lobbying
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Uniting grassroots organizations with specialists to challenge World Bank policies

In 1999, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) successfully pressured the World Bank to relinquish its funding to China’s Western Poverty Reduction Project through a two-pronged approach of mobilizing at the grassroots level to lobby the U.S. government and convincing Washington specialists to draft a claim to the World Bank investigation panel listing the internal policy violations.

Adopting international human rights conventions at the local level to improve women's rights

The Women's Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights used the United Nations Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to advocate for human rights at the local level.  Although CEDAW has not been ratified by the United States and thus cannot be invoked, WILD for Human Rights decided to apply it at the local level, in San Francisco, as a tool to combat issues such as discrimination and domestic violence.  They implemented CEDAW as a legislated municipal law with the exact wording of CEDAW; thus making it binding legally. 

Embarrassing public officials to make them comply with child labor laws

In the mid-1990s the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude publicly exposed the use of child domestic help by government officials in order to highlight the widespread problem of child servitude in India. When SACCS received information that an official’s household was engaging children as domestic help demonstrations were organized in front of officials’ residences to focus public attention on the practices of that particular household. Because of the embarrassment of the public spotlighting, the prime minister issued an order reinforcing the government’s stance that by no means could government officials employ child laborers.

Helping non-governmental organizations connect and support one another through Internet networks

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) coordinates a global computer network for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), helping the organizations protect their work from attacks by governments and opposition groups. As part of these efforts, APC uses a process of “mirroring,” sending sensitive material from one NGO to be posted by others on their web sites, and thereby making the material difficult to trace back to its source. The association also maintains a web site, with information on defending Internet rights, Internet services, women’s support networks, and Internet tools specific to the needs of NGOs. Tools include the “APC Toolkit Project,” which teaches online publishing and collaboration techniques for activists. APC works to provide Internet resources and support tailored to the political and economical needs of global NGOs.

Performing independent postmortem examinations to document cases of torture

The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) was established in 1995, after the Kenya Medical Association issued a press statement asserting that no torture took place in Kenya.  The IMLU is a network of independent doctors and lawyers who challenge official reports of deaths in custody by performing postmortem examinations to document suspected cases torture and providing medical and legal aid to prisoners and survivors of torture.  Clients who want a postmortem on family members first complete a Post-Mortem Request Form and, because of IMLU’s network throughout the country, doctors who live nearest to the victim quickly administer postmortems.  Results are carefully documented according to medical and legal guidelines.  IMLU encourages clients to seek legal redress when evidence of torture is discovered.  For clients who cannot afford a lawyer, IMLU refers them to a network of lawyers and NGOs providing pro bono legal services.  Their goal is to pursue public interest cases that will set a precedent against the use of torture and send a message to perpetrators of torture.

Using international mechanisms to apply pressure on a national government to institute policy and legal changes

The Committee for Administration of Justice (CAJ) used the United Nations Committee Against Torture to raise local human rights issues to the international level.

notebook: Together We Are Stronger: Peru's National Coordinating Coalition on Human Rights

Peru’s Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Coordinator for Human Rights, CNDDHH) is globally recognized as one of the most successful and effective coalitions in the world. This notebook analyzes the characteristics of a strong coalition and shows how to successfully fight against an authoritarian government, like that of Fujimori in Peru the 1990s.

notebook: Making the State Pay: Mobilizing Public Resources for Victims of Human Rights Violations

This notebook describes how one organization (ICAR) in Romania was able to pressure the government to accept its moral and legal obligation to provide care to torture victims.  The group had international support but they recognized that it was the states responsibility to rehabilitate this socially marginalized group.