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Exploring PROMOTION TacticsBuilding human rights cultures and institutions

provided byNancy L. Pearson, M.S.W., L.I.S.W.

New Tactics in Human Rights Project ManagerThe Center for Victims of Torture

A Tavaana Webinar

Today’s Webinar Outline:Brief overview and orientation to:

o Using our on-line tools!

o Foundation for Strategic Thinking & Tactical Innovation

o Key Terms

o SIX reasons for the need for “new” tactics

Exploring PROMOTION Tactics

Using our technology tools

Did you attend ANY of the previous webinars – Prevention, Intervention or Restorative tactics?

YES

NO

NO, but I did attend the New Tactics course offered by Tavaana

NO, but I did attend a different course offered by Tavaana

C

B

A

D

Foundations forStrategic Thinking and

Tactical Innovation

THREE sources of knowledge that are necessary for good

strategic and tactical thinking.

Sun Tzu (over 2,000 years ago)

Know Know

Know

From Sun Tzu—the Art of War

KnowYourself

Know YourOpponent

Know theTerrain

From Sun Tzu—the Art of War

What is STRATEGY?

Selecting key objectives

Understanding of needed constituencies

Deciding which tactics to use and when

All of the above

A

B

C

D

Strategy requires the joining together of many decisions

Strategy defines what is important to do.

Strategy requires…

Decisions that include key steps and approaches in accomplishing the goal.

Selection of key objectives Appropriate targets Understanding of needed constituencies Resources Decisions on which tactics to use and when

If strategy defines what is important to do…

how would you define TACTICS?

Tactics

Tactics are the means through which a change is made. Tactics are the levers or mechanisms to carry out a strategy.

– A tactic is a specific action or systematic combination of actions taken to affect a given situation.

– Tactics are one of the key building blocks of strategy.

– Tactics are about “the how,” while strategies are about “the what.”

Why the need for

When your only tool is a hammer,

New Tactics in Human Rights – www.newtactics.org

every problem looks like

a nail.

New Tactics in Human Rights – www.newtactics.org

6 Reasons for

1. What we know how to do influences what we think is possible to do. Tactics help determine strategy.

2. Different tactics are effective against different targets.

3. Different tactics appeal to different constituencies.

4. Tactical flexibility is the source of surprise.

5. Tactics teach participants and observers how to engage in the world.

6. Tactics are the training systems for engaging participants and allies in the organization’s work.

Tactics that hit your “target”

What do we mean when we talk about a “TARGET” for a tactic?

Target

The person, institution, group or segment of society where your tactical action is directed.

PERSON What GROUP ?

GROUPWhat INSTITUTION ?

Policy & Law

Health & ServiceInstitutions

Institutions

Judicial Institutions Civil Society Organizations

Local, National & International Government Institutions

Questions or

Comments

What are important considerations you need to make when considering your tactical choices?

Group’s capacities Tolerance for risk Analysis of the opponent Context in which the tactics will

be used

Important considerations when making tactical choices:

What is your vision?

POMOTION Tactics

Primary source for today’s examples: • New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource

for Practitioners (Use quick link “Workbook” and is available in English, Farsi, Arabic & other languages)

• Additional sources from New Tactics website: http://www.newtactics.org – use quick links “Tactics” and “Notebooks”

• See also Tavaana’s website for additional Case Study Examples: http://tavaana.org/casestudies.jsp

Exploring FOUR kinds of PROMOTION tactics:

These are tactics to BUILD HUMAN RIGHTS CULTURES AND INSTITUIONS

Constituency-building

Collaboration

Capacity-building

Awareness raising

PROMOTION tactics:

Tactics for Building Constituencies

These are tactics that involve new groups in human rights advocacy in order to:

- Reach out to new people not previously engaged

- Bring new ideas, energy, resources and contacts

- Expanding the diversity of people involved.

Constituency-building TacticsNetherlands: Building Networks Through Text MessagingUsing text-messaging to build constituencies for human rights action (English page 123, Farsi, page _117_)

MAIN TARGET: Youth

GOAL: Engage young people in quickly responding to cases of torture through Urgent Action appeals.

MEANS: – Using the technology of text messaging to reach, recruit and get large

numbers of people – especially youth – to take ACTION.– Engaged musicians at music festivals to promote the “SMS network”.– 350 local Amnesty groups in the Netherlands.

Source: “Sending out an SMS” tactical notebook, Amnesty International-Netherlands

Constituency-building TacticsNetherlands: Building Networks Through Text MessagingUsing text-messaging to build constituencies for human rights action

TIMELINE: • 2001 – Amnesty International launched their

campaign against torture. The average age of Amnesty’s letter writing members was over 45.

