Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human

Chapter 4
Advocacy Campaigns for Human Rights
Campaign strategies, lobbying, and advocacy work
can be used as tools by human rights defenders
in their work to defend the rights of others.
Campaigning aims at bringing about positive change,
making people act on their commitments or to fulfil
their duties and obligations. It can also be used to
raise widespread awareness on a certain issue. This
article seeks to provide a basic overview on how to
design campaign strategies applicable to different
issues and diverse organisational backgrounds. 19
Campaigning on human rights is an essential way
to seek an end to human rights violations and
redress for those whose rights have been violated.
Individuals and communities may stand up for
their own rights (see the recent growth in citizen
activism) or others may campaign on their behalf,
especially where groups lack awareness of their own
rights or the influence to demand change. According
to Article 1 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders, 20 “[E]veryone has the right, individually
and in association with others, to promote and to
strive for the protection and realization of human
rights and fundamental freedoms at the national
regional and international levels.” In effect, everyone
has the right to campaign for the rights of others as
well as their own.
Planning a campaign
In order to campaign successfully, objectives must
be set depending on what change you want to
bring about. These objectives must be specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
To find out how specific and measurable your
objectives are, you must ask first yourself what
you hope and expect will be different after the
campaign.
19 Original article by Carol Magambo with updates by Rachel
Nicholson.
20 The Declaration’s full name is: Declaration on the Right and
Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to
Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms. It can be accessed via the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://
www.ohchr.org/english/law/freedom.htm
Secondly, research has to be carried out to inform
your campaign strategy. Only a full understanding of
the issues at stake will allow for an effective strategy
to be developed. This allows you to define the
problem you are trying to solve and to understand,
for example, who is responsible for the violations
and why are they happening. When researching
you also must be able to answer questions like
what is the message we are trying to communicate
and what change do we want to see Why do
we want this to change Who are we targeting –
who are the stakeholders and duty bearers that
have an influence on this issue How shall we do
this and which means are we to use Is it going
to be through the internet, telephone, media,
lectures, debates demonstrations, exhibitions or
preparation of a petition Where are we going
to target our efforts Is it at the local, national,
regional or international level And lastly when will
the campaign take place When researching the
campaign issues, one needs to establish the best
way of achieving the objectives and what mixture
to use of the different campaigning techniques
which will be looked at later. A discussion within the
campaign team on which methods to use will prove
to be beneficial as advantages and disadvantages
will have to be weighed.
Here is an example of a specific campaign, going
step-by-step through the research and planning
process.:
You are a civil society organisation in Uganda that
wants to see the Domestic Relations Bill passed. You
need to ask yourself, why do we want the Bill passed
To accord women and men equality in matters relating
to marriage, divorce and family property.
Why has it not been passed so far
Due to resistance from some sections of society.
Who are the influential people in this context
Parliamentarians, Ministers and staff of the Ministry of
Gender.
Ok, so how do we persuade them to act
Can that be done through signing of petitions,
demonstrations or public rallies, or would private
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Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human Rights Defenders | 2nd Edition