Indigenous peoples that choose to be a part of this network actively participate in government activities, ensuring that the indigenous voice is heard when public policies that affect the Amazon are being created. The movement pressures and lobbies for the inclusion of specific participants on government commissions and builds strong bonds between the participants and the government, as well as participants and their indigenous communities. The COIAB has helped develop indigenous-friendly policies in the areas of indigenous health, education and the environment, among others.

La Iniciativa Popular está contemplada en la Constitución Argentina en el artículo 39 a partir de reforma de 1994. Por las dificultades que tienen los ciudadanos para lograr las firmas del 1.5% de los electores en al menos 6 distritos nunca antes del 2002 llegó al Congreso un proyecto presentado, haciendo uso de este instrumento constitucional.

This notebook shares how Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been deeply involved in a collective process which has shaped and influenced the Campaign for the Right to Information in India. MKSS makes the case that without access to information and transparency there can be no genuine participation of all members of society, particularly the poor, in democracy. The right to know and actual transparency of information provides the ability to demand and access rights.

Since 1996, the Ruta Pacifica, a feminist, pacifist, anti-military organization, has been organizing caravans of thousands of women from all over Colombia to the regions hardest-hit by conflict. Each caravan is a symbolic gesture against the war and a practical opportunity for women to come together to exchange ideas and demand an end to human rights violations.

Peru’s Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Coordinator for Human Rights, CNDDHH) is globally recognized as one of the most successful and effective coalitions in the world. This notebook analyzes the characteristics of a strong coalition and shows how to successfully fight against an authoritarian government, like that of Fujimori in Peru the 1990s.

In this notebook we learn about how effective and beneficial building collaborative relationships with government institutions can be to advancing human rights education. Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways in Turkey gained the support and use of government resources for furthering human rights education of women at the local level.