THE NEW TACTICS NEWSLETTER – April 8, 2005

More than 200 Practitioners Apply to Attend New Tactics Asia Workshop

Since announcing the Asia Regional Training Workshop in February, we received more than 200 applications from over 15 countries in the region. The deadline to apply was Monday, April 4, 2005.

The workshop, which will take place in Chiang Mai, Thailand from August 5 to 11, 2005, is the fifth in a series of five the New Tactics project has coordinated around the world. The meeting will engage innovative human rights practitioners from across the regions of South, Southeast and East Asia in sharing and developing ideas, practices, knowledge and skills to strengthen efforts to advance human rights.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) in Thailand is the lead partner for the New Tactics project in Asiaand the workshop host [more]

Nigerian Journalists Meet to Learn New Tactics

Mufuliat Fijabi of BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights received a New Tactics micro grant to organize a one-day workshop on using new tactics in human rights to address women’s human rights issues in Nigeria. The workshop focused on sharing the knowledge and ideas of New Tactics by training journalists in the identification of human rights issues and the development of creative strategies and tactics. The meeting, which took place in December 2004, included twenty-four participants, eleven of whom are journalists [read the report].

Mufuliat attended both the Africa Regional Workshop in Cape Town, South African and the International Symposium in Ankara, where she presented a creative and effective use of mock tribunals to change public perceptions and beliefs regarding violations against women. BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (www.baobabwomen.org), a not-for-profit organization with outreach teams in 14 Nigerian states, works to ensure that women’s human rights become an integral part of women’s everyday life.

[Learn more about mock tribunals]

New Resources in Russian and Hebrew!

With assistance from New Tactics microgrants, Symposium participants from the Kyrgyz Republic, Nagorno Karabakh, Russia and Israel recently translated key New Tactics resources, including several tactical notebooks and chapters from New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners.

Since late 2004, the New Tactics project has awarded nearly 40 micro grants to enable Symposium participants around the world to share their experiences. In recent weeks we received numerous reports and resource materials from recipients, which we have posted online for you to use.

Historical Sites: Using the Power of Place

Where does the power reside in such sites? How is it expressed? Join Clarence Dias, President of the International Center for Law in Development, in an online forum surrounding these issues. [join the discussion]

In addition to serving as a New Tactics in Human Rights Working Group Member, Clarence Dias moderated a workshop on historical sites at the New Tactics Symposium in 2004.

[Learn more about historical sites of conscience]

Looking for New Tactics?

Over the past three years, the New Tactics Project has been collecting innovative tactics being used by practitioners around the world. Search the New Tactics database to learn what activists around the world have done to address the most pressing human rights issues. [Search the New Tactics Database]

New Tactics in Human Rights Workbook Now Available to Order

New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners (also known as the New Tactics Workbook) is now available to order. This 200-page book includes 100 stories about how people around the world have addressed human rights concerns, along with practical worksheets and a theoretical discussion of tactical and strategic thinking. [more]