The #WithHumanity campaign focuses on bolstering Human Rights Watch’s advocacy for the rights of migrants and refugees in the EU through public engagement. The campaign aims to exert public pressure on EU bodies, namely the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, to adopt HRW's policy recommendations; build a more humane narrative around migrant rights in the EU to frame our work; and raise awareness about the EU’s growing use of deadly “externalization” tactics.
Launched on October 24, 2024, around the 20th anniversary of Frontex's creation, the first campaign action was a digital petition calling on the agency to use its surveillance resources to save the lives of those making dangerous journeys in the Mediterranean Sea for a chance at safety. As shown by HRW and partner findings, Frontex routinely alerts Libyan and Tunisian authorities about migrant boats, but rarely issues emergency alerts or informs rescue ships. This leads to deadly rescue delays and interceptions, with people returned to countries where their rights are at serious risk. If Frontex systematically alerted NGOs and other vessels about boats in distress, it would help make timely rescues possible.
On December 9, 2024, ahead of Human Rights Day, we launched an externalization explainer video on how the EU uses billions in public money to offshore migration responsibilities to non-EU countries, exposing people to human rights abuses. The video highlights a real mother’s journey from Syria to Lebanon and Cyprus while explaining the EU’s dangerous externalization tactics.
The #WithHumanity campaign was designed with two objectives: to ask the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, to make changes to save the lives of people on the move, and to sound the alarm on the EU’s “externalization” tactics. The campaign was launched in October 2024 in six languages (English, German, French, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian), and included social media assets, an online and offline advertising program, email marketing, partner outreach, and grasstops advocacy with Frontex.
To achieve the first goal, the campaign focused on driving public pressure toward Frontex, with a digital petition addressed to the Executive Director, Hans Leijtens, asking for changes to save lives: to ensure the location of boats in distress is transmitted to rescue organizations; to issue frequent emergency alerts when an unseaworthy boat is spotted; and to provide monitoring of distress cases.
The landing page invited the audience to "take a closer look" at the human stories of survival behind the statistics of people taking dangerous boat journeys. It also featured a summary of the EU’s human rights responsibilities, survivor testimonies, the campaign asks, and powerful examples of the work of rescue organizations. It incorporated video, photography, and research links, such as the “Ship of Humanity” witness piece about the trip of an HRW researcher aboard a Médecins sans Frontières rescue ship.
Civil society outreach ran in parallel, with engagement of rescue organizations to amplify the call. This digital mobilization and grassroots advocacy were combined with grasstops advocacy, culminating in an in-person delivery of the petition signatures at Frontex headquarters in Warsaw, Poland, in April 2025.
The externalization component of the campaign looked at the human rights impacts of the EU’s externalization migration policy, which pushes asylum responsibilities on third countries. Raising the political cost of these practices necessitates public awareness on the issue, so we created a 1-minute explainer video that breaks down the EU’s practices and their human cost. The video was optimized in short-form social media cutdowns for key English, French, Spanish, Swedish, and German speaking audiences.
Both campaign components were unified under a cohesive visual and narrative identity, developed in partnership with the French creative agency ici Barbès. It was centered on human stories to stress that people on the move have hopes beyond struggle and survival. We combined real-life photos with illustrations to preserve people’s anonymity when necessary. We incorporated elements related to rescue efforts, such as binoculars, life vests, radars, and maps.
A digital advertising program promoted the petition and the externalization video, focusing on audiences in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg through Facebook and Instagram. To create a digital surround sound, the campaign included LinkedIn ads specifically targeted at EU policymakers and Frontex employees. In the final stretch of the campaign, digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising in Warsaw reinforced visibility and awareness around Frontex’s headquarters in the lead-up to the petition delivery.
Finally, the campaign also activated HRW's existing following through an email marketing program targeting advocacy subscribers with updates and calls to action.
The #WithHumanity landing page was viewed more than 76.7K times in under 5 months, and the petition directed at Frontex garnered nearly 18K public signatures from across the EU. The most signatures from a single country, about 47%, came from Italy, on the frontlines of sea rescue efforts, followed by France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. One in every four people who visited the page signed the petition. It was also supported by 22 civil society and rescue groups.
On April 2, 2025, HRW delivered the petition signatures to the Executive Director of Frontex at the agency's headquarters in Warsaw, launching a new phase in our advocacy that builds on the open dialogue already established.
Our externalization video clips received over 252K views and reached 1 million people on Instagram and Facebook across key European audiences in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Sweden.
The ad program generated 54.4K link clicks to the landing page, with over 13K conversions at a cost-per-click of $0.52 (outperforming $0.9 Meta benchmark). The email series maintained a steady open rate, with a peak of 46.9%, generated a 1.22% click-through rate and more than 18K total clicks, which exceeds our internal benchmark.
To date, the #WithHumanity campaign has reached over 2.4 million people on social media in six languages and contributed to thousands of people across Europe taking action to protect the lives and rights of people on the move.
