To watch this presentation, click on the arrow button towards the bottom of the frame. Continue to click on the arrow buttons (forwards or backwards) to move through the presentation.

The blogs are for New Tactics members to share their thoughts, reflections, or questions with the world. A "web log" or "blog" is an online journal or diary. Blogs are a very individualized form of communicating with others. Collectively, member blogs make up the New Tactics dialogues area.

One member might use her blog to share day-to-day events in the work of her human rights organization. Another member, a lawyer, might comment on current legal matters of interest. If you have something you would like to share with other human rights advocates and activists, this is the place to do it. Write in your own style. Share images if they seem helpful. It's a flexible format.

Other members can respond to your posts. Then you can respond to those responses.

Blogs are a way of starting a dialogue with people you haven't even met yet. You have no way of knowing what might touch another person.

Your blog is your own place to publish news, reflections, or other announcements 

Your blog is your own place to publish news, reflections, or other announcements that you wish to share with the rest of the community, as well as ask questions to start a dialogue. Readers may wish to post comments (to which you can reply as well), and a dialogue may continue. The dialogues area is simply a collection of these member blog posts.

Your biography is your personal page introducing yourself to the community. Readers may learn more about you by reading your blog and other entries you create on the website, but your biography is where you get to introduce yourself directly, including any extra information you want others to know about you. By entering your biography, you will be included in the member directory.

Great question!  As of July 2010, we are currently working on the final edits of our New Tactics methodology and facilitation guides.  Once those are finished, we hope to be able to share these guides with you on our website.  We also hope to host online trainings with anyone interested in using these tools in 2011.  Let us know if you're interested in participating!

For in-person trainings I have developed this online presentation.  To watch the presentation, click the arrow button to move to the next step.  This short presentation, in addition to a training on this tool and the guides, can be very useful for practitioners to create their own Tactical Map.  Alone, this presentation may be a little confusing.  If it is, please visit our Tactical Mapping page for more information on this tool.

If you have participated in a Tactical Mapping session or have used this tool, please let us know how you used it and if it was helpful!  Add a testimonial to our website!

New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners is a compilation of innovative tactics.

The core of the book is 100 stories gathered from around the world and across numerous sectors about innovative human rights work. Tactics are broken into four categories: Prevention, Intervention, Promotion and Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions. These stories are analyzed within a tactical context – in terms of resources needed, obstacles encountered and the problem being addressed.

The Workbook also includes

• An Introduction to Tactical and Strategic Thinking; and
• Tactical Worksheets to help advocates think creatively about applying and sharing tactics.

To find a wide variety of resources on strategy and tactics, you can use the “Resources and Training Tools” tab or “Quick Links” on the right-hand side bar above.

Select “New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners” to view information and download this book. This book is available for free in PDF format, or may be purchased as a printed copy.

Tactical notebooks are first-person, in-depth case studies that provide a detailed look at how a tactic was implemented and the challenges that were faced along the way.

At present there are more than 45 tactical notebooks covering five continents.

Most notebooks were written in English, but quite a number are now available in other languages such as Spanish, Russian, French, and more national and even local languages.

To find a wide variety of resources on strategy and tactics, you can use the “Resources and Training Tools” tab or “Quick Links” on the right side of the web page.

Select “Tactical Notebook Series” to view information and download these in-depth case studies.

The New Tactics database is currently a collection of 160 tactics, summarized (approximately 700 words) to help human rights advocates think about new ideas for tactics they can apply to different situations.

Each tactic includes a summary of….

• how the tactic was implemented
• tips for transferring the tactic to another situation
• contact information for the individual or group that used it.

To find a wide variety of resources on strategy and tactics, you can use the “Resources and Training Tools” tab or “Quick Links” on the right-hand sidebar above.

On the website, select “Tactics Database” to view these one-page tactical summaries from many human rights organizations and issue areas around the world.

To read about training workshops and review the resources available, Click the “Resources & Tools” tab.

Since 2002, the New Tactics project has been conducting Regional Training Workshops (Africa; Asia; Central and Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and Turkey; Latin America; and the West Group – Europe and North America).

In 2004, a World Symposium was held in Ankara, Turkey which featured 30 tactical workshops and 5 strategy building workshops. At each workshop, up to three trainers presented different versions of a particular tactic.

Many of the tactical presentations are available online from the Regional Training Workshops and the World Symposium. These can help you create your own tactical presentation. They are great examples of how tactics can be transferred to address different issues.

To read about training workshops and review the resources available, Click the “Resources & Tools” tab.

These resources were developed to help advocates interested in New Tactics to share the project with others. Currently, users can choose to view the "Using the New Tactics Resources" tool in English, French, or Spanish.

