abuse

From Motivation to Solution: A Strategy Tool

Philippe Duhamel — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:20:28 -0500

How do you eradicate an age-old abusive practice so entrenched it has become woven into a people's identity?

What if the practice serves to assuage powerful, visceral fears? What if the practice also meets some real needs, such as for food, housework and sex?

Pretending for a minute you could even end the practice, how would you then prevent it from raising its ugly head again?

One of the leading promoters of human rights in Africa, Emile Francis Short must also be a master of strategy. In his tactical notebook entitled Powerful Persuasion: Combating traditional practices that violate human rights, you can study the 10-year campaign he led in Ghana to free thousands of women and girls from religious enslavement.

It is a riveting story. I am especially grateful to Mr. Short for letting us in on the sophisticated design of his highly successful campaign. Somewhere in there, I got a glimpse of a powerful strategizing tool that could be more widely used. I'll call it the Motivation to Solution Strategy Tool.

In Ghana, formerly used as a hub in the slave trade, another form of slavery was still prevalent until recently. The practice is called trokosi, a form of religious servitude. As atonement for a breach of social rules or a crime committed by someone else in their family, young women and girls were sent to a life of misery, rape and exploitation at the hands of local priests.

"In approaching an abusive customary practice", Emile Short says, "you must understand why the culture has developed it. Customary practices do not exist without reason. What needs does the practice serve? What problem is it attempting to remedy? Some customary practices were created for historic reasons that no longer exist, while others fulfill current needs or respond to real fears or concerns. These motivations must be understood, because if a practice is to be changed, there must be an alternative method of responding to the causes that lie beneath it. Otherwise it is likely to resurface even after a successful campaign."

In truth, I have no idea how formal was the process that went into the design of the fascinating table found in Powerful Persuasion (see p. 12). All I know is this tool allows for a crucial examination of the driving forces behind a problem, and a search for avenues to address them. To the left, one finds a list of causes headed "Motivation upholding the practice"; on the other, "Solution or argument" heads a list of potential strategic responses.

How the tool works

1. Identify Motivation: the Needs, Fears and Beliefs that support the problem

Take a sheet of paper (large newsprint or blackboard if working with a group) and write on top which situation or practice you want to affect.

Draw a line in the middle. Write the header for each column: MOTIVATIONS on one side, SOLUTIONS on the other.

Explain that the situation or practice you want to change exists for a reason: it serves a purpose, however twistedly. It feeds on a number of needs, fears, ideas and habits. Your goal is to unearth these.

First, you may want to conduct a brainstorm about what needs the practice may be serving. Don't be too concerned at this point about validating or organizing your thoughts. Later, you may look at your list again, and see if you need to go deeper. Fears, especially, may be hiding other unrecognized needs.

After the brainstorm, you can organize your list if you want, trim it down, group items together, etc.

2. Find alternatives, arguments and tactics

Now go over the list on the left. Look for alternatives, arguments and tactics you could use to address each motivation. Write these down under SOLUTIONS.

For each major NEED, look for alternatives, for other ways these could be met through better, more positive means. Offering replacement practices will make for easier and more durable solutions than trying to suppress the need. Sometimes, as in the case of sexual crimes, means of coercion or repression may have to be an option.

When dealing with FEAR, acknowledge needs such as for safety and protection. Assuage those fears with new reassurance mechanisms. Bring in real-life experiences if you can (testimonies are great for that).

When dealing with CUSTOMS, suggest change is possible. The recognition that customs do change over time may be the hardest part. This creates the opening you need to even suggest a specific change.

When dealing with other supporting BELIEFS or IDEAS, come up with powerful arguments that could be used to bring respectful challenge. Your goal with these arguments is not to defeat and humiliate. Your goal is to change the outlook and make everybody win.

This simple tool allows you to tackle a problem in radical new ways. This exercise allows you to unearth the roots of a problem... And going for the cause rather than the symptoms, compañeras y compañeros, means more effective, durable action.

The best part is: this tool can be used by anybody!

— Philippe Duhamel, www.interTactica.org

Take a sheet of paper and try the tool for 10 minutes with a problem practice you are struggling with.
Let us know how it worked for you.
Post a comment below.
Any other idea this tool brings up for you?

New Tactics Community Members

Leveraging the Money

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:06 -0500

Leveraging the Money

by Ulrich Mueller

Download full notebook below. [*note]

In this notebook Ulrich Mueller describes a strategy of the FoodFirst Information and Action Network to influence large mining operations that were causing various human rights abuses, by putting pressure on banks and other financial institutions that invest in those mines. The notebook provides a thorough analysis of the kinds of research and pressure tactics that can provide an important new source of leverage for communities that are trying to counter the damage that can be caused by huge corporate projects on or near their land. This tactic can be extended to cover a broad range of issues in which there is a need to pressure corporations, as it takes into account their crucial dependence on the globalized financial community to invest in their operations, and the growing sensitivity of that financial community to sociopolitical pressure.

