PEACE AND

HUMAN RIGHTS

ADVOCACY

CAMPAINGS

Eduard Martinez

Advocacy

Amnesty International Catalonia

What does advocacy means?

Different names for the same activity: Lobby: Anglo-Saxon. Focused in legislative power. Eco interest groups

Cabildeo: Latin America: political stakeholder

Institutional Relations: authorities and public stakeholders

Advocacy: wider scope: lobby & Institutional relations

(other approaches: social mobilisation, networking with others CSO....)

Aims to social change in order to improve the lives of significant numbers of

people

Advocacy + Communication + Activism

Fields/Levels of action: public institutionsGlobal: UN system

Regional: UE, ECHR, OSCE, OAS, AU

State: legislature, executive and judiciary

Regions /Landers/states

Local: local governments/Councils

Community

What does advocacy means?

Goals: social change for Human Rights & Peace Attracting political support: influence in political agenda

Promoting laws and public policy changes

Right implementation of public policies (budget, approaches)

Change relations of power

Different approaches Co-operative: develop relationships & gain trust (insider)

Confrontational: forcing an issue onto the agenda (outsider)

Persuasive: presenting evidences in order to sway your targets

(critical insider)

What does advocacy means?

Why public authorities are our main target in

human rights and peace advocacy actions?

States have signed international human rights treaties

States have the obligation to promote and respect human rights

Signed peace agreements

Human rights and peace is a cross-cutting policy of any society and political

powers

What civil society can do?

Ask for authorities to respect and promote Human Rights

Denouncing human rights violations

Supervising the accomplishment of international laws and peace agreements

More advocacy theory

References:

Miller, V. (2007) A new of power, people &politics: the action guide for

advocacy and citizen participation.

INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre)

http://www.intrac.org/pages/en/advocacy-capacity-building

Advocacy strategy: practiceAdvocacy must be planned, coordinated and strategic: DON’T IMPROVISE

KNOWING YOUR ORGANISATION: CREATING POLICY

MONITORING POLITICAL AGENDA

ADVOCACY STRATEGY

EVALUATION

ADVOCAY ACTIONS

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Advocacy strategy

1. Knowing your organisation: Stabilising policies

Defining your advocacy principles: Independence, Impartiality,

Transparency &Rigorous

Producing organisation’s policy: papers, reports (concerns/demands and

recommendations to public authorities)

Defining our goals: global & specifics priorities

Planning: Elaborate a 5 and 1 year Action Plan

Resources: funds, efforts , time

Risks: time, loose your oganisation’s identity, conflict between goals, rivals,

networking risks...

1. Stablising policy

Policy papers: Questions & answers documents

Research: General and specific reports (use clear facts and

number, update data), concerns, recommendations and possible

solutions about a problem.

Press releases

Key messages document: simples, clears, directs ... (Activists)

2. Monitoring political context

Identifying main state bodies related with our goals: Government

Departments, Thematic institutions, Parliament Commissions ...

Monitoring political debates at the parliament, city council, media

Monitoring public policies, political actions (institutional declarations)

Knowing the decision making process: political map

Updating Date Base with main stakeholders

Creating case folders and check-list

3. Advocacy Actions

How will we persuade our targets? Advocacy activities:

Letters

Different purposes: Inform, denounce, ask information, ask for a

meeting

Email

Meetings

(Elaborate a procedure manual)

3. Advocacy actionsMeeting/lobbying visit

Before

Delegation: max 3 representatives (technical & institutional)

Goals: set objectives for the meeting

Clear Messages: distribution of subjects

During

Dress code, understandable language

Efficiency: clear messages and demands

Showing real cases: people faces

Find agreements

After

Phone call or letter to thank for the meeting: recalling all the agreements

reached.

Sending complementary information

Elaboration a meeting record

3. Advocacy actions

Other actions:

Networking with others Civil Society Organisations (CSO) Research

institutions, universities in order to find strategies in common.

• Create a Data Base the main possible allies in each matter

Parliamentary appearance in Parliament’s Commission or city council

Parliamentary questions

Parliamentary Motion for/against a human rights situation

Local governments’ Institutional declaration

4. Evaluation

Registry Record about meetings with authorities

Analysis of results: learned lessons

Monitoring reached agreements: phone call, meeting, email

Public communication: social networks, website

Record all data

Redesign strategy: avoiding barriers

Advocacy Toolkit

Knowing your organisation / Producing policy paper:

Terms of reference: Description of what advocacy means for your

organisation?

Year Action Plan

Registry of actions: letters, emails .... (digital and physical)

Monitoring

Spreadsheet of main state bodies and our priorities

Data Base: Institutions, stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations

Check-list:Islamophobia, GBV, Taser (electric guns), Right to health

Advocacy Toolkit

Advocacy actions:

Advocacy strategy sample

Procedures Manual: letters, emails, meeting ...

Evaluation

Registry

Updating data base: stakeholders, secretaries, CSO

EDUCACIÓ EN DRETS HUMANS

Thank you

for your attention