Council Advocacy

As a member of the Council, participating in targeted advocacy actions for key recommendations and proposals regarding urgent human rights issues is one of the most rewarding aspects of engagement with Human Rights Watch. Our ability to enlist opinion leaders and decision makers in our cause is crucial to our mission and our effectiveness. Members of the Human Rights Watch Council play a critical role.

Through their social or professional relationships, Council members can often facilitate access to otherwise inaccessible decision makers. Because Council members are highly regarded and respected individuals in their own communities, the weight of their voice and their concern behind any given issue can often be decisive. Likewise, Council members often bring professional experience and credentials to bear on a particular issue, lending an added level of authority to Human Rights Watch's position.

Advocacy objectives and campaigns are identified through a managed process that engages advocacy staff, divisional directors, researchers, monitors, legal counsel, and central leadership. The Board of Directors, Advisory Committee members and Human Rights Watch Council members each contribute to this process in their own way.

When identifying advocacy objectives, Human Rights Watch gives due consideration to when and where it can be most effective, given the organization's mission, resources and capacities. This focus on strategic action has been central to Human Rights Watch's success in challenging human rights violations and systemic abuses around the world.

To leverage the full weight of the organization and to avoid working at cross-purposes, Council members should coordinated their advocacy initiatives with other Human Rights Watch stakeholders. This handbook provides some guidelines. Professional staff will work with Council members to ensure that specific advocacy actions taken by the Council support current Human Rights Watch advocacy goals in a meaningful way.

As a key strategy in this work, professional staff members will work with Council members to enhance the value of the Council's contribution in this critical area by assessing past experience, interests, enthusiasm and social and professional affiliations that might prove directly relevant to specific issues of concern to Human Rights Watch.

Types of Advocacy