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People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) worked with a coalition of civic organizations to survey the South Korea population in order to identify criteria meant to eliminate politicians and make them ineligible for election.  Corruption in Korea was so serious that it was the foremost obstacle hindering the progress of Korean society.  Korean political parties have remained unchanged and politicians do not represent the people’s interests. Instead, they exclusively pursue their own interests: power monopolized by politicians only.

Citizen Initiative for Constant Light mobilized 30 million people in Turkey to turn off and on their lights to demand that the government act against corruption. The action resulted from public outrage after a car crash openly revealed connections between government, police and the mob. Turkey is a secular nation with a tradition of democracy. But it also has a tradition of human rights abuse. The influence of corruption extends throughout society through local patronage systems undeterred by any investigative reporting from a mass media industry, which is itself complicit in the corruption. As a result, the corruption issue has historically sparked only apathy and hopelessness in Turkish civil society.

Through a drive that encouraged citizens of all political persuasions to sign a petition, the Basque peace group, Elkarri, gave citizens a way to collectively and effectively pressure the Spanish and Basque governments to initiate a peace dialogue. Since the 15th century the Basque country, on the border between France and Spain, has been disputed territory. The repressive policies of Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain from 1939-1975, aggravated the conflict and gave rise to Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA), the militant group now infamous for using terrorist tactics to fight for Basque autonomy.

BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights uses mock tribunals to influence public policy. The tactic was needed not only because of recurring abuses against women, including physical abuse, rape, sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation, but also because of the widespread belief that human rights violations against women are not serious or are simply normal or even justifiable.

BAOBAB organized the first National Tribunal on Violence against Women on March 14th 2002 in the capital city of Abuja. The tribunal was unofficial and not legally binding but the testimony was real – 33 women were selected to testify.

Otpor! (“Resistance!” in Serbo-Croatian) prepared “Plan B” demonstrations outside of police stations to respond immediately to arrests during protest events in Serbia. Whenever the police arrested activists in their demonstrations, Otpor! would instantaneously launch a second operation, mobilizing more people to show up at the police stations and protest the arrest. The events at the police station became media showpieces, calling attention to the injustice of the arrests and the illegitimacy of the regime. They also provided moral support and encouragement to the arrested activists, turning them into local and national heroes, rather than forgotten victims. Otpor! thus turned the regime’s policy of arrests to its own advantage and continued to build a movement.

In 1999, ICT successfully pressured the World Bank to relinquish its funding to China’s Western Poverty Reduction Project through a two-pronged approach of mobilizing at the grassroots level to lobby the U.S. government and convincing Washington specialists to draft a claim to the World Bank investigation panel listing the internal policy violations.

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is a Washington based, non-profit organization that has worked to promote human rights and self-determination for Tibetans since 1988.  In 1999, ICT launched a massive campaign to protest against the World Bank’s agreement to fund China’s Western Poverty Reduction Project, which proposed to move nearly 60,000 poor Chinese farmers into the Tibetan region.  ICT opposed such a project on the grounds that massive migration degrades the environment, and dilutes Tibetan culture.

The following is the text of his speech:

Protesters swarmed Tehran's main cemetery and fanned out across a large swath of the capital Thursday, defying truncheons and tear gas to publicly mourn those killed during weeks of unrest, including a young woman whose death shocked people around the world.The protests marked the 40th day since the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan was captured on video and posted on the Internet. For Shiite Muslims, the 40th day has religious importance, often an occasion for an outpouring of emotion and grief.

Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran's presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign.The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser."

Ordinary women in long black chadors and head scarves - both young and old - are performing extraordinary acts of bravery in Iran today. Women are at the forefront of these nonviolent demonstrations violently suppressed by the government-backed militias (known as Basij). It took the brutal death of Neda Agha Soltan in Tehran on June 20 during a street protest to bring the role of women in this post-election crisis to light.

Today, 62 percent of all Iranian university students are women, rates of divorce initiated by women have accelerated, and women's rights have become an issue for the leaders of the country.  Iranian women's rights activists have launched the One Million Signature Campaign, which seeks to reform gender inequalities in Iran's constitution. The campaign has raised awareness among Iranian women, irrespective of class or degree of religiosity. The campaign has spread to 16 provinces and even made the members of the conservative parliament react to the women's demands.