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649 Dayton Avenue St. Paul, MN 55104 USAT:+1.612.436.4800 Email: newtactics@cvt.org

Websites: http://www.cvt.org http://www.newtactics.org

Exploring Tactics to INTERVENE

in Human Rights Abusesprovided by

Nancy L. Pearson, M.S.W., L.I.S.W.New Tactics in Human Rights Project Manager

The Center for Victims of Torture

A Tavaana Webinar

Today’s Webinar Outline:Brief overview and orientation to:

o Using our on-line tools!

o Foundation for Strategic Thinking & Tactical Innovation

o Key Terms

o SIX reasons for the need for “new” tactics

Exploring INTERVENTION Tactics

Take a walk around the neighborhood – using the technology tools

Did you attend the 1st webinar on 27 July on Prevention tactics?

YES

NO

NO, but I did attend the New Tactics course offered by Tavaana

NO, but I did attend a different course offered by Tavaana

C

B

A

D

Foundations forStrategic Thinking and

Tactical Innovation

Strategy without tactics is the slowest

route to victory.

Sun Tzu (over 2,000 years ago)

Strategy without tactics is the slowest

route to victory.

Tactics without strategy is the noise

before defeat.

Sun Tzu (over 2,000 years ago)

KnowYourself

Know

Know

From Sun Tzu—the Art of War

KnowYourself

Know YourOpponent

Know theTerrain

From Sun Tzu—the Art of War

What is STRATEGY?

A joining together of many decisions.

A source of inspiration.

A

B

Strategy requires the joining together of many decisions

Strategy defines what is important to do.

Strategy requires…

Decisions that include key steps and approaches in accomplishing the goal.

Selection of key objectives Appropriate targets Understanding of needed constituencies Resources Decisions on which tactics to use and when

What is a TACTIC?

The purpose toward which an effort is directed.

The means by which a change is made.

A

B

Tactics

Tactics are the means through which a change is made. Tactics are the levers or mechanisms to carry out a strategy.

– A tactic is a specific action or systematic combination of actions taken to affect a given situation.

– Tactics are one of the key building blocks of strategy.

– Tactics are about “the how,” while strategies are about “the what.”

Target

The person, institution, group or segment of society where your tactical action is directed.

Target

The person, institution, group or segment of society where your tactical action is directed.

PERSON• Parliamentarian• Journalist• Religious leader• Teacher• Employer

INSTITUTION

Target

The person, institution, group or segment of society where your tactical action is directed.

PERSON• Parliamentarian• Journalist• Religious leader• Teacher• Employer

INSTITUTION• Parliament• Newspaper• Religious Institution• School• Business

GROUP

Target

The person, institution, group or segment of society where your tactical action is directed.

PERSON• Parliamentarian• Journalist• Religious leader• Teacher• Employer

INSTITUTION• Parliament• Newspaper• Religious Institution• School• Business

GROUP• Policy makers• Bloggers• Council of Elders• Students• Businessmen

What is your vision?

When your only tool is a hammer,

New Tactics in Human Rights – www.newtactics.org

every problem looks like

a nail.

New Tactics in Human Rights – www.newtactics.org

Why the need for

1. What we know how to do influences what we think is possible to do. Tactics help determine strategy.

2. Different tactics are effective against different targets.

3. Different tactics appeal to different constituencies.

4. Tactical flexibility is the source of surprise.

5. Tactics teach participants and observers how to engage in the world.

6. Tactics are the training systems for engaging participants and allies in the organization’s work.

Tactic ideas for hitting your “target”

What important considerationsare needed in making tactical choices?

