Armenian, English

Uncovering the Evidence

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:19 -0500

Uncovering the Evidence

by Luis Fondebrider

Download full notebook in English and a brief summary in Armenian and Russian below.*note]

Forensic science has been a powerful tool in the scientific documentation of human rights violations around the world, and especially in Latin America. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team has been in the forefront of efforts to train human rights NGOs to use forensic tools to advance their investigations, to provide more support for victims and to strengthen the credibility of their work against impunity. EAAF uses independent investigations to mobilize and persuade both local and international audiences. The information obtained can also provide useful evidence for future prosecutions. This notebook addresses how human rights organizations can make optimal use of forensic science to advance their work for justice and against impunity.

Over the last fifteen years, the scientific investigation and documentation of human rights violations has become a valuable tool in the search for truth and justice in societies emerging from periods of political, ethnic and religious violence. Forensic expertise has served human rights investigations led by official justice systems of states, historical truth-seeking processes, international tribunals and commissions and human rights NGOs. A forensic scientist can answer some questions with a certain degree of precision:

Was the person tortured?
What was the cause of death?
Was the death accidental or intentional?
Can the unearthed bodies be positively identified?

Such answers offer victims’ families and the judicial process convincing proof of what happened. In an objective, concrete way, scientific analysis complements the testimony of a witness, a photograph or a document related to an incident. This kind of scientific evidence may prove to be fundamental for a ruling on whether an accused person is innocent or guilty. In cases of rape, for example, it can be crucial to discover traces of semen that can be compared with the genetic pattern of the accused person. In recent years, the application of the forensic sciences has had a significant impact in countries where abuses were committed by the government or agencies connected to it, be it for political or other reasons. Official versions of events, often false, can be contrasted with physical evidence and their analysis. This allows a tribunal to establish, for example, that a group of people was executed, and in fact did not die in an armed encounter. In this tactical notebook we show how families of victims, their communities and the organizations that they form–human rights NGOs–can use the forensic sciences in their struggle for truth and justice and prevent the impunity that those responsible for human rights abuses often enjoy.

*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.

The Human Rights Education Program for Women in Turkey

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:18 -0500

The Human Rights Education Program for Women in Turkey

By Liz Ervecik Amado

Download full notebook in english and a brief summary of the notebook in Russian and Armenian below. [*note]

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.

WWHR-New Ways developed a highly successful human rights education curriculum for women but needed an accessible, structured and sustainable way to reach women in need of learning about their rights. They found and developed an excellent partnership through government run, local level community centers. These community centers offered not only professional social workers who could be trained by WWHR-New Ways in facilitating the human rights education curriculum, but also a safe and accessible place for women to learn about their rights. We hope this notebook will provide ideas and insights for others as they seek opportunities for building mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships with government bodies for furthering human rights efforts.

*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.

The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:18 -0500

The Power of Place

by Liz Sevcenko

Download full notebook in English and Spanish and a brief summary in Russian and Armenian below.[*note]

Read an interview with the author
See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

In this notebook the author describes how human rights activists as well as the museum community can make more effective use of the spacial impact of historic sites to help educate people about social change and human rights. The Tenement Museum in New York City has joined with more than a dozen other institutions that have focused their attention on "sites of conscience"–places where terrible human rights abuse has occurred that should never be forgotten. Their goal is not only to remember the past, but also to use the emotional power of these places to catalyze critical thinking about the ongoing social issues of today, through dialogue and educational activities.

Around the world, people instinctively turn to places of memory to come to terms with the past and chart a course for the future. From makeshift roadside memorials to official commemorations, millions of people around the world gather at places of memory looking for healing, reconciliation and insight on how to move forward. Memory is a critical language and terrain of human rights. It’s here, through the process of preserving the past, that evidence of human rights violations is maintained and made public, issues this evidence raises are debated and tactics for preventing it from happening again are developed. In short, these places can be critical tools for building a lasting culture of human rights. Our project is to take a fundamental human instinct and develop it as an identifiable, self-conscious tactic in the service of human rights and social justice.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum preserves a five-story building at 97 Orchard Street, home to over 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 different nations from 1863 to 1935. The Museum restores the tiny apartments of the diverse immigrant families who lived there and tells the stories of their daily challenges and triumphs in America. The human rights issues they faced – labor exploitation, racial and ethnic discrimination, poverty and immigration restrictions – are very much alive today. Located in a neighborhood that is today nearly 40 percent foreign-born, the Museum hosts public dialogues on immigration, welfare, housing, cultural identity and other related issues; teaches English and activism to new immigrants; and promotes immigrant voices and issues through changing arts programs. The Museum believes that historic sites can be powerful catalysts for public awareness and action on human rights issues.

To promote this idea the Museum initiated the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. The Coalition was founded in 1999 when the Tenement Museum brought together leaders of nine historic sites from around the world: the District Six Museum (South Africa); Gulag Museum (Russia); Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh); Lower East Side Tenement Museum (USA); Maison des Esclaves (Senegal); Memoria Abierta (Argentina); National Civil Rights Museum (USA); Terezín Memorial (Czech Republic); Women’s Rights National Historical Park (USA); and the Workhouse (United Kingdom). The group pledged to work together to develop effective strategies for activatingour places of memory as centers for dialogue on contemporary issues.

