About the New Tactics in Human Rights Project



The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of partner international organizations, advisors and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done. Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions.

The New Tactics in Human Rights project promotes the use and sharing of as wide a range of tactics as possible. The project is coordinated by the Center for Victims of Torture and grew out of its experience as a creator of new tactics and a treatment center that also advocates for the protection of human rights from a unique position—one of healing and reclaiming civic leadership. We hope you will join us and the New Tactics community in developing, using and promoting strategic and tactical thinking within the broad human rights community.

"To advance human rights requires the capacity to innovate tactics and combine them to create strategies as comprehensive as the problems we face.” - Douglas A. Johnson, United States, Executive Director, Center for Victims of Torture

Summary of the New Tactics in Human Rights project

Download this summary in English, French or Spanish.*

Local human rights activists throughout the world struggle with a sense of isolation, are forced to “reinvent the wheel,” and choose tactics not because they are the best fit for the strategic situation, but because they are the only tactics they know. At the same time, innovative practitioners have devised a wide range of creative approaches for promoting human rights, but these are too-often known only by their closest allies.

Since 1999, the New Tactics in Human Rights project has created unique resources -- organized around analysis of potential solutions rather than that of specific issues, geographic regions or target groups -- that allow activists to clearly recognize the unique elements of their situation, and to seek promising approaches that have worked elsewhere and apply them to new regions or issues. It also improves activists’ ability to combine diverse tactics into complex strategies.

The New Tactics Project’s methods have included:
1. In-person trainings, such as:

  • Regional workshops in which 10-50 innovative activists train each other in the diverse tactics they have used, and develop “tactical portfolios” of practical tools for applying new tactics. Seven workshops have been held, the most recent in Liberia in February 2007, focusing on post-conflict tactics for rebuilding civil society.
  • An International Symposium held in 2004 in Ankara, Turkey, including 450 human rights activists from 89 countries to focus on a full range of tactical possibilities, from fields as diverse as domestic violence and sustainable development.

New Tactics project staff have also carried out presentations or consultations in more than a dozen countries.


2. Publications, including:

New Tactics materials have been translated into twenty three languages by local human rights advocates and distributed to thousands of activists around the world.


3. Tactical Mapping, a methodology to help identify the relationships surrounding a human rights abuse, and the points in which the system can be interrupted or transformed, ranging from highly local, personal relationships (e.g., the perpetrator’s professional associations) to international institutions (e.g., the UN system). It allows a coalition of advocates to see where each is working on the system, and where there are gaps that need to be addressed, either by creating new tactics or finding new allies.

4. Electronic Resources and Curricula, including the project’s website www.newtactics.org, online discussion courses, and an e-newsletter that highlights specific tactics and information for inspiring innovation. A revised version of the project website was launched in September 2007, featuring: new tools for sharing and networking; the blog InterTactica; and a monthly discussion of a featured type of tactic (for example: unarmed accompaniment; engaging the media; or using historical sites to spark discussion of current issues).

II. Evidence of Success

One sign of the success of the project is the growing demand for the project from activists around the world. Website traffic has more than doubled since 2005, and since the revision of the project website, activists from more than 90 non-western countries have become members. We have also seen significant increases in applications for the project’s in-person trainings and other activities – e.g., a small partnership initiative in 2007 drew more than twice the applications than that of a similar initiative in 2005.

With these accomplishments have come greater indications of the New Tactics project’s real-world impact. Dozens of project participants have told us how they used the project’s ideas and materials to strengthen their work in a number of ways. In formal evaluations, informal follow-ups, and reports from subgrantees and partners, they have told us that the project has helped them:

  • Better understand their strategic situation, such as the Sri Lankan organization that abandoned “energy sapping” activities and turned to collaboration with allies who were better positioned for these approaches; or the Cameroonian group that was making progress on a local level but saw how they could have broader impact if they added a complementary tactic to reach a national audience.
  • Reach out to potential partners, such as the Turkish activists who used tactical mapping to engage hundreds of other activists in strategies to end torture, or a group promoting sites of conscience that used the project’s network to build new relationships with organizations in Kenya and Northern Ireland.
  • Transfer a tactic first used elsewhere, such as the Salvadoran group that adapted a Nigerian tactic for preventing violence against women; a Slovak organization that used a Korean approach for preventing corruption in local governments; a Macedonian group that increased the representation of women in Parliament by modifying a Dutch mobile phone tactic; or the activists in Zimbabwe that adapted a Serbian method for rapidly freeing political prisoners.

The New Tactics project emerged from The Center for Victims of Torture’s own experience as a creator of new tactics, a leader of coalitions, and as a center that also advocates for the protection of human rights from a unique position – one of healing and of reclaiming civic leadership. In addition to the New Tactics project, CVT ‘s international work includes projects to create community mental health and trauma healing capacity in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a capacity-building project that has strengthened torture treatment organizations in 18 countries.

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Want to get involved?

If you are interested in supporting the New Tactics project with a monetary donation, please donate using the Center for Victims of Torture's website and include 'New Tactics' in the comment text box.

If you are intersted in a volunteer position or internship, please contact Kristin at kantin [at] cvt [dot] org.

Support for the New Tactics web site

The New Tactics web site is made possible by the support of a number of generous funders. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the New Tactics project and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.