In Argentina, perpetrators of abuse during Argentina's dictatorship (1976-1983) often live anonymously among their neighbors, enjoying the immunity granted by the current Argentinean government.  HIJOS, a local human rights organization, is trying to unmask this anonymity. To accomplish their goal, they organize a neighborhood-wide information campaign about the crimes of the abuser in their midst. Then they pick a day to demonstrate, using speeches, skits and music as they march toward the home of the abuser. After many demonstrations, the abuser has been socially ostracized. In some cases, the abusers have been forced to move from their neighborhoods.

In the mid-1990s the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude publicly exposed the use of child domestic help by government officials in order to highlight the widespread problem of child servitude in India. When SACCS received information that an official’s household was engaging children as domestic help demonstrations were organized in front of officials’ residences to focus public attention on the practices of that particular household. Because of the embarrassment of the public spotlighting, the prime minister issued an order reinforcing the government’s stance that by no means could government officials employ child laborers.

In 2000, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) began importing generic medications  in order to pressure the South African government into declaring certain HIV/AIDS drugs exempt from international patent law.  This was aimed at increasing access to affordable HIV/AIDS prescription drugs for all South Africans.  TAC’s Defiance Campaign established a network of doctors and pharmacists who prescribe high quality, low cost generic medicines that are sold in other countries to South Africans infected with HIV/AIDS.  As a result of the Christopher Moraka Defiance Campaign, TAC has experienced increased support and political leverage to provide affordable treatment for South Africans with HIV/AIDS.  Moreover, the Campaign forced the Government finally to make pressing decisions regarding generic drug alternatives that it would have otherwise avoided. For example, the South African Government granted exemption status to generic Fluconazole in November 2000 under pressure from TAC.

Otpor! (“Resistance!” in Serbo-Croatian) prepared “Plan B” demonstrations outside of police stations to respond immediately to arrests during protest events in Serbia. Whenever the police arrested activists in their demonstrations, Otpor! would instantaneously launch a second operation, mobilizing more people to show up at the police stations and protest the arrest. The events at the police station became media showpieces, calling attention to the injustice of the arrests and the illegitimacy of the regime. They also provided moral support and encouragement to the arrested activists, turning them into local and national heroes, rather than forgotten victims. Otpor! thus turned the regime’s policy of arrests to its own advantage and continued to build a movement.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Intervention Tactics - Disruption

Objective: 

Organizing demonstrations outside of police stations after arrests of activists

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Government

Citizen Initiative for Constant Light mobilized 30 million people in Turkey to turn off and on their lights to demand that the government act against corruption. The action resulted from public outrage after a car crash openly revealed connections between government, police and the mob. Their actions forced judicial investigations, and among the Turkish citizenry, contributed to a long-term groundswell of active concern about corruption.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Intervention Tactics - Disruption

Objective: 

Mobilizing citizens to turn off their lights everyday to protest government corruption

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Government

Sisters in Islam, as one of the founding members of a joint action group called Malaysians Against Moral Policing (MAMP), has been organizing in response to the growing zeal of the state in policing the morality of citizens.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Building Human Rights Cultures and Institutions - Building awareness

Objective: 

To use the foundations of religious and cultural values of Malaysia to promote human rights

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Civil society

People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) worked with a coalition of civic organizations to survey in order to identify criteria meant to eliminate politicians and make them ineligible for election.  Corruption in Korea was so serious that it was the foremost obstacle hindering the progress of Korean society.  Korean political parties have remained unchanged and politicians do n

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Intervention Tactics - Disruption

Objective: 

To use documentation to draw up a ‘blacklist’ of unacceptable political candidates and moving the public to vote against them

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Government

The Children’s Mandate for Peace and the Adults Mandate for Peace (El Madato por la Paz) were symbolic elections in Colombia where children and adults cast ballots for prohibitions of human rights abuses.  It had a strong symbolic effect, demonstrating the public’s disapproval with the current human rights situation and children’s and adults’ desire to strengthen human rights in the country.

The Canadian government faced a real dilemma when hundreds of its citizens showed up at the Ottawa headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) holding “Search & Rescue Warrants” for the draft documents for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Operation SalAMI’s strategy combined the usual petitions, letter-writing campaigns, legal demonstration, etc., with an unequivocal ultimatum, civil disobedience training on the premises of the Canadian parliament and the drama of the Search & Seizure Operation, a type of nonviolent direct action.

For a detailed exploration of this tactic, please click on the following link to consult our tactical notebook, <b><a href="http://www.newtactics.org/en/TheDilemmaDemonstration">The Dilemma Demonstration</a></b> by Philippe Duhamel.

Tactic Information

Intervention type: 

Intervention Tactics - Resistance

Objective: 

To pressure the government to act according to its professed values and at the requests of its citizens

Sector initiating tactic: 

Civil society

Sector intended to affect: 

Government

Through a drive that encouraged citizens of all political persuasions to sign a petition, the Basque peace group, Elkarri, gave citizens a way to collectively and effectively pressure the Spanish and Basque governments to initiate a peace dialogue.

For a detailed exploration of this tactic, please click on the following link to consult our tactical notebook, <b><a href="http://www.newtactics.org/en/SocietyasMediator">Society as Mediator for Conflict Resolution</a></b> by Tamara Muruetagoiena.