To find a wide variety of resources on strategy and tactics, you can use the “Resources and & Tools” tab or “Quick Links” on the right side of web page.

Select “Using the New Tactics Resources” gives you additional ideas for applying these resources into your efforts. For example, if you would like to create your own tactical presentation, click “Train others… under the “I want to share…” section.

Training Tools provide exercises, worksheets and articles designed to help advocates think about their work in terms of strategy and tactics.

You will find featured here:

• Background information on specific concepts, such as Understanding Strategy and Tactics; The Need for Tactical Thinking, Tactical Mapping, etc.
• Many “hands-on” experiential group exercises used in New Tactics training events.

To find a wide variety of resources on strategy and tactics, click the “Resources & Tools” tab or “Quick Links” on the right side of the web page.

Select “Training Tools” to view the resources on training your staff and networks about the importance of strategic and tactical thinking.

You will find Articles and guides, including presentations and handouts you can use for your own trainings.

Fun, educational and useful exercises help groups to both experience and think about strategy and tactics.

In several locations around this website, you will have the opportunity to "tag this page" a page or yourself. A "tag" is simply a keyword or phrase you would use to mark or identify a resource.

For example, the Training Tools page contains many resources, including some that are "group activites". Another page might also contain resources that you find useful as "group activites", and you may choose to add this tag . The tag "group activites" then becomes a way to easilly find these two pages. On any page with tags displayed, clicking on the tag itself will bring you to a list of the other resources that have been marked with that tag, whether by yourself or another community member. As more members add tags to resources, these lists will grow.

Tags are often displayed in "clouds", or groups, usually in alphabetical order. The more popular tags (meaning many people have tagged a resource the same way, or that many resources are marked with the specific tag) appear as bigger text than the others.

These "clouds" can be found on the search page, and offer an alternative way to help you find resources.

Once you join a New Tactics online group, you can share information in several different ways. Click through this presentation to see an introduction to the group tools.

Thanks to Google, you have the ability to translate this website into one of several different languages. In the box below, choose the language that you would like to translate the website into. You will then be able to navigate throughout the website in the language you have chosen.

Please note that you will not be able to translate external documents or websites.

Each person that is a member of the New Tactics website has the ability to contact one another through this website. Here are the steps that you can take to contact a community member directly:

1. Find the member.  You may have already found the community member that you would like to contact from a dialogue, or a blog entry, or any other piece of content from the website. If this is the case, move on to step 2 below.  If you are looking for a member that you would like to contact, take a look at our member directory.  Here you can search for members by several categories including country, organization, expertise / interest, and username.
2. Click on the username (this is a hyper link, highlighted in blue). You will find this hyperlinked username if this member is the author of any content on the website, including comments or blog entries. This will bring you to the biography page of this member.  On this biography page, you have several different tabs to choose from including 'view', 'biography', and 'contact'.
3. Click on the 'Contact' tab at the top of the page (under username).
4. Type your message and click the button that reads "Send e-mail".

Your message will be sent as an email from the website, and will be received as an email by the recipient.  We have created the contact process in this way so that those would prefer to stay annonymous have the ability to do so and still be able to accept contact emails from community members. A member does not need to know another member's email address in order to contact them! Nor does one need to know the name of the community member - the only necessary piece of information is a username.

To watch this presentation, click on the arrow button towards the bottom of the frame. Continue to click on the arrow buttons (forwards or backwards) to move through the presentation.

The New Tactics Community is designed to be a place for human rights advocates around the world to gather, share thoughts and reflections, hold discussions, and collaborate with others.  Some content may be designated as private by the author (allowing specific groups to view the content, but not all members or the general public).  To respect this privacy, and to maintain the New Tactics Community as a positive environment for interaction with (and respect for) others, membership registration is free but required to participate fully.

Get involved with human rights advocates around the world! Meet and interact with activists, educators, students, and other practitioners. Share ideas and seek feedback, join discussions and collaborate with colleagues.

Get involved with human rights advocates around the world! Meet and interact with activists, educators, students, and other practitioners. Share ideas and seek feedback, join discussions and collaborate with colleagues.

The New Tactics community-based website is an expansion on the resources available through the New Tactics in Human Rights project. In addition to training exercises and tools for strategic thinking and planning, a workbook for practitioners, and materials from several workshops, the New Tactics website focuses on tactic case examples as short descriptions in the Tactics Database, and in-depth case studies as Tactical Notebooks, which provide a detailed look at how a tactic was implemented, and the challenges that were faced along the way.