• November 1, 2002 – Burundi Student Elvis Kazungu was arrested, tortured. AI-Netherlands held a text-message campaign in which 4,088 people protested his captivity and maltreatment. On November 29, Kazungu was released.

RESULTS:

• More than 500 new people joined as members of AI-Netherlands

• More than 5,000 people responded to urgent action appeals sent through text-messaging

• In the text-message actions AI-Netherlands campaigned for in 2002 – 40 % met with success (e.g., death sentences commuted, “disappeared” people reappeared, whereabouts of detained people were announced)

Source: “Sending out an SMS” tactical notebook, Amnesty International-Netherlands

Other questions or

comments?

How have you / or how might you use technology to build a new constituency for your work?

What other constituency tactics can you share?

PROMOTION tactics:

Collaboration Tactics

These are tactics are used to develop new and effective partnerships for change.

Strategic collaboration can make advocates more prepared, more powerful and more representative of communities.

Increased legitimacy: (in the mainstream, in media and in government).

Increased protection: (diverse and powerful allies make advocacy work more difficult for opponents to attack).

Collaboration Tactics

Peru: Building a United FrontBuilding a coalition of a country’s human rights organizations to speak with one voice against abuses (English page 127, Farsi, page 121)

MAIN TARGET: Human Rights Organizations

GOAL: To build and unite a coalition of organizations to combat human rights abuses in Peru

MEANS: Adherence to the following:– Clear principles of internal functioning– Decision-making by consensus– Representing the collective– Agreement on priorities that will be carried out together

Source: Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos in Peru, “Together We Are Stronger” New Tactics Tactical Notebook. Peace marches were organized during the worst years of the internal armed conflict. http://derechoshumanos.pe/campanas/

TIMELINE: • 1983-84 nearly 6,000 Peruvians lost their lives as a result of political

violence

• 1985: Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDDHH) was founded

Campaign to support Inter-American Court of Human Rights:

• 1999 Peru was living under the authoritarian regime of Alberto Fujimori

• May 1999 Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled against the Peruvian state.

• June 1999 Peruvian government tried to withdraw from the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

Collaboration TacticsPeru: Building a United FrontBuilding a coalition of a country’s human rights organizations to speak with one voice against abuses

Source: Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos in Peru, “Together We Are Stronger” New Tactics Tactical Notebook. Peace marches were organized during the worst years of the internal armed conflict. http://derechoshumanos.pe/campanas/

• July 8, 1999, Peruvian government made official its intention to withdraw from the Inter-American Court and CNDDHH begins mobilizing the Coalition and other sectors of civil society.

• July 19, 1999 In addition to CNDDHH members, more than 400 social and political organizations signed CNDDHH's press release

• July - December 1999 Increased national and international pressure from over 200 international organizations and the Inter-American court resulted in short and long term goals.

RESULTS:

Short term: demonstrated that at the national level, organized civil society was capable of mobilizing itself against the Alberto Fujimori regime. The effective information-spreading campaign turned the tide of public opinion regarding the Inter-American Court on Human Rights

Long term: This motivated an energetic rejection of the regime that contributed to the dismantling of Alberto Fujimori’s regime. One of the first decisions of the transition government was to officially regularize Peru’s continuance in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

What is your vision?

1983-84 nearly 6,000 Peruvians lost their lives as a result of political violence

1985: Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDDHH) was founded

1999 Peru living under the authoritarian regime of Alberto Fujimori

July 8, 1999, Peruvian government made official its intention to withdraw from the Inter-American Court

July - December 1999 national and international pressure from over 200 international organizations

July 19, 1999 CNDDHH mobilizes the Coalition and other sectors of civil society, more than 400 social and political organizations signed CNDDHH's press release

November 2000 – Fujimori ousted from power

Other tactic example:

Sisters in Islam: Protecting Women's Rights in Malaysiahttp://www.tavaana.org/casestudies.jsp?lang=en

In 1985, the Joint Action Group, a broad coalition of women's organizations, declared domestic violence a social concern in Malaysia and sought to pass legislation that would put an end to this abuse.

Zainah Anwar, an active member of the JAG campaign, discovered that the general discourse on women's rights blamed Islam for Malaysia's gender rights inequality.

Anwar argued that it was the patriarchal interpretation of Islam that caused injustices against women. It was this principle upon which Anwar founded Sisters in Islam in 1988.

