How to build a legal advocacy strategy

We have developed a checklist to support participants attending CRIN’s workshops in coming up with their own legal advocacy strategy and invite anyone planning to hold their own legal advocacy workshop to use it. The following outline includes many of the essential questions which will likely come up when brainstorming a plan of action for using the law to challenge children’s rights violations. It has been tried and tested at our previous workshops and amended taking into account comments by participants.

During CRIN’s workshop on child rights advocacy in Turkey, for example, a group working on corporal punishment identified a specific article of the Turkish Penal Code which needed to be challenged, and set out a plan to take this issue to the constitutional court and then, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights. Once they had decided on a target and a pathway for their campaign, they were able to begin planning for the specific actions they would need to take in order to achieve their target - i.e. the preparation of legal opinions, liaising with state authorities, involvement of the legislature and the judiciary and fulfilling the conditions for appealing to regional human rights bodies.

1. Identify violations of children's rights.	National/regional/international context Which specific rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are violated? Is this an issue which is relevant to other international bodies or UN projects, such as the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children?
2. Identify why the violation is persisting and why previous and existing forms of advocacy have failed to achieve effective remedies.	Different political or societal pressures Previous advocacy efforts and why and to what extent they have failed
3. Identify what forms of legal or quasi-legal advocacy could be used to challenge the violation, what conditions need to be met before these can be used and what other obstacles there are to using these forms of advocacy, looking especially at the national constitution and legal system, and regional as well as international human rights mechanisms.	Relevant courts and other complaints mechanisms National/regional/international level Court standards and procedures, including preconditions Legal or practical obstacles to using these forms of advocacy (lack of legal standing for NGOs in court, lack of judicial independence, negative legal precedent, etc)? Examples of successful litigation brought against other rights violations in your country, e.g. campaigns relating to the rights of women and ethnic or religious minorities Other avenues to challenge child rights violations (publicising efforts in the media, seeking political support, social and political campaigns, etc)
4. Identify the evidence that exists of the violation you have identified, how it can be gathered and how it can be used.	How can this evidence be gathered? Who will need to be involved in the collection process? What problems might emerge? Are the violations taking place in closed and private settings? Is there some public method for investigation and evidence gathering? Are individual child victims required to bring a claim, and are they willing to come forward and give evidence? What are the requirements for witnesses and what are the potential risks in giving evidence? Are there any potential limitations on children’s ability to give evidence or appear in court?
5. Identify what resources are going to be needed to mount the challenge.	How will you acquire or attract funding and other necessary resources for your project? Do you have sufficient legal expertise within your organisation, or should you be looking to enlist others to advise? Will you need partners in other areas of the country? Can you spare the staff time, or should you be looking for volunteers to help keep the campaign going? If bringing a court case, are you or your client(s) entitled to legal aid or will you require pro bono legal assistance?
6. Identify possible partners to work with on this issue.	Activists, rights defenders, groups of or individual legal professionals, pro bono law firms, other NGOs, international organisations, members of political and social movements, children, parents/guardians, teachers, etc Anyone else you need in order to fill some of the gaps you identified in the previous section on necessary resources Do you already have contact with these partners or will you need to approach them directly or prepare an outreach campaign? Are there reasons that important partners might hesitate to get involved, and what can you do to encourage them to join your efforts?
7. Develop a concrete plan to move forward with the advocacy.	Identify the key steps you will need to take to get your legal advocacy campaign going What order will they need to be addressed in? Agree on: the overall focus and the specific objectives of the campaign (such as overturning, revising or calling for the creation of a particular law), the time scale and what resources you can put into the campaign Begin a preliminary division of work Think about specific opportunities to be taken into account (upcoming political or legal developments, appointments to public offices, national events, national days of remembrance or international awareness days, elections, referendums, legal reforms, court cases likely to be resolved in the coming months with potential of setting precedents or bringing attention to related human rights violations, etc)
8. Identify how CRIN can help you move forward with advocacy on this issue.	Guides, toolkits and reports Information sharing Subscription to online newsletter “Children in Court CRINmail” Legal database Hosting campaigns on CRIN website Providing news coverage of national advocacy efforts