New interactive features added to the website allow for members to network with each other and seek or give feedback on their activities as human rights advocates. By joining the New Tactics Community, you will gain ways of interacting with others. These include participation in the new dialogues area, professional networking with the member directory, and the ability to join groups. Membership in the website is free and open to anyone interested in sharing ideas relating to human rights as well collaborating with others in a respectful manner. Members will be able to work privately within the community or seek interaction with a broader audience.

Each member of the website will have the opportunity to post to a blog (an online journal or “soapbox”). This is a place to announce plans, campaigns or events as well as share reflections or opinions with the community. The author may choose to share each blog post with the public, or select various audiences within the New Tactics community. Only members of the community will be able to post comments to blogs and other content.

The dialogues area is a collection of community member blogs and serves as a forum to ask questions and participate in dialogue about various issues surrounding human rights and advocacy. Members may participate in dialogues on the website or by “subscribing” to a topic as an email list.

Members of the New Tactics community may also organize themselves into groups based on any area of shared interest. For example, groups can be created for members in a geographical location, attending an event or workshop, or concerned with an issue. Members of a group may post blog entries or hold discussions privately, raise and address issues, and report to each other on events or presentations.

Additional benefits of membership include networking and updates. Members may network with each other by joining or creating new groups, and by creating short biographies of themselves, which are then listed in a members directory. Members may also receive email messages when new blog entries or discussion topics are posted to one of their groups.

Public users (who have not logged in as members) of the New Tactics website will be allowed to read blogs and discussions as indicated by the author, but will not be permitted to post comments or read items intended just for other community members. Public users will have no access to the members directory.

Users may login or register from any page on the New Tactics website (click on “Create new account”). New members will be asked to confirm their email address and will be sent a message containing information on logging in.

Great question!  As of July 2010, we are currently working on the final edits of our New Tactics methodology and facilitation guides.  Once those are finished, we hope to be able to share these guides with you on our website.  We also hope to host online trainings with anyone interested in using these tools in 2011.  Let us know if you're interested in participating!

For in-person trainings I have developed this online presentation.  To watch the presentation, click the arrow button to move to the next step.  This short presentation, in addition to a training on this tool and the guides, can be very useful for practitioners to create their own Tactical Map.  Alone, this presentation may be a little confusing.  If it is, please visit our Tactical Mapping page for more information on this tool.

If you have participated in a Tactical Mapping session or have used this tool, please let us know how you used it and if it was helpful!  Add a testimonial to our website!

A tactic is a specific action taken to address a specific situation. A tactic is part of a specific plan or strategy. Tactics take different shapes and forms. A tactic can be as simple as wearing a particular color, or as involved as bringing formal charges against government officials in an attempt to remove them from office. Human rights workers all over the world utilize a wide variety of creative tactics to bring about positive changes in their culture. 

A strategy answers the question "What?" What do you hope to accomplish? What is the goal? A strategy involves a gathering many ideas and making decisions toward a plan. Factors considered in developing a strategy include:

• Selecting key objectives and appropriate targets (people, organizations, laws, etc)
• Understanding the constituencies and resources available and needed
• Reaching a clear understanding of the specific interim goals to reach the strategy
• Deciding which tactics to use and when

Tactics consist of how to make a change, while strategy is deciding what change to make. Tactics are about 'the how,' and strategies are about 'the what.' In other words, a strategy is an approach that makes the best use of resources and other factors to secure advantage for an organization's goal. Tactics are the means for implementing strategy. It's the difference between a plan, and a way of accomplishing a plan.

• What we know how to do influences what we think is possible to do; the tactics we have available to us can determine the strategy we choose. 
• Tactics have different effects on different targets.
• Different tactics appeal to different individuals and groups.
• Tactical flexibility is a source of surprise.
• Tactics serve as a lesson about how to engage in the world.
• Tactics open one's eyes to possibilities.
• Tactics are training systems for engaging others in an organization's work.

For more information, visit Tactics and Tactical Thinking. 

Twenty years ago, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) resisted the word 'strategy,' which is now commonplace in NGO language and planning. Strategic planning has helped human rights organizations and other NGOs become more effective. We believe the human rights community will also benefit from incorporating 'tactics' and tactical thinking into its language.

A long time. More than two thousand years ago, Sun Tzu taught that strategy emerges from understanding our adversary, understanding ourselves, and understanding the terrain (where the battle will be fought).

A long time. More than two thousand years ago, Sun Tzu taught that strategy emerges from understanding our adversary, understanding ourselves, and understanding the terrain (where the battle will be fought). Tactics are a key component of strategy. What we can accomplish, including which tactics we know, will affect the formation of our strategy. Tactics and tactical thinking aren't new. But consciously recognizing tactics - seeing what's possible and forming a strategy - is the challenge facing human rights activists today.