Lexicon – building a new language of protection

Rights for Time understands that change is at once urgent, and takes considerable energy to carry out. One of the limitations to change is that protection efforts get trapped in their own language. The idea of a crisis as time-limited is a concept that forecloses the possibility of recognizing, reacting to, preventing, and certainly protecting people and communities from harms that are open-ended, ongoing, repetitive, and persistent.

Drawing from our Case Studies, and our commissioned projects, Rights for Time compiles here words and concepts that could form a new lexicon for protection. These words, and how they are used, define harm, where, when, and how it happens in ways that accommodate and acknowledge their prolonged temporal experience. We will add to this lexicon as word/concepts emerge, and invite our community to share and comment in the pages and links below.