Our goal is to transform historic site museums from places of passive learning to places of active citizen engagement. We seek to use the history of what happened at our sites – whether it was a genocide, a violation of civil rights, or a triumph of democracy – as the foundation for dialogue about how and where these issues are alive today and about what can be done to address them. We define sites of conscience as initiatives that:

Interpret history through sites;
Engage in programs that stimulate dialogue on pressing social issues and promote humanitarian and democratic values; and
Share opportunities for public involvement in issues raised at the site.

The Coalition conducts program development workshops, staff exchanges and web-based resource exchanges. We also collaborate with leading human rights organizations to link our histories with currentcampaigns and inspire citizen participation in current struggles for truth and justice. The Coalition is currently coordinated at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

Read an interview with the author
See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

*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.

The Dilemma Demonstration

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:17 -0500

The Dilemma Demonstration

by Philippe Duhamel

Download full notebook in English and Russian and a brief summary in Armenian below.[*note]

In this notebook you learn how Operation SalAMI created a situation that placed the Canadian government in a real dilemma regarding their position and actions in the negotiation process of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). When the government refused to make public the draft documents, hundreds of its citizens showed up at the Ottawa headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade holding "Search and Rescue Warrants" for the release of these draft documents. When the government responded by arresting one hundred citizens for requesting their right to information, the media and general public demanded to know what the government was trying to hide. Behind the success of the campaign was a strategy that included a number of common tactics, including petitions, letter writing, etc., but with the added twists of an unequivocal ultimatum, civil disobedience training on the premises of the Canadian parliament and the drama of the Search and Seizure Operation, a type of nonviolent direct action. Operation SalAMI’s dilemma demonstration tactic, as part of a broader nonviolent campaigning strategy, pressured the government to act according to its professed values and at the requests of its citizens.

On the morning of April 2, 2001, a group of citizens conducted the dilemma demonstration1 dubbed a "Search and Seizure Operation" at the Department of International Trade and Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, capital city of Canada. Facing a line-up of police, three rows of anchored barricades and a crowd of journalists and media crews, they declared: "We ask you, police officers, to do your duty and help us retrieve the documents to which we are entitled by right. Do not become accomplices in the secrecy and manipulation of this government. If you refuse to seek and retrieve the texts on our behalf, we will have no option but to attempt to retrieve them ourselves."They proceeded to give their names and said, "I am here to exercise my rights as a citizen; please, let me through." Two by two, they climbed over the police barricades. Their goal: exposing government secrecy by attempting to reach the building and retrieve the secret documents of a draft trade treaty.

For months, the Canadian government had persistently refused to make public the draft papers for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), a trade liberalization treaty being negotiated among 34 countries of the Americas. In the weeks prior to the action, the government was issued an ultimatum and a petition tens of thousands strong. We also used extensive media relations work, support demonstrations and a call-in and fax jamming operation for supporters. All these efforts were brought to bear with Operation SalAMI’s dilemma demonstration, creating a climactic moment with the arrest of ninety-nine people by the police. No charges were laid and most were released within 24 hours. The larger impact was heard across the country, a new debate was raging around the question: Why is the government refusing to publish key public policy documents, choosing to arrest its own citizens instead? The pressure soon proved unbearable on the government. Exactly one week after the Search and Seizure Operation, the Canadian International Trade Minister, Pierre Pettigrew, after consulting the negotiating partners, finally agreed to make the documents public and announced the release of the draft texts of the FTAA.

This nonviolent action is an example of a dilemma demonstration. To work, it first requires a demand that creates a dilemma for the target: In this case the Canadian government was faced with a demand for transparent access to information. The state could only refuse the demand at the risk of appearing secretive and undemocratic. Second, by articulating the demand through high-visibility, media-friendly, nonviolent civil disobedience, the state was forced to act–it could not stall or delay. And the nature of this civil disobedience was skillfully and ironically modeled after the accepted state mode of getting information that is being illegally withheld or hidden: the "search and seizure operation." This created yet another immediate dilemma in which the police would be forced to arrest people for doing the same thing the police would do if roles were reversed–an irony not lost on the media. Finally, by maintaining firmly disciplined nonviolence, the demonstration created yet a third dilemma, in which the state appears to use repressive measures against an entirely peaceful and orderly demonstration asking only for what is a citizen’s legal right–access to information.

In this notebook I will describe, how Operation SalAMI turned our own dilemma–how to inform the Canadian public about the real dangers and inequalities of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas when we were not even allowed to see the documents–into a larger dilemma for the Canadian government by revealing the secrecy on which the approval of the agreement depended. Through a careful process of analyzing previous successes and failures of citizen interventions in trade agreement processes, we were able to realistically assess our own strengths and weaknesses as well as the lessons the Canadian government had learned from these same past actions. This provided the foundation for understanding our most potent leverage point–Canadian citizens’ right to information, a value we hold very dear. We then combined a variety of tactics to call attention to this lack of information and generated a dilemma for the government by making a specific and public ultimatum requesting the release of these documents based on our right to know. The dilemma demonstration forced the government’s hand by revealing the lengths to which the government wanted to keep the process secret. The resulting media and public outcry made our goal a reality– broader public awareness and debate on the FTAA.

*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.