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Background Information on Human Rights >
Activism and the Role of NGOs |
Activism and the Role of NGOs
"We had to do a lot to make [it] happen.
It took several demonstrations by our organization and getting
arrested, throwing myself on the table in Congress, before we
got an invitation to speak ... I had five minutes."
Cheri Honkala, the first welfare recipient
in the US to testify before Congress; Kensington Welfare Rights
Union)
What are NGOs? |
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"Get
up, stand up, stand up for your rights."
Bob Marley |
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The term non-governmental, or, more accurately
non-profit is normally used to cover the range of organisations
which go to make up civil society. Such organisations are characterised,
in general, by having as the purpose of their existence something
other than financial profit. However, this leaves a huge multitude
of reasons for existence and a wide variety of enterprises and
activities. NGOs range from small pressure groups on, for example,
specific environmental concerns or specific human rights violations,
through educational charities, women's refuges, cultural associations,
religious organisations, legal foundations, humanitarian assistance
programmes - and the list could continue - all the way to the
huge international organisations with hundreds or even thousands
of branches or members in different parts of the world.
In this section, we look briefly at the significant role that
such organisations have had, and continue to have, in the protection
of human rights throughout the world. At nearly every level of
the different attempts to preserve the dignity of individual citizens
when this is threatened by the power of the state, NGOs play a
crucial role in:
- fighting individual violations of HR
- offering direct assistance to those whose rights have been
violated
- lobbying for changes to national or international law
- helping to develop the substance of those laws
- promoting knowledge of, and respect for, human rights among
the population.
The contribution of NGOs is important not only in terms of the
results that are achieved, and therefore for the optimism that
people may feel about the defence of human rights in the world,
but also because NGOs are, in a very direct sense, tools that
are available to be used by individuals throughout the world.
They are managed and co-ordinated - as many organisations are
- by private individuals, but they also draw a large part of their
strength from other members of the community offering voluntary
support to their cause. This fact gives them great significance
for those individuals who would like to contribute to the improvement
of human rights in the world.
Types of human rights NGOs |
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"The
world is a dangerous place to live! Not so much because of those
who make evil, but because of those who look on and allow them
to do it."
Albert Einstein |
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The 1993 UN Conference on Human Rights -
known as the Vienna Conference - was attended by 841 NGOs from
throughout the world, all of which described themselves as working
with a human rights mission. Though an impressive figure in itself,
this actually represented only a tiny fraction of the total number
of human rights NGOs active in the world.
Most self-professed "human rights organisations" tend
to be engaged in the protection of civil and political rights.
The best known of such organisations, at least on the international
stage, are probably Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
both of which operate across the globe. However, as we have seen,
civil and political rights are just one category of the many different
human rights recognised by the international community, and new
rights are continuing to emerge, even today. When we take this
into account and consider the NGOs active in countering poverty,
violence, racism, health problems, homelessness and environmental
concerns, to name just a few, the actual number of NGOs engaged
in human rights protection, in one form or another, runs into
the hundreds of thousands throughout the world. |
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"God gives us hands, but He does not
build bridges."
Arab proverb |
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At its General Assembly in 2001, Amnesty
International reformed its mandate to include economical and social
rights and the right to development within its aims and areas
of concern for action.
Do you know of any NGOs fighting for human rights in your country?
How do they influence the process?
NGOs may attempt to engage in the protection of human rights
at various different stages or levels, and the strategies they
employ will vary according to the nature of their objectives -
their specificity or generality; their long-term or short-term
nature; their local, national or international scope, and so on.
a. Direct assistance
It is particularly common for NGOs working on social and economic
rights to offer some form of direct service to those who have
been victims of human rights violations. Such services may include
forms of humanitarian assistance, protection or training to develop
new skills. Alternatively, where the right is protected by law,
they may include legal advocacy or advice on how to present claims.
In many cases, however, direct assistance to the victim of a
violation is either not possible or does not represent the best
use of an organisation's resources. On such occasions, and this
probably represents the majority of cases, NGOs need to take a
longer view and to think of other ways either of rectifying the
violation or of preventing similar occurrences from happening
in the future.
b. Collecting accurate information
If there is a fundamental strategy lying at the base of the
different forms of NGO activism, it is perhaps the idea of attempting
to 'show up' the perpetrators of injustice. Governments are very
often able to shirk their obligations under the international
treaties that they have signed up to because the impact of their
policies is simply not known to the general public. Collecting
such information and using it to 'show up' governments is an essential
element in holding them to account and is frequently used by NGOs.
They attempt to put pressure on people or governments by identifying
a cause that will appeal to people's sense of injustice and then
making it public.
