Overview

Communicating your message to others — such as the government officials, or the general public — and persuading them to take action is an important part of human rights work. In our articles on advocacy and communication, you can:

• learn how to work with the media
• get a conceptual understanding of advocacy and read reflections by activists on their advocacy experiences
• learn how to use technology in your work

Media

Awareness is a vital aspect of any social change movement, and human rights movements all over the world have used the media as a vehicle for public education. This section will provide you with ideas on how to develop a media strategy and tips on how to work with the media. In addition, you will learn how to develop and utilize a variety of tools to strengthen your work with the media.

Contacting the Media

The media can be a powerful tool for social change, but initiating work with the media can be a daunting prospect. Where do you begin?

This section will illuminate the first steps you must take in order to develop a clear public message and an effective and practical media strategy. You will also find helpful tips on identifying and cultivating your media contacts.

• Understanding the Media: NGOs need to understand the nature of the media and the way it operates.
• Developing Your Message: Before contacting the media, you must first determine what you want to tell them.
• Developing a Media Strategy: Effective media relations require substantial effort, time, and commitment.
• Choosing a Media Outlet: You should make use of as many avenues for getting your message across as possible.
• Planning and Maintaining Contact: Media contact lists give you a quick reference of who should receive information on a particular issue and how to get them that information.

Working with the Media

The media can help you to educate the public about human rights violations. Effectively publicizing your issue can strengthen the impact you have on your target audience, and help to mobilize communities into action.

In this section, you will learn how to work with the media to get your message across. You will find methods of developing tools for a wide array of media outlets including television, newspaper and radio. This section reviews how to develop media tools such as press kits and letters, as well as how to conduct interviews and press conferences.

• How to Write a Press Release: A press release is the easiest, most accepted and cost-effective way to reach journalists with a story that is breaking news.
• How to Give a Strong Interview: You need to know your subject very well before talking to reporters.
• What Goes into a Press Kit: Press kits contain all the information a reporter will need to understand your issue.
• Public Service Announcements: Public service announcements can raise public awareness of your organization.
• Writing Inquiry and Pitch Letters: Pitch letters convincingly express an issue so that it will be covered in the press.
• Organizing a Media Conference: Press conferences give media outlets a chance to hear your information and talk to your important people.
• Writing Op-Ed letters and Letters to the Editor: Op-eds and letters to the editor can get your point across to a large newspaper or magazine audience.
• Television and Radio: Unlike printed formats, broadcast media can reach larger and more diverse populations.

Case Studies

Learn from the successes and challenges of your colleagues! This section will provide you with examples of effective media strategies from human rights activists around the world.

• Damage Control and Media Advocacy: Which Part of "No Comment" Don't You Understand?

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Advocacy

Human rights work seeks to affect social change and bring about a more just, equitable world. This section provides you with articles and materials to help you design effective human rights advocacy strategies. It also includes case studies of actual advocacy experiences by human rights activists.

What Is Advocacy?

Ultimately, human rights work seeks to improve people's lives. Therefore, a human rights approach that includes and encompasses people's perspectives is integral to any human rights campaign. This section explores these questions, and argues for a people-centered approach to advocacy.

• What Is People-Centered Advocacy?: People-centred advocacy is a set of organized actions aimed at influencing public policies, societal attitudes and socio-political processes that enable and empower the marginalized to speak for themselves.

Mapping Advocacy Strategies

Choosing and developing an effective advocacy strategy is vital to the success of any human rights campaign. This section will provide you with some tools and guiding questions to develop and implement an advocacy strategy appropriate to your particular context.

• Choosing the Right Advocacy Strategy: Advocacy strategies attempt to solve a problem step-by-step by getting at its systemic causes and focusing on specific issues.
• Different Advocacy Strategies for Different Moments: Advocacy usually involves a combination of different strategies for mobilizing support and producing change.
• Timing: Matching the Strategy to the Moment: Developing effective strategies requires careful political analysis of ever-changing opportunities and constraints.
• Triangle Analysis: Thinking about laws and policies in terms of structure, content, and culture can help in determining the right strategy for change.
• Comparing and Selecting Strategies: Once you have devised several possible responses to an issue, you can compare your options and choose the best combination that builds your strategy.
• Drafting a First Set of Advocacy Goals and Objectives: Determining what you want to accomplish and when will help you figure what strategy has the best chance of success.
• Dimensions of a Citizen-Centered Advocacy Strategy: Successful advocacy needs to produce change in government, the private sector, civil society, political space and culture, and the individual.
• Strategic Emphasis: With limited resources, you need to direct your activities in the areas where they can have the most impact.

Case Studies

The experiences of other activists may give you new ideas or help you to avoid potential pitfalls in the future. Read reflections from your colleagues in Sierra Leone, Peru and India about their respective advocacy campaigns.

• The War for Diamonds and the Response of Civil Society: The Sierra Leone Case Study: An activist reflects on the critical role civil society has played in ending Sierra Leone's long and brutal civil war, which was fueled mainly by diamonds.
• Choosing Battles: A Campaign Against Torture in Peru: An activist reviews the strategies and lessons learned from her organization's campaign against torture in Peru.
• Confronting Child Sexual Abuse: A Case Study from India: A study of the lessons learned from a campaign against incest and child sexual abuse in India.

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Technology

Electronic mail and the Internet have changed the way we carry out human rights work. Technology offers the opportunity to communicate with people around the world, and can be used to energize and expand the impact of human rights work. In this section, you will learn how to set up email and internet systems for your organization, as well as learning more advanced methods for incorporating technology into your human rights activism.

Basic Requirements

In simple language, this section provides essential information on the basic requirements to get you started. This section provides tips on everything from choosing the right computer to using the Internet. Examples and pictures are used throughout this section for more clarity.

• Computer Recommendations: Choosing the right computer depends on what kind of work you do and where you do it.
• Software for Your Computers: The web offers many resources for obtaining free or low-cost software.
• Protecting Your Computer from Viruses: Viruses are programs that can do serious damage to your computer.
• Getting Net Access: Learn what equipment and software you need to access the Internet.
• Using Search Engines: How to do a basic but thorough Web search.
• Backing Up Your Data: Since many things can go wrong with computers, backing up your data is essential.
• Languages on the Internet: The Internet provides many ways to search for information in different languages and translate from one language to another.
• Internet Security: While the Internet is an incredible resource of information, it is not very private.

Building Communities Online

Now that you're "plugged in" to the Internet, you have an enormous world to explore. In this section, you will learn how to navigate this world to fit your organization's purposes. You will learn how to use e-mail and create databases as well as how to conceptualize, create and publicize a Web site. In addition, you will find helpful hints on using the Internet for various purposes, such as research and fundraising.

• How the Internet Can Be Used in Your Work: Before using the Internet in your organization's work, you must first make sure people in your organization know how the Internet can help.
• Using E-Mail for Advocacy, Publicity, and Networking: E-mail is a fast and relatively inexpensive way to send messages to others.
• Planning a Web Site: Before you create a Web site, you must think about your goals and available resources so that you can create a realistic workplan.
• Putting Together a Web Site: How a Web site will be constructed and managed should be considered a reflection of the organization.
• Promoting Your Web Site: Web search engines, e-mail lists, and other Web sites are useful ways to promote your site.
• Managing Your Information: Databases are crucial for organizing information about donors and generating reports.

Case Studies

It is important that your organization have a website that is accessible to your target audience. Learn how one organization developed a new, easy-to-use Web site.

• Improving the Navigation of FARN's Web Site: An Argentine-based organization redesigned its Web site to make it faster to load and easier to navigate through.

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