Important Considerations:Group’s capacitiesTolerance for riskAnalysis of the opponentContext in which the tactics will

be used

INTERVENTION TACTICS

Primary source for today’s examples: • New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource

for Practitioners (The workbook is available in English, Farsi, Arabic & other languages)

• Additional sources from New Tactics website: http://www.newtactics.org – use quick link “Tactics” and “Workbook”

• See also Tavaana’s website for additional Case Study Examples: http://tavaana.org/casestudies.jsp

Exploring FOUR kinds of INTERVENTION tactics:

Resistance

Disruption

Persuasion

Incentive

INTERVENTION tactics:

Resistance Tactics – demonstrate opposition to on-going abuse or denial of rights.

These tactics serve 2 important purposes…

Make abuse visible

Set the stage for future tactics that can effect change

Anonymous ResistanceTurkey: With the Flick of a Switch(English page 53, Farsi, page 51)

MAIN TARGET: General population of Turkey

GOAL: Stop IMMUNITY for corruption

MEANS: People turning off their lights

Mobilization required: Media, NGO and Unions in alliance and a chain of Faxes (The technology available in 1997)

Anonymous ResistanceTurkey: With the Flick of a Switch

TIMELINE: – Started four weeks before “S-day”– On February 1, 1997, at precisely 9 p.m., the lights started to go

out in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. – The same action was repeated again and again, only more

houses participated and variations emerged (e.g., banging pots and pans).

– By February 15, an estimated 30 million Turkish households throughout the country participated in the biggest public protest against corruption in Turkish history.

RESULTS: • Prosecution trials of prominent people (limited success)• PLUS - unintended collapse of the ruling party • Long term impacts on system (tactic adapted & used again)

Idea Shared in the Tavaana Forum

Anonymous Resistance

Visible ResistanceEstonia: Singing Revolution (English page 54, Farsi, page 52)

MAIN TARGET: General Population in Estonia

GOAL: Assert cultural identity to unite and express opposition to an oppressive regime

MEANS:

Collective Singing of Traditional (and banned) Songs

Source: http://www.tallinn-life.com/tallinn/estonian-singing-revolution

Visible ResistanceEstonia: Singing Revolution

TIMELINE: 1987 – 1991• Summer 1987

10,000 people gathered in the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

• September 1988

300,000 Estonians gathered; first public demand for independence.

RESULTS: • Similar festivals took place in Latvia and Lithuania• August 1989: Baltic Chain - approximately two million people joined their hands to

form a human chain spanning over 600 kilometres.• August 1991 – All three Baltic states moved toward independence from the Soviet

Union

Source: http://www.tallinn-life.com/tallinn/estonian-singing-revolution

Visible Resistance

The Otpor! student movement in Serbia used humor to successfully spread its message of resistance.

MAIN TARGET: General population – via YOUTH

GOAL: Remove people’s fear to express their desire for an end to the Milošević regime

MEANS: Otpor! countered a government initiative with its own satire on the “collection barrel” called “Dinar za Smenu” (Dinar for a Change).

Source: Otpor! – A collection “BARREL” Posted in the New Tactics Searchable On-

line Tactics Database

Serbia: Using Humor and satire (Website Tactic - Also see New Tactics on-line dialogue – Tactics that Tickle All the Way to the Win)

Visible ResistanceSerbia: Using Humor and satire

TIMELINE: • 1998:

Founding of the Otpor! Student Movement

• July 2000: Election rules for president changed

• July to October 2000: Otpor mobilizations including the "Dinar for a Change" barrels

RESULTS:

• Helped population overcome their fear of expressing their dislike for the regime

• Culmination of MANY tactics and mobilizations - 5 October 2000: Overthrow of Milošević

Source: Otpor! – A collection “BARREL” Posted in the New Tactics Searchable On-

line Tactics Database

What observations do you have from these different examples?

INTERVENTION tactics:

Disruption Tactics – that use direct action to influence a perpetrator to end the abuse.

