- How do you stop human rights violations?
All around the globe we see people victimized,
exploited, targeted for discrimination,
and denied opportunities.
Often we feel powerless to do anything about it.
I'm Jo Becker, and I'm a human rights advocate
at Human Rights Watch.
This is a video series
about how people organize to stop human rights abuses.
In this series, you'll meet advocates
from Human Rights Watch
who've worked to bring a former president
to justice for war crimes.
To advance the rights of some
of the world's most vulnerable workers.
To end excessive prison sentences for children,
and to stop the killing of civilians
in the Central African republic.
They'll describe how they take on these issues
and the strategies that they use to make a difference.
Human rights abuses
are often about the abuse of power.
Governments or rebel groups
or even corporations taking advantage
of their authority to deny individuals
their freedoms and protections.
Human rights advocacy is about finding ways
to pressure or persuade these actors
to respect the dignity of every human being,
and meet their responsibilities
under international law.
We use the term human rights
because they are universal.
Every person is entitled
to both civil and political rights,
such as the right to life, to equality,
and to freedom of expression
as well as economic, social, and cultural rights
such as the right to work,
to education, and to social security.
At Human Rights Watch we try
to stop human rights violations
by doing three things:
we document human rights abuses,
creating a kind of case file of the facts;
we publicize these facts through published reports,
the mainstream media, and also social media
so that no government can say "that didn't happen,"
or "I hadn't heard."
And finally we do advocacy.
We explain, convince, and press people in power
or people whom they listen to
to respect rights and secure justice.
We refer to our methodology
as investigate, expose, change.
Let me explain each one a little more.
We investigate to expose
the truth of what has happened.
Whether it's torture in prisons,
violence against women in war time,
or the use of child labor in gold mines.
Governments and other powerful actors
generally try to hide the human rights violations
that they commit.
Documenting what happened
can take weeks, months,
and sometimes years.
We go to people with first-hand knowledge
of what has happened:
victims, their family members, and eyewitnesses.
We also talk with local human rights advocates,
lawyers, government officials,
and United Nations representatives.
Sometimes people lie to us or exaggerate
or remember events incorrectly.
So we cross check their statements
and corroborate it with others
in order to create a full and accurate picture
of what has happened.
Human rights abuses are devastating
and traumatic to the survivors
and we know our account may be challenged
by the authorities, so our case can't have flaws.
Next we expose what has happened
so the facts and victims' experiences
can not be ignored.
We publish our findings
and explain how we gathered the information.
We work to get local or international media
to cover the story in newspapers,
radio, and TV.
We use social media to get the word out
on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
and on other platforms.
We take video from the scene
and create short pieces
for our own YouTube channel.
We don't want any government
to be able to say, "that didn't happen,"
or, "I didn't know."
Finally and most importantly,
we want to bring change.
This is human rights advocacy,
and it's the focus of this video series.
We bring victims' stories directly
to policy makers and those with influence.
And we offer them concrete recommendations
for stopping the human rights abuses
that we've documented.
We want those with power,
whether they're government officials,
rebel commanders, or corporate executives,
to take the necessary action
to end human rights abuses
and protect human dignity.
This series will look at how
to conduct advocacy to protect
and promote human rights,
the tools and strategies that we can use,
and what we can learn from successful campaigns.
We'll begin by looking
at the basics of an advocacy strategy.
It has six parts.
First we need to identify
the problem we want to address.
Whether it's police brutality,
the use of child soldiers,
or crack downs on dissidents.
We need to assess not just the rights violations,
but the context in which it's occurring
and its root causes.
For example, if bad laws are the problem,
our advocacy strategy may focus
on legislative reform.
But if laws are good but not being enforced,
our strategy will focus on ways to address those gaps.
On the other hand,
if cultural beliefs are perpetuating abuses,
we'll need to approach our strategy differently.
For example, by engaging religious
and community leaders.
Second, we need to be able
to articulate why this issue
is important and timely.
Is it particularly wide spread or severe?
Does it affect large numbers of people?
Does it have an impact outside the country?
Are there policy debates under way
that provide a unique opportunity
to make a impact now?
The core of good advocacy is to be able
to articulate compelling reasons
to make a human rights issue a priority,
and persuade policy makers
that among the many issues coming to their attention,
they can and should take action on this one.
Third is goals.
What kind of change are we trying to make?
Describing the problem is not enough.
We need to be able to articulate
concrete actions that will improve the situation.
For example, to address child marriage,
a goal might be to pass national laws
increasing the minimum age of marriage to 18.
To combat war crimes in an armed conflict,
a goal could be the prosecution of key commanders
before an impartial court.
Fourth is targets.
We need to be able to identify
who's in a position to make
the change that we seek.
It may be national governments,
the United Nations security council,
private corporations, or armed groups.
If our influence with the primary target is limited,
we need to identify secondary sources of influence.
These may be the media,
prominent individuals, third party governments,
parts of the United Nations,
or the broader public.
For example, if a government
is deliberately killing civilians
during a war, we might urge other governments
to stop providing that country with weapons.
Fifth is tactics.
We also need to identify the tactics we'll use
to influence our targets.
We have a large number of tools in our toolbox,
and the challenge is to pick those
that will be most effective in a given situation.
These tactics can include face-to-face meetings
with people in power,
public shaming in the media,
public pressure through petitions or letters.
Drafting new legislation,
or using social media to spotlight
the action that is needed.
And finally we need to identify
our partners and allies.
In the human rights movement,
it's rare that one person
or one organization makes dramatic change
by themselves.
We're often most effective
when we join forces with others.
Allies can include other human rights groups,
victims groups, religious or cultural leaders,
teachers, professional associations,
even governments.
In this series, we'll go behind
the scenes at Human Rights Watch
to explain how we put together advocacy strategies
to deal with specific human rights abuses.
In most cases, our advocacy took years,
involving a lot of people
and a lot of persistence.
It's important to remember that you can't solve
every human rights problem.
That isn't our goal.
But when you think carefully
and strategically about how to attack
a particular problem,
you can make the world better.
You can stop human rights abuses.
Here's how.