Two of the best known examples of organisations that are reputed
for their accurate monitoring and reporting are Amnesty International
(see p xx for more information) and the International Committee
of the Red Cross. Both of these organisations possess authority
not only among the general public but also at the level of the
UN, where their reports are taken into account as part of the
official process of monitoring governments that have agreed to
be bound by the terms of international treaties.
c. Campaigning and lobbying. |
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"It
can be fun to write to people who lead authoritarian or repressive
regimes, have a dictator as a pen-pal, and be a complete nuisance
to him by sending him these letters."
Sting |
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ernational actors in order to bring about
a policy change. Again, there are numerous forms, and an NGO will
try to adopt the most appropriate one given the objectives it
has in mind, the nature of its 'target', and of course, its own
available resources. Some common practices are outlined below.
- Letter-writing campaigns are a method that has been used
to great effect by Amnesty International and other NGOs. People
and organisations 'bombard' government officials with letters
from thousands of its members all over the world.
- Street actions or demonstrations, with the media coverage
that these normally attract, may be used when organisations
want to enlist the support of the public or to bring something
to the public eye in order to 'shame' a government.
- The media will frequently play an important part in lobbying
practices, and the Internet is now assuming an increasingly
significant role.
- In addition to demonstrations of support or public outrage,
NGOs may also engage in private meetings or briefings with officials.
Sometimes the mere threat of bringing something to the public
eye may be enough to change a policy or practice, as in the
story below.
In general, the greater the backing from the public or from
other influential actors (for example, other governments), the
more likely is it that a campaign will achieve its objectives.
Even if they do not always use this support directly, NGOs can
ensure that their message is heard simply by indicating that a
large popular movement could be mobilised against a government.
Have there been any high profile campaigns in your country? What
was the outcome?
d. Long-term education
Many human rights NGOs also include, at least as part of their
activities, some type of public awareness or educational work.
Realising that the essence of their support lies with the general
public, NGOs will often try to bring greater knowledge of human
rights issues to members of the public. A greater knowledge of
these issues and of the methods of defending them is likely to
engender a greater respect and this, in turn, will increase the
likelihood of being able to mobilise support in particular instances
of human rights violations. It is that support, or potential support,
that lies at the base of the success of the NGO community in improving
the human rights environment.
Examples of successful activism
Domestic violence in Russia |
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"Human
Rights Education is a way of living. We've been doing it over
the past few years without knowing that all our activities were
about Human Rights Education."
Alexandra Vidanovic, Open Club Nis,
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, participant at the Forum on Human
Rights Education. |
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There are different estimates of levels
of domestic violence in Russia, but some figures suggest that
between 30 and 40 percent of families have experienced it. In
1995, after the Beijing Women's Conference, the first reliable
statistics were published. These suggested that 14,500 women a
year had been killed by their husbands and about fifty thousand
had been hospitalised. It has taken a great deal of effort for
this problem even to be recognised in Russia but most of the success
is a result of the efforts of an NGO called ANNA, a founding member
of the Russian Association for Crisis Centres for Women.
The organisation was set up by Marina Pisklakova, a leading
women's rights activist. In July 1993, she worked alone to run
a hotline for women in distress and then expanded the work to
establish the first women's crisis centre in the country. She
lobbied for legislation banning abuse and worked with a hostile
law enforcement establishment to bring aid to victims and to bring
criminal prosecutions. She began a media campaign to expose the
violence against women and to educate women about their rights
and now regularly appears on radio and television promoting respect
for women's rights. |
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"I couldn't say no; there were so
many women."
Marina Pisklakova |
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The organisation succeeded in expanding
the definition of domestic violence to include marital rape, sexual
violence in the marriage or partnership, psychological violence,
isolation and economic control. By the summer of 1994, they had
trained a first group of women to work as telephone counsellors
and, in 1995, began work in other Russian cities for local women's
groups that were starting to emerge and wanted to start up hotlines
or crisis centres. ANNA helped to develop programmes to provide
psychological and legal counselling for the victims of domestic
violence and, in April 1997, lawyers working for the organisation
brought the first domestic violence case to court and won, setting
a legal precedent for all of Russia. By the start of the new millennium,
they had over forty women's crisis centres operating throughout
Russia. Website for the organisation: www.owl.ru/anna.
In addition to these examples, Alien 93 carries short descriptions of youth organisation projects against racism.
Environmental concerns in Switzerland |
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"I am not an extraordinary person.
Any woman in my position would do the same. I feel that ... I
was at the beginning of something new, a great development in
Russia, a new attitude. Now, everybody is talking about domestic
violence. And many are doing something about it."
Marina Pisklakova |
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Between 1961 and 1976, several large chemical
giants dumped more than 114,000 tons of toxic industrial chemical
waste in the former clay pit of Bonfol in Switzerland. Although
it would be illegal to dump the waste today, in 1961, when the
landfill site was started, the law did not prohibit such landfills.
The toxic waste remained at the site and continued to contaminate
surrounding communities and the environment with a mixture of
organic and inorganic pollutants.
On May 14 2000, around 100 Greenpeace activists occupied the
Bonfol chemical landfill site, near Basel, Switzerland, demanding
that the chemical companies that dumped toxic waste at the site
take full responsibility for cleaning it up. The activists declared
that they would occupy the site until the chemical companies committed
themselves to cleaning it up in a manner that would not pose any
further risk to human health or the environment.
Occupation of the landfill forced the chemical industry to meet
with community representatives and with Greenpeace and, as a result,
the chemical industry finally signed an agreement to complete
a clean-up study by February 2001 and to start the clean-up process
in 2001. The industry also agreed to involve the local communities
and environmental organisations fully in the clean-up and to inform
the local communities about the ground water and drinking water
pollution resulting from the dump. On July 7th 2001, Greenpeace
ended their occupation of the chemical dumpsite. See the Greenpeace
website: www.greenpeace.org.
Doing your sums
Development Initiatives for Social and Human
Action (DISHA) |
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"The
chemical industry's toxic legacy should not become the burden
of future generations."
Stefan Weber, Greenpeace campaigner |
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DISHA was established in the early 1990s
in the Indian State of Gujarat as the representatives of groups
of tribal and forest workers that have some 80,000 members between
them. It has been using the right to information to analyse state
budgets and the extent to which allocations match public statements
and declarations to alleviate poverty.
The organisation began by dealing with the issue of enforcing
the minimum wage for people working in forest areas. The director
of DISHA explained the organisation's approach: "As part
of this work, we began to look at why the area had not developed
and why employment opportunities had not been created. We looked
at the money spent by the state, and that's how we began to look
at the state budget." |
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"The
conditions were like slavery. There was hardly any human dignity
or observance of the law."
M. D. Mistry, Director of DISHA.
"Seldom can campaigners have achieved
so much in so little time."
The Independent Newspaper
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In 1994, DISHA members decided to distribute
their analysis to all parliamentarians, the press and leading
citizens. This ensured that the information was widely used and
discussed.
Since the organisation started work, state allocations to tribal
areas have increased substantially: at the start, the allocation
was 12% of the budget but is now 18%. Because their research was
so solid, DISHA soon earned respect as an institution "that
was not just shouting slogans and marching, but presenting very
sound arguments on the basis of facts and figures. People now
come to us for information on the budget - we are the only institution
in the country that classifies and analyses the budget".
The diamond wars
Global Witness, UK is an organisation that works to expose the
link between environmental exploitation and human rights abuses.
It is a London-based environmental group, which began work in
1993 in a rented office equipped only with a computer retrieved
from a skip.
Today, the organisation is still tiny, with just nine members
of staff, but for four years its founders, Charmain Gooch, Simon
Taylor and Patrick Alley, led a campaign against the diamond industry.
During that time, Global Witness successfully linked the trade
in illicit diamonds with bloody African wars. It collected evidence
to convince governments, the United Nations and the public that
illegally mined diamonds in African war zones were being used
to bankroll conflicts in which children lose their limbs and tens
of thousands die. The organisation lobbied ferociously to "make
decision-makers see sense", forging alliances with other
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Angola, and cultivating
powerful political sympathisers such as the Canadian ambassador
Robert Fowler, who heads the UN sanctions committee on Angola.
Very quickly a global campaign force capable of taking on a global
industry emerged.
When Robert Fowler, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations,
issued the warning of a fur-style boycott at the World Diamond
Congress in Antwerp, the diamond industry took fright. In July
2000, the US$ 7bn-a-year global diamond industry, apparently persuaded
that it was on the edge of an abyss, capitulated to the campaigners'
demands for fundamental changes to the trade in diamonds.
See their web-site http://www.globalwitness.org.
Wheelchair ramps in Tuzla |
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"I
am completely confident in saying that Tuzla is the most accessible
town for wheelchair users in the whole of Boznia and Herzegovina."
Campaigner, Tuzla |
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In 1996, a disability NGO in Tuzla, Boznia
Herzegovina, decided to run a campaign for traffic awareness.
Lotos, the organisation, aimed to raise awareness about disabled
people and traffic issues, and identified several concrete objectives,
including special parking spaces for disabled people, better access
on public transport, and accessible pavements and roads. They
held events over the course of a week, just before the election
campaign began. At the end of that time, public awareness had
been increased and all pavements in Tuzla were rebuilt with ramps!
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