| Many women's rights NGOs
around the world are working to advocate for the protection of women
from all forms of gender-based violence. Advocacy refers to a
process, initiated by citizens or groups of citizens, such as
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to bring about change.
Two broad types of advocacy can be distinguished: individual
advocacy and systems change advocacy. Individual advocacy
focuses on changing the situation for an individual and protecting
her rights. Systems advocacy refers to efforts to change
policy and practice at the local, national or international level,
to change the situation for groups of individuals who share similar
problems. While systems advocacy works to improve the
system to the benefit of individuals, it is a long-term
approach to problem solving requiring sustained effort. This
section of the website discusses advocacy tools for systems
change.
All effective advocacy strategies will aim to affect change
at various levels- including increasing community awareness of the
issue, influencing law and policy making and improving the
government response to violence against women.
Because systems advocacy aims to affect long-term social
change, it is generally considered a process that addresses
strategic needs, in contrast to addressing the immediate and
day-to-day needs of victims. At the same time, however,
advocacy is also a tool that is both influenced by practical needs
and can be used in conjunction with practical activities. An
effective strategy to address violence against women should
incorporate both practical and strategic activities, and many NGO
actions function on both of these levels simultaneously. In
planning a strategy, it may be useful to review a broader discussion
of the interplay between strategic and practical needs in the
context of gender-based violence elsewhere on this
website.
This website takes a human rights approach to gender-based
violence, which means that the advocacy strategies included here aim
to improve respect for and the protection of women's human
rights. The manual Women's Human Rights Step by Step
defines the main goals of women's human rights advocacy as the
following:
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To increase the understanding of human rights to
include abuses suffered predominantly by women;
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To expand the scope of State responsibility for
protection of women's human rights in both the public and private
sphere; and
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To improve the effectiveness of the human rights
system at the national and international level to both enforce
women's human rights and also to hold abusers
accountable.
Within the broad human rights framework, advocacy
initiatives vary and should be reflective of specific country
conditions. Advocacy initiatives under the human rights
perspective, however, tend to focus on improving the human rights
system at all levels, meaning from local government institutions up
to intergovernmental organizations, such as the United
Nations.
An effective advocacy initiative or strategy requires
organization, strategizing, information gathering, coalition
building and action.
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