WUNRN
Women’s Link Worldwide
http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/wlw/new.php?modo=trabajo&tp=metodologias
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Creation of Legal Standards for Strategic Litigation, Gender
Justice |
The
various ways in which the law can be used strategically allow us to set
standards related to the rights and duties of the States, members of the
judicial power and non-state actors with regards to gender justice. For the
most part, the creation of legal standards is done through strategic
litigation. However, there are other alternatives, for example, the
Gender Justice Uncovered Awards, which seek to establish consensus regarding
types of judicial statements that are desirable and those which are not. At
Women’s Link, every time we undertake to create a new standard in any of our
lines of work, we utilize three complementary strategies: legal, alliance
building, and communications.
·
Legal Strategy: In the
development of legal strategies we rely on our conviction that the
interpretation and application of the law is not an exact exercise and that
there are always more favorable arguments which can be developed with a gender
perspective. The strategy is developed depending on the way in which we
confront, discuss and respond to the following questions:
What is the legal history (Laws and regulations which exist or
have existed, precedent, jurisprudence and previous obstacles to implementation)
What are the available arguments?
(National, regional, international and comparative law)
Who are the decision makers and what are their views?
(Where have they studied, what have they published, their sources, their
specialization)
What is the procedure
(Deadlines, who can intervene and when, including for example the presentation
of Amici briefs)
What is happening politically within the Court or in the context
(What are the values and interests with which we are competing)
What is plan B?
(What are the possible scenarios, what are the next steps for each so the
losses are minimized and the gains are maximized)
·
Strategies for building alliances: The
guiding principle for this strategy is that in order to establish an effective
collaboration with different organizations there is no need to reach an
absolute consensus on all the matters under discussion. It is sufficient
to be in agreement that there is a problem, which requires a solution and that
work is necessary to make the objective in common a reality. Alliances should
be strategic, flexible and be supported by the expertise of those participating
and the common interests of those involved. To build alliances it is necessary
to have answers to the following questions:
Who are the actors and organizations that are currently active
on the issue?
Who are the possible allies (Organizations or people who could
become interested in the issue or play a more active role)
Who do we need as allies?
(People and organizations, which could play a decisive role for a specific
strategy)
What can the allies do?
(How can their expertise be used most effectively within the strategy)
Who do we have to neutralize
(Identify people and organizations opposed to the issue and their way of working)
·
Communications strategy: Strategic
litigation seeks maximum benefit from the symbolic value of judicial
proceedings. This value extends beyond that garnered for the parties involved
but seeks to set a precedent and standard from which others can equally
benefit. A communications strategy helps to achieve this objective. To
develop an adequate strategy in this field, we recommend seeking advice from
communications experts, and with their help, resolve the following questions:
How can communications support my project
(What is the overall objective, what part of the other strategies can
communications support - For example, disclosing the presentation of an amicus
brief)
Who are the actors and arguments which currently monopolize or
have the attention of the media?
(Who are the sources and what the messages are)
What is the key message?
(What do we need to say to make our audience aware of the issue)
Who are the spokespersons
(Take into account expertise, how he or she is perceived and availability.
All spokespersons should receive training)
How to understand the media
(Timing, language, dynamics and their interests)
What are the necessary tools
(Press kit, press releases, directory of experts, document with key messages)