New Tactics in Human Rights by The Center for Victims of Torture 3:54pm 13th Feb, 2004   The New Tactics in Human Rights project, led by a diverse group of international organizations and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community.    Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done.    Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions. The New Tactics in Human Rights project promotes the use and sharing of as wide a range of tactics as possible.    The project is coordinated by the Center for Victims of Torture and grew out of its experience as a creator of new tactics and a treatment center that also advocates for the protection of human rights from a unique position—one of healing and reclaiming civic leadership.    We hope you will join us in developing, using and promoting strategic and tactical thinking within the broad human rights community.    “To advance human rights requires the capacity to innovate tactics and combine them to create strategies as comprehensive as the problems we face.”- Douglas A. Johnson, United States, Executive Director, Center for Victims of Torture    Participants Learn Tactics, Build Network at West Group Workshop    Twelve participants from Western Europe, the United States and Canada trained each other on tactics they use in their work at the third regional training workshop, held Nov. 16-23 in Venice, Italy. From lawsuits and creative demonstrations to text-messaging, tactics varied widely, but each participant went home with eleven new tactics in their repertoire and a new network of allies in human rights. [more]    120 Tactics Now Available Online!    From all regions of the world and from all areas of human rights work, the tactics in our searchable tactics database will inspire you to see a broad range of new possiblities. Would you be able to adapt one for use in your work?    Search the database and discuss the tactics that interest you.    New Tactics Workbook to be Published This Spring    With 100 tactical examples and an extensive collection of resources, the New Tactics Workbook will be a valuable tool for anyone whose goal is to advance human rights. Printed copies will be available from the New Tactics project. Much of the content will also be available online. [more]    Who Should Set Standards for DNA Testing?    DNA testing has freed many innocent people who had been wrongly accused and incarcerated. The Innocence Project, established in law schools throughout the United States has played a large role in this. But the field of DNA testing is still new and standards are still being established in many countries. Who should set these standards? What role can or should DNA testing play in our legal system? Is there something similar to the Innocence Project in your country?    Tactics in the News    Tactic: Involving local governments in opposition to federal legislation that endangers human rights. On January 21, the Los Angeles, Calif., city council passed a resolution opposing the USA Patriot Act and supporting civil liberties. On February 4, New York City followed suit. LA and New York are among the 250 U.S. cities, towns and counties that have passed resolutions like this in the past year as part of an effort organized by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.    New Tactics Workbook. Introduction to the 2004 Edition : Justice Richard J. Goldstone.    In the past two decades the world has seen the beginning of a new era for human rights, one in which the weight of international law and international public opinion has come increasingly to bear. In the arena of international law, new mechanisms have transformed the way we think about and achieve justice. And at the same time, the creative thinking and innovative spirit of individuals and organizations have changed the way we think about what is possible in human rights – and therefore what we can achieve.    All around the world and at all levels, in small villages and in national governments as well as at the highest levels of international justice people are creating and using innovative tactics to make their work more effective. The New Tactics in Human Rights Project captures these tactical innovations and shares them with others striving to advance human rights. I invite you to join me in celebrating this work and in making use of the valuable resource you now hold in your hands.    In reflecting on my own area of work, I have seen new opportunities for obtaining justice arise for victims of the gravest human rights abuses. The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which were the first war crimes courts to be created with the full weight of international opinion behind them, opened new doors for justice. The international teams working on the tribunals, people from dozens of countries, were doing something that had never been attempted before – making new law, setting new precedents, handing down indictments that did not look like indictments that had ever been handed down before in any country. Together a new tactic was created, one that paved the way for another, even more powerful tactic, the International Criminal Court. This court could now provide a tool to achieve justice no matter where or by whom crimes against humanity are perpetrated.    Within the context of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, we used another new tactic: We made rape a war crime that could be prosecuted on its own, rather than as a secondary offense that was only appended to other offenses. When the tribunal indicted eight Bosnian Serb military officers on charges of systematic rape of Muslim women, it represented a sea change in the way the world thought about gender-related crimes and human rights. This tactic has made it possible to achieve justice in many more cases since.    Ten years ago legal experts would have laughed at the prospect of indicting and extraditing a powerful former dictator like Augusto Pinochet. This was not a tactic that seemed available to us. Perpetrators at that level, no matter how barbarous their crimes, moved about the world with impunity. Pinochet’s arrest and extradition changed the way we think about what is possible in international justice. It added a tactic to the human rights arsenal, one that is sure to be used again and again in the future.    I applaud efforts by human rights advocates to use national and international courts and other public forums to call attention to crimes against humanity, wherever they occur, and to call loudly and boldly for justice. But these are just a few among the many new and innovative tactics being used by people around the world, in spheres and regions as diverse as human experience itself, to promote and protect basic human dignity.    I am proud to join the New Tactics in Human Rights Project in presenting New Tools, New Hope. While it could never claim to be an exhaustive catalogue, it is a rich compendium of this fresh and innovative thinking, one which we hope will be valuable to you in your work.    Justice Richard J. Goldstone    (Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, retired; Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Chairperson of the International Independent Inquiry on Kosovo; Chairperson of the International Task Force on Terrorism established by the International Bar Association) Visit the related web page
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