This notebook explains how the FoodFirst Information and Action Network influenced financial institutions to promote better protections for human rights or to prevent projects that would lead to human rights violations. FIAN Germany used this tactic mainly in a campaign against violations of the right-to-food caused by large surface gold mines. The campaign cooperates closely with affected communities and local organizations. Together with these partners, FIAN investigates the human rights problems of specific mines. We then use a number of instruments to bring the findings to the attention of investors and the public: fact-finding mission reports, calls for urgent action among members, involving human rights bodies at the national and international level, media work, speaker tours, conferences and lobbying. This combination provides new leverage to influence financial institutions and mining companies. And this in turn helps affected communities to claim their rights under difficult circumstances.

We started to support mining-affected communities in 1995. The first contacts we had were with communities in Peru and Turkey. In some of these cases, German investors were involved in financing the mines. This gave us an opportunity to link human rights violations in other countries to actors in Germany. And it also proved to be an effective tool to put pressure on the mining companies. From that starting point, FIAN began using investor pressure as a primary tactic in its gold mining campaign. The tactic of directing campaigns toward financial institutions is not limited to mining.

As financial institutions are, more and more, a powerful economic force worldwide, this tactic could be used in a variety of ways in other cases of corporate abuse: Industry-wide campaigns are pressing financial institutions like banks or pension funds to withdraw support from specific industrial sectors or to pressure companies in that sector to adopt new standards or practices. Campaigns might also focus on an individual company or a specifically harmful project (like large infrastructure projects, dams, mines, etc.). In these cases, investors might be urged to withdraw their support from a specific project or to pressure the company to change their behavior. Additionally, campaigns might focus on financial market practices themselves and demand new investment rules and practices like ethical investment.

This notebook focuses on project-level campaigning, using the example of a gold-mining project in Ghana. It will start with background information on the human rights impacts of surface gold mining. The elements of the tactic will be explained and illustrated through the example. The second part will discuss what questions are important when using the tactic and how the tactic could be transferred.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

International Monitoring Bodies

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:05 -0500

International Monitoring Bodies

by Paul Mageean

Download full notebook below.[*note]

In this notebook, we discover how the Committee on the Administration of Justice succeeded in raising the issue of human rights abuses in Northern Ireland at the international level and, by doing so, brought about significant improvements in human rights conditions. This was accomplished through CAJ’s utilisation of the Committee Against Torture–one of the mechanisms available through the United Nations for monitoring governments that have signed international conventions. In order to use these international mechanisms effectively, a number of supporting tactics were necessary, including writing submissions to the Committee, lobbying in Geneva and monitoring the implementation and impact that the reports and recommendations of Committee Against Torture have had on Northern Ireland in terms of actually improving the human rights situation on the ground. International mechanisms can be a powerful and effective tool for human rights organisations to leverage for change, especially when they have encountered significant obstacles and opposition at the local and national level.

There has been a violent political conflict in Northern Ireland since 1969. The conflict involves three sets of protagonists: the Irish Republican Army and other republican groups that want Northern Ireland to unite with the rest of Ireland; loyalist groups that want Northern Ireland to remain within the UK; and the state. From the beginning of the conflict the forces of the state have been involved in human rights abuses. A key aspect of the human rights abuse has involved allegations of ill-treatment of those in custody. This notebook will outline how the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) was able to successfully utilise the United Nations Committee Against Torture to pressure the UK not only to address the allegations of ill-treatment of those in custody but also to establish mechanisms and standards ensuring protection for the accused and accountability of state actors.

The Committee on the Administration of Justice, the foremost human rights organisation operating in Northern Ireland, had long been concerned with the rights of those in detention. Concerns about the use and abuse of emergency law gave rise to our establishment in 1981. We had devised a set of recommendations to guarantee the rights of those arrested by the police and particularly those held in the detention centres. These proposals included suggestions that interviews be recorded electronically, that lawyers be permitted to be present during the interviews, that there be an independent system of monitoring the detention process, that those detained be brought before a judge or released after a shorter period than seven days and that there be independent investigation of complaints of ill-treatment. These proposals were strongly resisted by the government and the police, who maintained that the exceptional powers granted by the emergency legislation were necessary to deal effectively with those suspected of paramilitary activity. Both the government and police denied that any abuse was taking place even though those who alleged ill-treatment and were released without charge by the police often successfully sued for damages. In addition, it was difficult to get media coverage of the issue because at the height of the conflict much of the media was reluctant to give extensive coverage to allegations of this nature.

We needed to devise a response to this problem that would be effective in terms of improving the situation of those arrested under the emergency laws but would also trigger such a significant news story that the media could not avoid covering it. It became increasingly clear that this response could not be generated internally in Northern Ireland. Although we were still a relatively young NGO (having hired our first staff members in 1985), we had begun to think in terms of the boomerang theory. We were therefore increasingly alive to the possibility of exposing what was going on in the detention centres before an international audience to shed light on the situation from outside the country, which would demand accountability and a response from the government. It was clear to us that, on our own, we were not going to achieve our goal of ending the ill-treatment. We were not able to cultivate media interest in the issue–certainly not in Britain, where the key policy-makers were based. It was also the case that many simply disbelieved what we were saying. It is, of course, often the case that in a society in conflict human rights activists are disbelieved and dismissed as being partisan.

