New Tactics in Human Rights

Contribute your knowledge of human rights work by participating in our dialogues

Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance

Join the New Tactics community and LogoLink for an online dialogue on Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance from March 14 to 20, 2012. The involvement of citizens in the political process is an essential part of democracy. Recognizing this, LogoLink, an organization based out of Brazil, has created a network of civil society organizations, research institutions, and governments aiming to increase democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance.

Tactics and strategies for increased citizen participation in local governance can be seen around the globe. In the municipality of Nejapa, El Salvador, the municipal government partnered with local NGOs and sought to increase public involvement in local politics, resulting in huge increases in access to potable water, latrines, and electricity for its residents. In India, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been deeply involved in a collective process...

Iraq / Peace finally for this little boy in a school rehabilitated by UNHCR in Erbil. / UNHCR / H. Caux / 2011

Advancing Children's Right to Education

Join New Tactics and other practitioners for an online dialogue on Advancing Children’s Right to Education from February 15 to 21, 2012. Education is a basic human right, enshrined in law all over the world. Yet, according to the Right to Education Project, 69 million children are still out of school, more than 700 million can't read. Despite these overwhelming numbers, practitioners have developed innovative and successful ways of ensuring that children in their communities have access to education.

Access to education is critical in ensuring other rights. In an effort to prevent child exploitation in India, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) developed Child Friendly Villages in which all children receive compulsory, good quality education, and the voice and opinion of the children are heard and taken into account. In South Africa, Children’s Budget Unit (CBU) of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) has been using national and...

Fundraising for Human Rights: Lessons-learned and practical advice

Thank you for your participation in our online dialogue on Fundraising for Human Rights: Lessons-learned and practical advice from January 18 to 24, 2012! We will work on compiling all of your comments into a summary that we will post on this dialogue page. That summary should be completed by the end of February so come back then to find it! In the meantime, you can print entire discussion threads by going to the thread (links below) and clicking on "Printer-friendly version" in the top right corner.

Protecting and promoting human rights is valuable and important work. In order to do this work, organizations need financial resources. Although there are many funders that recognize the value in financially supporting human rights efforts, many organizations struggle to find enough funding to support their work.

This dialogue is an opportunity to bring together human rights practitioners, fundraisers, funders and others to...

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Featured Tactic

Engaging civil society and international allies to build a united front to lobby for legal amendments

The Iraqi Civic Action Network (ICAN) led a large civil society movement by engaging national and international stakeholders to put pressure on the Iraqi parliament to integrate amendments agreed upon by the broad alliance to the law on the establishment and functioning of Iraqi non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As a result, a second draft law, based on the recommendations of the civil society organizations and reviewed by the parliament was sent to the presidency to integrate the suggested recommendations.

Re-discover interTactica!

Check out these past interTactica posts and re-discover this great resource. Thank you interTactica for 3 wonderful years of tactical advice!

Blog: Harnessing new technology for new tactics

Posted November 27th, 2007 by Philippe Duhamel

Mobiles

cc photo by Flickmor

This month’s tactical discussion focuses on using mobile phones for action. From the time the tactical notebook by Amnesty International on the use of short messaging services was published here in 2004, mobile phones have only become more powerful, multifunctional and almost universal. We can now record sound, photos, even video on our phones. The pocket devices can be used to send email, files, pictures, music, surf the web and chat, wherever we are, whenever we want.

In what ways can the power of the small computers we still call “phones” be harnessed as tools for collective action, as instruments for improving the world? What technology do we see emerging that could create innovative life-changing and life-saving tactics?

Highlighted Community Dialogue

Blog: Looking forward to doing great work with you in 2012!

Posted January 18th, 2012 by KKelsch

Hello Everyone,

It is wonderful to be part of the Center for Victims of Torture’s New Tactics in Human Rights Project again! I am excited to be back and working with all of you to further human rights. I am thrilled to reconnect with long time New Tactics community members and meet newer members of this truly global community. For the past six years, I’ve been working on programs to connect, facilitate learning and skill building among local community leaders in my home state of Minnesota. On the home front, my husband and I are raising an energetic, active 4 year old boy.

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New Tactics in Action: Stories of impact

Read stories about the impact that the New Tactics project has had on human rights work around the world.

Critically Thinking With New Tactics

Throughout the summer, I had the opportunity to use the New Tactics website extensively. What helped my work was reading about the different strategies that were being used to target human rights abuses around the world. What was specifically helpful was that I was able to get a sense of how different organizations were seeking to...