By 1988, the JAG was calling for a Domestic Violence Act which would criminalize spousal abuse in Malaysia.

The Domestic Violence Act, which was not passed by the parliament until 1994, could not have become law without Sisters in Islam.

Current advocacy areas: – Violence Against Women– Muslim Family Law– Polygamy– Moral Policing– Fundamental Liberties

Collaboration Tactics

Source: Tavaana case study: Zainah Anwar, founder of Sisters in Islamhttp://www.sistersinislam.org.my/

How have you developed or used collaborations to move your work forward?

Other questions or comments?

Can you give an example of where a collaborative had significant results?

PROMOTION tactics:

Building Capacity Tactics

These are tactics build capacity in two essential ways:

1. Give human rights practitioners the skills they need to do their work better and faster.

2. Give people who are nominally outside of human rights work the skills they need to advance human rights.

Building Capacity TacticsParaguay/International: The Eyes and Ears of Human Rights: WITNESS - Empowering NGOs to use video in human rights advocacy(English page 140-141, Farsi, page _135_)

TARGET: Non-governmental organizations, citizens

GOAL: Creating partners for building long term capacity to use video effectively in the broad range of human rights advocacy.

MEANS: – Providing the equipment to organizations– Providing intensive training and instruction for using video– Systematic evaluation of video footage– Post production assistance to create powerful documentaries

Source: WITNESS website homepage, Featuring "Cameras Everywhere Report 2011, Current Challenges And Opportunities At The Intersection Of Human Rights, Video And Technology“, http://www.witness.org/

Building Capacity Tactics

Paraguay/International: The Eyes and Ears of Human Rights: WITNESS - Empowering NGOs to use video in human rights advocacy

Source: WITNESS website homepage, Featuring "Cameras Everywhere Report 2011, Current Challenges And Opportunities At The Intersection Of Human Rights, Video And Technology“, http://www.witness.org/

TIMELINE:

• 2002-2003 WITNESS partnered with Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) in Paraguay to create a video documentary of conditions in a Paraguayan psychiatric hospital.

• December 2003 MDRI filed emergency petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights including the video

RESULTS: • 1st time the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights approved urgent measure to

protect the lives and physical integrity of those in psychiatric institutions

• Set a precedent that can now be used in other countries in the region.

• Video was publicly broadcasted – resulted in Paraguayan President and Minister of Health to visit the institution.

• Hospital director fired, investigative committee formed.

• Paraguayan Health Ministry is working with the Pan-American Health Organization to promote community integration for people with mental disabilities.

PROMOTION tactics:

Building Awareness Tactics

These tactics build awareness of human rights – when people don’t know their rights, abusive action by government or people who hold power, are accepted, tolerated or overlooked. These tactics build:

Awareness of the larger concept of human rights

Application of these rights to individuals and communities.

Building Awareness Tactics

GREENPEACE, Lebanon: Making Your Point with MappingVisual mapping to create public awareness and pressure for policy change(English page 149, Farsi, page _143_)

MEANS: – Used Geographical Information System (GIS) software to map environmental

violations– Used inflatable boat to engaged media to accompany activists to test new sites

each week and track the toxic results on a map to show the public– Drafted environmental law and used the map and public pressure to lobby

policymakers

Source: GREENPEACE-Lebanon, New Tactics Workshop, 2003. http://www.newtactics.org/TraininginPractice/MiddleEastSeminar

TARGET: Citizens / Policymakers

GOAL: Build public awareness of the toxic dumping along the Lebanon coastline to pressure policymakers to pass environmental law.

Building Awareness Tactics

GREENPEACE, Lebanon: Making Your Point with MappingVisual mapping to create public awareness and pressure for policy change

RESULTS: – Turned dry, technical information into a

compelling picture – making facts understandable to the public

– Made the environmental problem visible and urgent to the public

– Created public demand for an environmental law and pressure on politicians to act

– Public Law #444 – an environmental code that included the right to access to information was passed.

Source: GREENPEACE-Lebanon, New Tactics Workshop, 2003. http://www.newtactics.org/TraininginPractice/MiddleEastSeminar

TIMELINE: • 2002-2003 Greenpeace-Lebanon launches

campaign to build public awareness of toxic waste generated by industry

How might these ideas be adapted to address issues in your country or community?

Other questions or comments?

How have you or might you use mapping in your work?

The Center for Victims of Torture – New Tactics in Human Rights Project649 Dayton Avenue St. Paul, MN 55104 USAT:+1.612.436.4800 Email: newtactics@cvt.org

Websites: http://www.cvt.org http://www.newtactics.org

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