Tools for
SendHuman rights defenders working in hostile environments should be able to conjure up enough political costs to frighten an aggressor into not attacking them: This is called deterrence.
It is useful to distinguish between “general” and “immediate” deterrence. General deterrence consists of the combined effect of all national and international efforts at protecting defenders, i.e. anything which helps to create a general understanding that attacks against defenders will have negative consequences. This can happen through wide thematic campaigns or training and information about protecting defenders. On the other hand, immediate deterrence sends a specific message to a specific aggressor to keep their attacks away from a specific target. Immediate deterrence is necessary when general deterrence fails or is seen to be insufficient, and when protection efforts are focused on specific cases.
Persuasion is a more inclusive concept. It can be defined as the result of acts which induce an opponent not to carry out a contemplated hostile action. Rational argument, moral appeal, increased cooperation, improved human understanding, distraction, adoption of non-offensive policy and deterrence may all be used to achieve persuasion .Each of these tactics is used at different times by defenders at the national and international levels. Defenders cannot of course use direct “threats” very often: the strategy is more about reminding others that, depending on their decisions, a series of consequences could occur.
