Guns and Roses: Advocacy in an Emerging Democracy

This 46-page publication, published by Atlantic Philanthropies, is an attempt to distil learning from three books published during 2009 that provide insights into doing advocacy in South Africa. According to the authors, using advocacy as a non-violent strategy to bring about social change is an integral part of a constitutional democracy. The post-1994 period in South Africa have shown that the constitution provides a basis for the realisation of human rights but also that citizens need to fight for each step along the way to move from rights to realisation. After looking briefly at the constitutional basis for advocacy work, the authors focus on two campaigns - the Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) campaign to reduce the number of firearms circulating in society and the campaign for the recognition of same-sex marriage conducted around the Civil Union Act by organisations from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) sector. According to the report, the structures of the campaigns were similar and highlight some of the core challenges that advocacy campaigns in a constitutional democracy such as South Africa face.

This publication draws on the following books, along with conversations with activists.

• To Have and to Hold: The Making of Same-Sex Marriage in South Africa, edited by Melanie Judge, Anthony Manion, and Shaun de Waal, Fanele, 2008
• A Nation Without Guns? The Story of Gun Free South Africa by Adèle Kirsten, University of KwaZulu–Natal Press, 2008
• A Strategic Evaluation of Public Interest Litigation in South Africa, by Gilbert Marcus and Steven Budlender, The Atlantic Philanthropies, 2008

According to the report, the campaigns shared many of the same key approaches, which outline a framework for advocacy. These are:

• Clarification of the issue and defining the goals - gay and lesbian organisations saw the issue of same-sex marriage as a necessary consequence of the inclusion of sexual orientation in the constitution's commitment against discrimination, and saw themselves as doing groundwork towards that cause. It was a very specific goal, and its achievement would be tangible and measurable. The GFSA campaign included two clear strands: advocating for a new policy to strengthen gun laws and enabling grassroots communities to have agency, a sense of their own power, in bringing about change and influencing their environment.
• Researching the issue and understanding the context - The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) gathered information and evidence to underpin its advocacy for same-sex marriage for years, and used this information when it came time to mount constitutional court challenges. The Equality Project attended public workshops and hearings, making inputs based on this information. Similarly, GFSA understood that gathering information and being able to demonstrate an understanding of the nature and extent of the problem, as well as being able to offer some simple and easy solutions, based on local and international research, were essential steps in being able to change public policy. GFSA saw facts and figures as crucial to its campaign, as well as the need to take existing research and develop concise briefings that would make its knowledge widely available to a range of policy and opinion makers.
• Building strategic partnerships - The gay and lesbian activists working on the same-sex marriage campaign understood that there was a need to link the campaign to broader issues of social and legal justice in South Africa. For GFSA, their alliance was formalised in the Gun Control Alliance (GCA) which developed, jointly, a Gun Control Charter, the purpose of which was to get as many people as possible to support an achievable short-term objective.
• Mobilising specific constituencies and communities - The same-sex marriage campaign focused on mobilising lesbian and gay constituencies as well as on forming alliances with human rights groups. GFSA was faced with a different challenge. It had no prescribed constituency, but it did have a strategy which stressed the mobilisation of grassroots voices against guns, in tandem with the policy process. According to the research, the "gun-free-zone campaign" turned out to be a significant tool in realising this strategy.
• Working with the media - The report explains how the media "degenerated to the point where lesbian and gay people had constantly to defend the fact that they were human and that their sexuality was as natural as heterosexuality." However, organisers recognised that in view of the focus on the "unAfricanism" of homosexuality, it was strategic for the sector to ensure that the same-sex marriage campaign had "an African face". The GFSA experience with the media was less harsh. GFSA noted that a key aspect of successful advocacy is understanding how to use the media in all its forms to influence public opinion and social change.
• Lobbying - According to the report, GFSA never missed a day during public hearings on gun control, monitoring the proceedings and providing parliamentarians with additional information during lunches and teas. Similarly, the LGBTI sector identified the lobbying of lawmakers as critical.
• Working through the parliamentary process - the report states that for any group hoping to influence this process, it is important that it understands how the parliamentary process works. In the two case studies, key moments for the activists involved to encourage public engagement were the written submissions and the public hearings.

The report concludes that in absolute terms, both these advocacy campaigns achieved major successes in the form of legislation which, while not fully what the activists involved wanted, went a considerable way to achieving what they wanted. However, the report points out that for both campaigns, moving beyond legislation to sustaining a grassroots movement for change has proved a challenge. In order for this to happen, the authors suggest that the following is required:

• clarity on long-term goals;
• ongoing informed understanding of what is likely to be a changing context, both in a wider sense and in the sense of monitoring implementation of legislation and court outcomes;
• building partnerships that are both strategic and progressive, including partnerships with donors and sponsors who recognise the importance of resourcing advocacy work;
• mobilising specific constituencies within a human rights and constitutional context so that they are not isolated in their mobilisation;
• working with the media in a proactive and consistent way;
• working through the parliamentary process and the court process, including lobbying parliamentarians and would-be parliamentarians on the basis of their commitment to a constitutional democracy;
• planning strategically and in a timely manner for the next step in campaigning.