WO
channel for communicating human rights issues • A detailed and flexible strategy is vital, enabling
and transforming people’s views. The arts can you to respond to a fast changing policy
enrich thought, ideas and experience, ‘plant environment. R
seeds’ and inspire people to seek change. • Do your research. For example, the
K
Government had been unsuccessful in 2005 at
S
Recommendations
pushing through 92 days pre-charge detention.
H
• Use the visual ar ts to promote human
Liberty worked hard to find out who had
O
rights issues among groups that have been
voted against it and why.
P
traditionally difficult to reach, such as children.
• Think about primary and secondary objectives:

S
• Think about ho w to make performances and
what else do you want to gain from this
E
publications fully accessible, for example, by
S
campaign?
communicating some performances in British
S
• Maximise your resources: what human,
I
Sign Language, or by producing publications in
O
financial or other resources are available?
large print.
N
• Use case studies to tell the human story
• Dev elop arts projects that engage with under- S
behind the policy and help people connect
represented groups and under-reported issues
with the campaign.
such as parental childhood abuse, deafness,
Professor Ivor Gaber, Professor of Political
dementia and disability.
Campaigning and Reporting at City University
London, gave general advice on running effective
Effective human rights
human rights campaigns. His recommendations
campaigning
included:
• Campaigning on human rights in general terms
is difficult; it is better to have a specific issue
Overview
that you frame in human rights language.
Human rights language can be a powerful
• Repeat your message, but try to find creative,
campaigning tool – but third sector organisations innovative ways of communicating it. New media
do not always know how to use it to their and the internet are vital campaigning tools.
advantage. This workshop produced some key • Your target audience is key. Think beyond the
recommendations to help organisations use media – the media is important but not the
human rights to run effective campaigns, as well only audience.
as highlighting their need for greater support in • Recognise that attitude change is a slow
doing so. process. You need to first get the audiences’
Presentations
attention, and then they need to understand
your campaign, be receptive to it, accept your
The award-winning Liberty campaign Charge or
message and internalise it.
Release achieved its aim after the government
was unsuccessful in extending the maximum Group discussion
detention time for terror suspects to 42 During group discussions, delegates raised the
days. Campaigns Coordinator Sabina Frediani following points:
highlighted some of the key lessons Liberty learnt • Support for the third sector: Organisations
from this experience: may face challenges in using human rights
• A clear aim and message is essential. Liberty language, finding it alien or intimidating. They
chose to focus on the pre-charge detention may also lack the resources and capacity to
provision within the proposed counter- run successful campaigns such as Charge or
terrorism law, making the campaign message Release. Certain issues are more difficult to
straightforward and easily understandable. campaign on than others, such as inquests and
• Think carefully about which human rights deaf people’s rights.
arguments you are making and how you will • Using the law: Since human rights are concrete
communicate them. Charge or Release argued entitlements in law, using human rights
that extending pre-charge detention violated language is a very powerful way of framing a
the right to liberty under the Human Rights campaign – particularly when campaigning for
Act and was unnecessary as there were vulnerable groups, such as older people. Using
other alternatives available. The human rights or threatening litigation is also an important 15
arguments were communicated in plain English tool, as is making use of the legislative process
rather than legalese. more generally.
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