The Advocacy Project (AP) is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that seeks to strengthen community-based

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

advocacy groups. The project was established in June 1998 to report to human rights advocates from the Rome conference that established the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

. The Advocacy Project continued on a project-by-project basis until it acquired nonprofit status in July 2001. As of 2017, The Advocacy Project has deployed 294 Peace Fellows to 114 organisations in over 50 countries.

Organization

Mission

According to its website, The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their stories, claim their rights, and produce social change. The organization is based in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and sends peace fellows, who are usually graduate students, to assist their partners across the world. They focus on sending representatives to organizations that are from the local areas instead of imposing a solution from the outside.

Services

The Advocacy Project sends a number of graduate students to partner organizations in other countries that are based from the local populations. The students, called Peace Fellows by the project, write

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

which chronicle their journeys as they spend time assisting local

non-governmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

(NGOs). '' Wired'' noted that the blogs functioned as effective journals of the trips from fellows, which served to highlight the differences in culture between the first and third worlds. The Advocacy Project provides support through services including: * Telling Their Story * Designing a Program or Campaign * Strengthening the Partner's Organization * Use IT and Social Media Platforms * Fundraising * International Promotion One of the main ways the Advocacy Project performs outreach is through quilts. Through quilting projects, The Advocacy Project hopes that it will help people that are marginalized tell their story through pictures. Often these quilts showcase the daily lives of people in marginalized communities. ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'' and ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

'' both favorably reported on the project's work with

Bosfam Bosfam (The Association Bosnian Family; Bosnian: Udruženje Bosanska Familija) is a non-governmental organization that provides psychosocial and economic assistance to women affected by the Bosnian war of 1992-1995. It was founded in May 1995 by ...

, an NGO that helps Bosnian women who were affected by the 1992-95

Bosnian war The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

, for helping to raise money through the weaving work that the organization's women performed. A number of quilts that were made with the help of The Advocacy Project were also showcased at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

in honor of

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

by an event put on by the United Nations Population Fund.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Advocacy Project Human rights organizations based in the United States