Chapter 12 — Advocacy Strategies ÀÀ Increasing the persuasiveness of arguments In implementing strategies to increase support among stakeholders, monitoring personnel should work on improving their communication and persuasion skills. The following points can be useful in this regard: • Establishing a programme’s credibility. Establishing the credibility of a monitoring programme is essential, particularly when the qualifications or findings of monitoring staff are questioned. For instance, managers may need to reassure stakeholders about the credentials and expertise of their teams, the reputation of their organization, levels of control over confidential information, or the verification of programme findings for accuracy. When criticism is voiced as to the reliability of a programme’s conclusions, especially in public, monitoring staff should respond promptly and decisively, while remaining polite and non-confrontational. Engaging higher level representatives of the monitoring programme in key meetings with justice system stakeholders can help boost a programme’s credibility. Programmes should invest in the creation of networks that can promote their reputation. References to an OSCE programme’s findings in reports issued by renowned organizations, donors or NGOs can all help promote a programme’s public profile and credibility. • Finding common ground with stakeholders. Identifying shared interests with actors involved in the justice system helps to build confidence throughout a programme.161 A programme should convey that its role is to assist the local authorities in overcoming impediments in the administration of justice, rather than naming and shaming. To dispel antagonism, monitoring staff should demonstrate to counterparts that their concerns and suggested solutions are being respectfully considered in programme reports and activities. Including domestic actors’ concerns in public reports is one means of building rapport and support for the programme. • Producing striking facts to support a programme’s position. Invoking vivid evidence to support the need for changes in the administration of justice can be an extremely effective advocacy tool. Therefore, programme staff should supplement their arguments with monitoring findings that can produce the desired impact among stakeholders, or describe specific cases that can make vague concepts tangible to the listener. Salient arguments underlined by carefully selected statistics can have this effect. However, overwhelming stakeholders with statistical data is rarely effective. A distinct advantage of trial monitoring is that it has access to human stories and examples from practice, which it should use whenever appropriate. ÀÀ Negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes To achieve co-operation with stakeholders, a programme may also need to employ negotiation strategies on various occasions, as when discussing the implementation of a recommendation. The overall aim of a conversation should be to persuade an interlocutor of the logic of the programme’s analysis and of the benefits that will result from implementing a recommendation. Programme staff should present their arguments clearly. It can be useful to prepare “talking points” in advance of a meeting, to ensure that key points are included and set out in a logical way. This is particularly helpful if different staff will be meeting different interlocutors on the same issue, to ensure that consistent arguments are presented. If an interlocutor is not convinced by the initial presentation, programme staff should listen carefully to her/his views and arguments to the contrary. Staff should be patient and refrain from reacting emotionally or being confrontational. If the possible objections by the interlocutor can be anticipated, programme staff can prepare in advance for how these objections might be answered. It 161  For instance, while a programme may be concerned that judges take excessive time to produce written verdicts, judges may argue that the time limits prescribed by law are unrealistic in complex cases and when no legal assistants are provided. To deal with such concerns, a programme could advocate for judges to have more staff, or could work with local actors to develop a structured verdict-drafting system. 107