This was a phenomenon not exclusive to Northern Ireland, but it did create problems for the credibility of what we were alleging and weakened our chances of creating the necessary momentum to improve the situation. We therefore needed to find a tactic that would address these weaknesses by raising the profile of the issue both internationally and domestically, also lending credibility to what we, as a small NGO in Northern Ireland, were saying. We were fortunate to have a number of academic lawyers familiar with United Nations mechanisms on our executive committee. One of them suggested the use of the Committee Against Torture or CAT (referred to as "the Committee" for the remainder of this notebook). At this stage, we had not accessed any of the international mechanisms at the UN level designed to protect human rights.

The UK signed the Convention Against Torture in 1985 and ratified it in 1988, becoming thereafter subject to the reporting procedures of the Committee Against Torture. Essentially, this meant that the UK had to report periodically to the Committee about the extent to which the Convention was being respected in the UK. The UK must submit each report in written form to the Committee, which then holds a hearing on matters addressed in the report and questions UK representatives. The hearings take place in Geneva. Generally the Committee runs on a three-year cycle, but fortuitously for us, the UK was to be examined by the Committee for the first time in 1991. We consulted with our colleagues in international NGOs to assist us in using this UN mechanism when the UK had to appear before the Committee. We have subsequently been able to utilise such UN mechanisms with increasing success and the Committee Against Torture has been particularly instrumental in pressuring the state to implement actions long-recommended by CAJ.

These examinations by the Committee would have occurred with or without interventions from us. However, the Committee, like other UN human rights mechanisms, tends to rely on NGOs and others to provide it with credible information on which to base its questioning of the country involved. The previous recommendations from the Committee tend to set the parameters for each subsequent examination, so it was important for us to persuade the Committee to pay attention to the issues we wanted highlighted. This was particularly the case in 1991, as it was the first time that the UK had been examined. Increasingly, and certainly in 1998, the Committee would start the session by asking for information on what the state had done to meet the concerns highlighted by the Committee on the previous occasion. The UK has not been examined since 1998, although we anticipate an examination will be forthcoming again in the near future.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

A Call to End Corruption

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:07:57 -0500

A Call to End Corruption

By Ezel Akay

Download full notebook below.[*note]

In this notebook, we read about how mass numbers of people – 30 million people – in Turkey turned off and on their lights to demand that the government act against corruption. Government corruption had been an open secret. Yet, the public felt apathetic about being able to change the situation. The Campaign of Darkness for Light gave people an easy and no-risk action everyone could take – simply turning off their lights at the same time each evening – and thus show their displeasure with the system. Such a simple action – a flick of the switch – and yet when people saw that their neighbors had turned off their lights, too, they felt the power of their collective voices and began to invent their own ways to speak out by gathering on the streets, marching and banging pots and pans. This deceptively simple tactic carried out in a mass numbers sent a powerful signal that the public was calling for an end to corruption in Turkey.

A "Crash Course" in Democracy Begins!

November 3, 1996. Western Turkey. After sunset, on an intercity highway near a roadside town called Susurluk. A dark green Mercedes is speeding from an Aegean resort town towards Istanbul. Inside are four people with a bag full of dollars, a trunk full of arms, ammunition and silencers, and pockets full of cocaine. They are coming home from a "business" trip. At the same time at a roadside gas station near Susurluk. A truck has just filled up its tank and heads off on a long journey home. It slowly eases its way onto the main road. The Mercedes arrives full-speed just as the body of the turning truck covers the road. Crash! For Turkey a "crash course" in democracy begins.

Three Months Later: The Hopeful Noise of 30 Million Citizens ... On February 1, 1997, at precisely 9 p.m., the lights started to go out in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. Household after household, in a perfectly synchronized mass action, turned off their lights for one full minute. On February 2, the same thing again, only more houses. On February 3, again. By February 15, an estimated 30 million Turkish households throughout the country were participating in the biggest public protest against corruption in Turkish history. Turning off the lights for one minute was all the organizers had suggested anyone do. But it wasn’t enough for the citizens. As the action’s momentum grew, people needed more. They spontaneously went beyond the suggested one minute. They began flicking their lights on and off repeatedly, turning the cities of Turkey into a light show. Then people began opening their windows, blowing whistles, banging pots and pans. The light show became an audio-visual extravaganza. Finally, people began pouring out into the streets. Cars on the highways stopped and began blowing their horns. Even the most affluent neighborhoods in Turkey were turned into spontaneous street carnivals. The unspoken frustration of all of Turkey, hidden for so many years behind fear and apathy, was now out in the open and on the streets!

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.