Step in physically to end the abuse

Risk of physical danger

Disruption Tactics India: Throwing Open the Doors – Rescuing child laborers(English page 66, Farsi, page 64)

MAIN TARGET:

Specific identified business that tended to employ children

GOAL:

Free children held in bondage and provide them with opportunities for education and training

Source: http://www.bba.org.in/childlabour&trafficking/katfl.php

MEANS:

Planned raids at business sites – which required extensive research and participation from organizations in the community

Disruption Tactics India: Throwing Open the Doors – Rescuing child laborers

TIMELINE:– 1989 began building a coalition made up

of over 400 human rights groups and building allies within police

– Raids continue to the presentSource:

http://www.bba.org.in/childlabour&trafficking/katfl.php

RESULTS: (Note – there is direct danger to those conducting the raids)

– Since 1989, the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) has liberated over 65,000 children from slavery through “Direct Action Rescue” operations.

– Once factories and businesses are exposed it is harder for the government to remain complicit in the slavery of children

What kinds of disruption tactics do you know about or have you used?

INTERVENTION tactics:

Persuasion Tactics – that engage respected leaders or non-confrontational mechanisms.

Non-adversarial

Strive for collaboration

Persuasion Tactics Ghana: Enlisting Local Leaders toend harmful customs (English page 70, Farsi, page 67)

MAIN TARGET: Community Leaders – particularly chiefs, queen mothers and temple priests

GOAL: End the harmful customary practice of Trokosi (a system in which women and young girls are kept in fetish shrines without their consent)

MEANS: Engage respected leaders in the communities where the practice is prevalent to persuade others to change their practice

Source: New Tactics tactical notebook - Mama Adokua Asigble IV, Queen Mother from Tefle, and priests

Persuasion Tactics Ghana: Enlisting Local Leaders toend harmful customs

TIMELINE and RESULTS:• 1990 - First consultation with chiefs and queen mothers deliberating and

opposing the practice

• 1991 - Committee of chiefs and priest create a report condemning the practice

• 1995 - First national workshop on the practice

• 1996 - First group of women liberated

• 1998 - 1,000 women liberated & passage of law prohibiting the practice

• 2003 - 3,000 women liberated and negotiations underway to liberate 20,000 women from 19 shrines

Source: New Tactics tactical notebook - Mama Adokua Asigble IV, Queen Mother from Tefle, and priests

What is your vision?

1990 - First consultation to raise the issue with leaders

1991 - Committee of Leaders Condemn the practice

1995 - First national workshop on the practice

1996 - First group of women liberated

1998 – 1,000 women liberated & LAW preventing practice

INTERVENTION tactics:

Incentive Tactics – that provide alternatives to human rights abuse.

Financial incentives

Other powerful motivators: recognition, prestige

Incentive Tactics REVERSE financial incentives – boycotts

Example:

Anti-Apartheid movement, South Africa

MAIN TARGET: Black Consumers

GOAL: Development of a national democratic struggle to end the system of apartheid

MEANS: (0ne tactic used to build first-level grassroots organization)

Leveraging black economic power through rent boycotts, consumer boycotts of businesses owned by whites or black apartheid collaborators

Source: A Force More Powerful website:http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org

Incentive Tactics REVERSE financial incentives – boycotts

Example – Anti-Apartheid movement, South Africa

TIMELINE: The case study on Tavaana's website provides a more comprehensive timeline and a variety of the tactics used.

RESULTS: The consumer boycott was a particularly effective tactic.• Decimated profits of businesses

• Drove a wedge between business and government as white store owners put pressure on the government to change policy

• Tactic was immune to government oppression – you cannot arrest people for not buying products

Source: A Force More Powerful website:http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org

What kinds of incentive tactics do you know about or have you used?

The Center for Victims of Torture – New Tactics in Human Rights Project649 Dayton Avenue St. Paul, MN 55104 USAT:+1.612.436.4800 Email: newtactics@cvt.org

Websites: http://www.cvt.org http://www.newtactics.org

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Upcoming Webinar Dates:

Wednesday, 24 August – Restorative Tactics

Wednesday, 14 September – Promotion Tactics (Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions)