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This is a topic that has been swirling around in my mind for months, but I’ve never really garnered the courage to write it down coherently. But now, as I embark on a journey to work with International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) in Geneva this summer, this topic is becoming increasingly relevant to my work.
I am passionate about working to end human rights abuses, and I realize that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are two of the most prominent organizations working to raise awareness of human rights violations across the globe. Their work has been indispensable in terms of uncovering the truth of human rights abuses in various countries through intensive research, and in pressuring governments to take action by way of international exposure, letter writing, and petition signing. I think advocacy and raising awareness is absolutely vital if we are to end ongoing violations. After all, if the public doesn’t know about these situations, then how can people take action to end these problems? The popular mobilization and awareness that Amnesty has achieved over the years is truly remarkable. However, I wonder whether advocacy is the most effective method of combating human rights abuses, especially in the long-run.
First, it seems to me that political situations are very difficult to change. Especially, international civil society does not seem to exert significant influence on the political climates in many countries. Even if a huge amount of pressure is placed upon government heads through activities like protests and petitions, how much is this really going to change? And if the international community has heightened awareness of an issue, does this really change things on the ground? For instance, there is a huge amount of awareness within the U.S. and U.K at least regarding the genocide in Darfur. Many organizations like Save Darfur and STAND have mobilized many people and large amounts of money and time in order to raise awareness of the genocide and try to stop it, especially through political pressure and pleas for divestment from Sudan. Many successes have been achieved, most importantly widespread knowledge of the situation and recognition that it is genocide and must be stopped. Yet even after all this, Sudanese President Al-Bashir is still going strong and little has changed over the years. The genocide is continuing. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are yet to take a strong stance on ending the genocide. Has this impressive popular mobilization and heightened awareness done much at all? True, I am pinpointing a specific situation – but it does leave me feeling that there must be more that we can do than raise awareness. Because it simply doesn’t seem enough to me.
Moreover, many human rights advocacy organizations hold large campaigns to free single persons from prison, especially those who were imprisoned for political reasons. But I have to ask: does this really lead to large scale social change? Organizations have campaigned for years and succeeded in freeing political prisoners, but this is only one situation, one person. But does this sort of advocacy force the government to think twice the next time it wants to imprison someone for political (or any other) reasons? I don’t see that happening enough. And what about all the everyday cases, when people are being imprisoned for petty crimes, when the local police is incredibly corrupt, when men and women are tortured unnecessarily, when poor prisoners aren’t granted a lawyer or a fair trial? While a political prisoner is a special case, regular citizens are being punished unfairly everyday and aren’t being recognized by the international community. Does advocacy fail here? Who’s fighting for the unheard prisoners? Too often their voices go unheard, even within international civil society.
Here is when I think a different model needs to be employed in order to effectively fight human rights abuses. We need to improve local justice systems and work with governments, not just against them, in order to reform the criminal justice systems. We have to train local police forces and make them understand that torture is unacceptable, and is not necessary in order to extract information from prisoners. We need to ensure that every poor person has the right to a lawyer and the right to a fair trial. I feel like this bottom-up approach can be truly effective, and combined with advocacy and raising awareness can be very powerful. If we start at the bottom through criminal justice reform in developing countries, we can build up strong legal institutions that will eventually create precedents for not using torture or unfair detainment – which will trickle upwards and prevent the government from detaining political prisoners or exercising their power arbitrarily. IBJ focuses on this approach to grassroots criminal justice reform, and I think it is a unique yet effective method of combating torture.
I think advocacy and activism needs to be combined with action and results. Real systematic change happens on the ground, step-by-step and day by day. One model I like is that of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization which not only has advocacy campaigns but also concrete projects that help people by the day - like the asylum network which assists asylum seekers by documenting forensic evidence of torture and abuse. Another example is Invisible Children, an organization based on a documentary about child soldiers in Northern Uganda. In addition to raising awareness through the documentary, they also have a book drive, build schools, and sell bracelets and give the revenue to the bracelet makers, provide scholarships to children, and have a Savings and Training Initiative which is basically a microfinance scheme. Of course, I don’t think some of their campaigns are the best idea (abduct yourself? really?), but they have a good basic model for combining raising awareness with actual results. I also love Human Rights First, which combines much advocacy and petitioning with projects that represent asylum seekers and help refugees resettle in the U.S.
So ultimately, I’m not saying advocacy is not necessary. I just think that there needs to be so much more if systematic, widespread change is to happen.
Image credit: flicker user bashaspix
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Comments
03.30.09
You hit on a good point. I can't remember where I heard it, but I was reading about an interaction between a CEO and someone else. It just so happened at the time there were protesters picketing outside the window. The person asked the CEO, "Doesn't it worry you with all of those protesters out there?" And the CEO replied, "As long as they are just out there with signs I'm safe. I'll get worried when they actually start to do something about it."
And so it is. The awareness may let people know that some action needs taken, but it doesn't necessarily compel people to take action and doesn't constitute taking action in and of itself. There's genocide in Darfur likely because it's profitable. People invest in shady areas and practices because they are profitable. More often than not they know full well what they are doing. "Stop it," is not a very compelling argument. Nor is it an effective strategy to try to get the perpetrators to change. Even if you somehow manage to forcibly monitor them, first chance they get they will be back to their old ways.
Real action, like creating a regime change or institutions that actually do something about the situation is scary. But it's also the most effective at getting the job done.
03.30.09
Brian, thank you so much for the insightful comment! I love your analogy with the CEO and protesters. That is exactly how I feel as I wonder whether all this protesting and raising awareness leads to action, or real change. Awareness may make a few people more interested in taking action and creating positive change...but on the whole is it really that effective?
I agree that real action is the most effective. I'd define real action as a lot of on the ground work: building schools, microfinance, building health systems, creating fair legal and criminal justice systems. These step by step processes I feel are more effective in the long run, but advocacy is still needed.
03.30.09
"However, I wonder whether advocacy is the most effective method of combating human rights abuses, especially in the long-run"
Development is the most effective way to combat human rights abuses. Finding projects to support or work with which monitor and evaluate constantly, know their overall goal and have steps to steps to get to that goal. Projects that collect data and examine that date frequently to assess progress and to evaluate if that progress is leading them to their goal.
Advocacy is important in getting these projects funded and in some cases initiated though. Advocacy will never be unimportant, and in the case of Darfur the advocacy, at least at any substantial level, was not instituted during the original horrors that occurred, but much later, making it difficult, as what had occurred in that first year, of what some call a genocide, was no longer occurring making the argument for some - well it's not happening now so what the problem. There is not real way in that political climate to micro finance or educate what happened away because the problem there is much deeper and involves the greed and political corruption of an already oppressive regime and in the case of governments sanctioning murder of their own people their must be advocacy and accountability.
I just returned from an interesting discussion on he current situation in Darfur given by Andrew S. Natsios - a prof at my grad school, and someone I have a hard time agreeing completely with - so this is an interesting post to me at this moment.
We need for more effective and more accountable international aid, and for that advocacy is important, we can advocate for that. The aid we really need to give, and don't usually because our aid and the aid of other countries is usually dependent on our needs not theirs, is aid that would allow for oppressed and poverty stricken to have not only their basic needs met, but education and technology.
Small projects which yield results are far better than large projects which do not.
03.31.09
Olivia - great comment! I think I have to agree with you that development is the most effective way to combat human rights abuses, but advocacy is necessary to gain the support, funding, and resources for development work to succeed. And it makes sense that development work isn't really possible in the political climate in Darfur (especially when aid agencies are all being expelled!) so it doesn't make sense to suggest any other solution there. Perhaps in areas of violent conflict there is really no other solution than advocacy and trying to work with governments to create positive change and pressure.
Great thoughts and thanks for sharing!
03.31.09
It's easy for us to get lost in the importance of small, everyday successes that need to be achieved in order to meet overall goals. You raise an interesting point with this post, and it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. The idea of change. The 'inconvenience' of change. People may say they care - they may claim to want to help those in need but never do anything, never act on what the believe. Why is that? Why are we so reluctant to go out of our way to help others - and more importantly, why are we so reluctant to look inward and change something about ourselves, a way of thinking, a habit, or whatever it may be? It it because we've established routines and specific thought processes and to interrupt those is just too damn inconvenient?
Or is it about results? Do we think "No matter how much I recycle, there will be 10 million other people who don't and never will, so how will I ever make a difference?" - I think when our actions don't prove clear objective results, it's more difficult to remain committed. But in the end, it HAS to start with small changes, small showings of activism, and spreading these changes amongst our friends and communities, to ever see any 'big picture' impact.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts on why change is so difficult for so many. Very thoughtful, inquisitive post Akhila. Thanks!
03.31.09
Matt, I think you bring up an excellent point and I have to admit I don't know the answer. I think the possibilities you have brought up are definitely part of the problem. We've established certain habits that are difficult to break. If we are used to leaving the lights on when we leave the house, it's extremely difficult to go back and change our habits and patterns of behavior. And sure, part of it is that people think they won't really be able to make a difference even if they try.
But I think perhaps another big part of it is that people just don't care enough. This sounds harsh, but people don't perhaps realize just HOW important it is that they do these things, that they go out of their way to volunteer or advocate for something they care about or do their part in some other way. If people genuinely cared very strongly, the story would be different - they would put in that extra effort. I feel like people do care partially, but they also care about so many other things much MORE: their career, their family and friends and loved ones, money, comfort, their passions and hobbies, etc. These things take precedent partially because people don't care AS much, I feel, about social issues and making a difference. The difficulty is making people think that it's important and vital to get involved, as important as many of these other concerns in life.
03.31.09
Knowledge is power so I do believe that increased awareness about any given issue is great, but people become more aware of "something new" every day. And that doesn't necessarily compel people to change their behavior. People and states seem to only change when there is an incentive (perceived or real) for doing so, when it is no longer beneficial to continue doing what they are doing. Pondering further... what does "effective" in the context of advocacy and raising awareness mean to you?
03.31.09
Jason, thanks so much! This is, I think, the main problem with "raising awareness." You've pinpointed it: people can gain new information or learn about a situation or issue - but what good does this do if they don't act? How can we turn awareness into action? Perhaps after speaking to 100 people about an issue, 2 people will be motivated enough to go out there and do something about it. How can we increase this number?
I think one thing I've talked to my friend about is getting people to relate. If you know your mother or your best friend is dying you obviously rush to help your loved ones. How can you get people to think the same way about a person 1000 miles away? That's an interesting point too. You are right too that there has to be incentives for change - but people do act selflessly for their loved ones. What if we could get people to feel this way about others they have never met? That could be a powerful method. But it's hard.
Someone asked about what I meant on my blog too. I'll copy my answer: I ask whether how effective advocacy is in terms of the goal of helping the maximum number of people - through alleviating problems like poverty, torture, lack of access to basic services, conflict, crime, etc.
03.31.09
Akhila. I agree with your response. But let me pose this question: How do you MAKE people care enough? Even when we try to inspire and enlighten, much of the time what we say falls on deaf ears. If people do not see clear objective results, they're reluctant to make changes because they think "I'm not really making a difference" - how do we get people out of that mindset?
I am working on a blog series entitled "The Inconvenience of Change" focusing on this topic of discussion with a series of guest posts from bloggers around the web. I would love for you to be a part of it - if you're interested, let me know and I will shoot you an email with more info.
03.31.09
Matt, that's something I've been trying to figure out for a while as well. It's a very difficult question, and I think raising awareness and telling people about issues doesn't make them change their mind or care more. In order to get people out of that mindset, those of us who do care have to make sure we support and participate in programs that are truly effective. We have to evaluate our programs and make sure that organizations & nonprofits are doing the most efficient job possible. I also believe in results. If we show people results - that their money or time or effort has helped this many people or done so much - it makes a difference.
Another method is what I said above. We need to make people relate to people far away who are suffering. How can this be done? Through effective marketing, perhaps. There is much more that we have to think about with regards to this, however.
I'd love to participate! Let me know and send me an email!
04.01.09
As for me, I think I can speak for a number of people:
There's so much going on in so many different places, to so many people, so many different ways, that I just can't take any more awareness and advocacy.
I think the clinical term is "outrage fatigue." It's all too much, and I'm just tired now. I'm not sure if this is a function of my age, or if I'm just being pulled in far too many directions at once, but I just can't muster any sort of outrage anymore, just a kind of tired resignation that it's been happening for thousands of years throughout the world. I'm doing what I can locally, but I'm just a little overwhelmed by the pervasiveness of it all.
04.01.09
JRandom42, thanks for the comment. It's true -- there's so much advocacy everywhere and I can understand that after a while it's difficult to keep thinking about it, hearing about the same problems especially when it seems like little changes over time. But things are changing. The world is getting better over the years, I believe, and there is still potential for change and improvement and thus potential of idealism and optimism. I'm not saying we have to have outrage. But we have to continue to believe and hope, and more importantly act on it.
04.06.09
Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor, Gaza, Darfur, Rwanda, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Chechnya, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, the West Bank, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatamala, Ethopia, Somalia, Cambodia, Vietnam, where and who else is next? When does it ever end? Too many places, too many people in need and I just don't have enough time, energy and resources to do much of anything.
That's what I mean by "outrage fatigue".
04.06.09
JRandom42, I understand that it's difficult to think about how many overwhelming problems there are in the world, but I think that's why you have to focus your energy on one or two problems you care about and act on those. Specialize, if you will. It's impossible for one person to take on the weight of the world, and I'm not asking that at all.
Also I have no right to tell you or anyone else what to do, of course, but personally I feel like we have no right to just be "overwhelmed" by all the problems and stop doing anything about them. At least for myself, I feel like I have no choice BUT to help because I feel like I'm incredibly lucky to be born with so much opportunity, while others have so little choice in life and so little opportunity. How can I refuse to do something based on the idea of being overwhelmed when people are suffering from famine, disease, violence, conflict every day? I just feel like I have no right to think that way and therefore have to do something about it. And doing something is important.
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