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Thank you for joining the New Tactics online community for a dialogue on Domesticating International Human Rights Law. Human rights are inherent, universal and indivisible, and have found expressions in various international and regional human rights instruments. National constitutions of various countries have adopted these human rights standards. Yet human rights violations are common practice in many parts of the world. Local human rights groups and practitioners have done tremendous work in translating/adopting these human rights standards/principles in their day to day work. They have found novel and innovative ways of translating international human rights standards into practical and meaningful things for local people.

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Thank you for joining Shaazka Beyerle and the New Tactics online community for this dialogue on Empowering Citizens to Fight Corruption. This dialogue explored how campaigns have empowered and mobilized citizens to counter corruption in their communities. Citizens working together are gaining powerful results. This is a space to learn about and share experiences in these kinds of campaigns as well as share your ideas, resources, and stories.

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Thank you for joining the New Tactics online community for a dialogue on Using Radio to Empower and Engage Communities. Human Rights groups are finding new ways to reach their audience through radio.  This dialogue, held from May 26 to June 1, 2010, brought together human rights practitioners using community radio to empower communities, shortwave radio to reach communities limited by government-run media and radio stations, and other innovative uses of audio to share critical information. 

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In this dialogue, practitioners that work with human rights defenders developing security strategies discussed how human rights defenders and organizations can improve their safety and security while working in the field under oppressive conditions and under the watchful eye of states and adversaries. Specifically, the participants discussed and shared tactics, strategies and resources on how human rights defenders can create effective security protocols to protect themselves against physical threats and secure their data in the field or office.

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Governments around the world target youth for military recruitment and service. In response, human rights organizations have developed innovative ways of introducing youth to non-violent alternatives to military service and combating the culture of militarism. This tactical dialogue is a space for those working with and interested in engaging youth in non-violent alternatives to militarism to share their stories, challenges, resources and ideas.

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Thank you for joining the New Tactics online community for this dialogue on Tactics That Tickle: Laughing All the Way to the Win. Yes, we are working to change serious problems, but that doesn’t mean this work should not use humor as a tool to accomplish our objective!  Humor is a powerful nonviolent tactic that has the ability to prevent and counter activist burnout, engage more supporters, and increase the chance of getting media attention.  It can give you an opportunity to put your opponent in a dilemma – no matter what he does, he has lost.  In this dialogue, practitioners shared advice and resources on using humor, and many examples to inspire you.

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Thank you for joining the New Tactics online community for this dialogue on 'Using Budgets for Monitoring' from February 24 to March 2, 2010. This online dialogue is a space for practitioners using - and training others to use - government budgets to monitor the implementation of human rights commitments. The goal of this dialogue is to create a stronger network on practitioners using budgets for monitoring, to share important resources and information, and also to introduce this technique to our online community.

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The New Tactics online dialogue “Training Law Enforcement for Prevention of Ill-Treatment and Torture” examined the various aspects of training methodologies and its significance to help upgrade and develop law enforcement officer’s capacities to better perform their role in preventing or at least diminishing torture occurrences. The dialogue adopted five main themes that embodied the most relevant issues relating training with both law enforcement and torture prevention, under each theme the dialogue was open for comments from eight featured law enforcement experts and six non-governmental organizations who represent different fields of expertise concerning the issue at hand. It was also open for the New Tactics general community and public interested in the topic to participate with their comments and ask questions about one or more of the themes pursued in the dialogue.

A brief summary of this conversation is posted below. You can also download this 65-page PDF that contains the entire conversation, including all of the comments added to the dialogue.

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This New Tactics dialogue titled “Geo-mapping for Human Rights” focused on the role of spatial mapping tools in working to further human rights goals. With the rise of technology, mapping tools become not only more available to practitioners that may previously have shied away from using technology, but maps also offer new possibilities for advocacy, promoting transparency around human rights issues, tracking impact of human rights efforts, and engaging the community in local issues.

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New Tactics in Human Rights and freeDimensional (fD) partnered for this online dialogue featuring 'Art Spaces Hosting Activism & Strengthening Community Engagement'. The online dialogue featured freeDimensional network members sharing the creative ways in which art spaces can and do provide safe havens for activists, share technical tools and training, support and guidance, and engage in social justice issues in their communities and through fD’s social justice network.