch Google Form and Meta page. Decision made by December.
Nov-Dec	Commit a global partner for the campaign.
Oct-Dec	Inform all affiliates and community organizers that the campaign will take place next year, and that they need to reserve a budget for it if they are presenting annual or multiannual funding requests.
Oct-Feb	Work with affiliates and community organizers in preparing their Rapid Fund requests.
April-July	Launch the campaign. Earth Day and World Environment Day will be milestones for the campaign, but Campaign organizers can decide when they launch it and how long it will run, as long as it starts & finishes in the first semester.
July-August	Share results with WMF and do any evaluation process moving forward.