The Advocacy Project is a nonprofit organization that seeks to strengthen community-based human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 advocacy groups. AP was established in June 1998 to report to human rights advocates from the Rome conference that established the International Criminal Court

International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...

. AP continued on a project-by-project basis until it acquired nonprofit status in July 2001. As of 2008, AP's Peace Fellows work with 21 different organizations throughout the world. According to the AP website,

Mission

AP supports community-based advocacy groups who work for social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

and human rights at the community level. AP aims to strengthen the capacity of such advocates to produce, disseminate and use information more effectively and with a stronger international voice.

AP seeks a world in which disempowered people are able to find their voice and exercise their right to develop – on their own terms and with appropriate support from their government and the international community. Advocacy Project

Services

AP offers partner organizations a choice of services aimed at strengthening their advocacy. For a complete list of AP's partner organizations, both presently as well as in the past, visit the AP partner page.

Fellows for Peace

Each year, AP recruits graduate students from universities to take part in a program called Fellows for Peace. Through the program, which was launched in 2003, the fellows volunteer with locally-based partners or organizations committed to community-based advocacy. Over the summer of 2007, AP sent 31 fellows to partner organizations all over the world. The program further increased in size in the summer of 2008, when 34 fellows were sent worldwide.

Blogs

While abroad, AP fellows write at least one blog per week, and post them to the AP website's blogging page.
Their blogs help to bring alive the work of their hosts and allows them to communicate with friends, universities, and community groups back home that are following their work. Blogging has provided many AP fellows with an outlet for their hopes and frustrations. Several fellows have also used blogs to raise funds for their partners and their own travel costs. Advocacy Project

Dissemination

AP offers its partner organizations the opportunity to disseminate their information through the AP website and AdvocacyNet, an online news service that takes material from partners and turns them into news bulletins. These news bulletins, which profile innovative models of community-based advocacy and report on community campaigns, are sent out to more than 6,000 subscribers. Partners that lack their own websites post information on the AP website—on customized pages or in blogs.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

AP helps partner groups utilize ICT. AP staff assists partners with ICT trouble-shooting and developing websites suited to groups’ specific needs. Fellows help their host groups create social networks through listservs and blogs. In addition, AP utilizes a variety of ICT training methods specifically designed to meet the needs of the partner organization, so that these partners can continue to disseminate information when the Peace Fellow leaves.

Community-Based Partners

Community-based partners are human rights advocacy groups that work at the community level. As of 2007, AP worked with more than 30 community-based advocacy groups worldwide. These groups are located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Outreach Partners

Outreach partners are typically activist groups located in the United States that AP works with to further promote the efforts of community-based partners.

Strategic Partners

AP seeks to build strategic partnerships with social justice groups around the world to reach beneficiaries, scale up services and produce more sustained outcomes.

External links

• The Advocacy Project website
• Change.org website