3.2 Advocacy Definition and purpose Advocacy can be defined as “all communication that is intended to persuade or produce a particular change in action or behaviour.”93 Advocacy interventions can materialise in many ways, for instance, in public campaigns social media action. A more narrow understanding of advocacy is what is also referred to as lobbyism, the act of influencing a decision maker, usually to make legislative or policy changes.94 This can involve elements of pressure, awareness-raising, and support through providing expert advice and can take place in bilateral or multilateral meetings, behind closed doors or in roundtables or panel debates. The OHCHR provides broad guidance on advocacy in its ‘Manual on Human Rights Monitoring’ that shall be briefly outlined below with reflections from exchanges during the project. Public communication or awareness raising is another important type of advocacy. Generally, awareness raising refers to ”fostering communication and information in order to improve mutual understanding and mobilise communities to bring about changes in attitudes and behaviour”.95 For raising awareness advocates can resort to various measures such as public campaigns in the form of audio-visual or printed material, training, or social media action.96 Principles and strategic use Utilising reliable and credible data is key for the integrity of a CSO and for it to be invited to the table. Competence and credibility are key ways to convince decision makers. It is equally the foundation for effective campaigning and awareness-raising. As mentioned above, effective advocacy should be based on thorough research, SMART recommendations and ideally embedded in a larger advocacy strategy (e.g. as part of a Theory of Change). The strategy includes the goals and outcomes of the lobbying interventions which also serve as benchmarks to measure the success of the advocacy.97 Meeting stakeholders requires extensive preparation. Firstly, the goal of the meeting must be clear to all advocates.98 The communication should be specifically tailored to the stakeholder and framed in such a way that it explicitly or implicitly persuades to act. Prior to the meeting, extensive research must be conducted on the political system, the title, responsibilities of the legislator, and their position on the human rights issue at hand.99 Questions and opposing opinions of the targeted stakeholder must be anticipated and answers must be prepared.100 It is also advisable to review recommendations of other organisations to increase leverage during the meeting.101 Additionally, all information that will be 93. OHCHR, ‘Chapter 31: Advocacy and Intervention’ (2011) 4; another definition of advocacy is “Advocacy, i.e. the act of arguing for something to be done, denotes the various strategies used to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights, either in respect of a specific case/ situation or more broadly. (…) consists of several methods that can be used to influence the targeted actors (…) may use public campaigns, lobbying and complementary means such as litigation (…)” in Ilias Bantekas and Lutz Oette, ‘Chapter 3: Human Rights in Practice’ in International Human Rights Law and Practice (Cambridge University Press 2020) 144. 94. Marijana Grandits, ‘Human Rights and Lobbyism’ in Manfred Nowak, Karolina M. Januszewski, and Tina Hofstätter, All Human Rights for All: Vienna Manual on Human Rights (Intersentia 2012) 635. 95. OHCHR, ‘Chapter 31: Advocacy and Intervention’ (2011) 4. 96. OHCHR, ‘Awareness-Raising Under Article 8 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (2020) A/HRC/43/27. 97. The Advocates for Human Rights, ’Chapter 7: Advocacy’ in Paving Pathways for Justice & Accountability: Haman Rights for Diaspora Communities (2014) 104, Duffy, ‘Strategic Human Rights Litigation’ (2018) 237, English and others, ‘Influencing for Impact Guide’ (2020) 36, Tina Power, Michael Power and Ben Batros, ‘Strategic Litigation Toolkit: Prepared by ALT Advisory’ (Digital Freedom Fund) 15. 98. The Advocates for Human Rights, ’Chapter 7: Advocacy’ (2014) 112. 99. OHCHR, ‘Chapter 31: Advocacy and Intervention’ (2011) 18. 100. ibid 112-113. 101. ibid 12. 37