In this notebook we learn about how an international organization called Peace Brigade protects targeted organizations by sending accompaniment of international field workers.  This accompaniment allows these organizations to continue to fight human rights abuses while making it harder for governments to target them because of the international presence.

In the human rights field there is often a gap between local human rights abuses and the international laws and treaties that are meant to prevent these abuses.  The League of Human Rights Advocates in Slovakia recruits members of a disenfranchised population and trains them to become human rights monitors.  These monitors watch for human rights abuses in their own locality and then translate international human rights laws and apply them to their local situations.

Until a few years ago, there were no legal firms in Brazil that offered free services to people in need. The Pro-Bono Institute has created a new legal tradition in São Paolo, convincing major law firms to donate their legal services and connecting them with NGOs in need of legal services. The Institute has recruited about 140 lawyers and is offering a variety of free services to all kinds of NGOs, including support for important human rights cases.

In this notebook, we learn about how the development agency CARE-Bangladesh involved key stakeholders, particularly a transport workers’ union, in the task of HIV/AIDS prevention in Bangladesh. This story provides important insights into engaging key stakeholders in advocacy work that is socially acceptable and relevant to the lives and experience of target communities.