Civil Society under Political Pressure

Before the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS), a Liberties network member and human rights advocacy organisation in Zagreb, joined the Access Project, Sara Lalić, its project manager and research and advocacy officer, was facing a bitter truth: civil society in Croatia was losing its influence. Old-fashioned advocacy was no longer effective. Institutions had become captured by the ruling party, and the government had become openly hostile towards progressive civic-led organisations.

They were also losing the battle of public opinion. Ordinary people didn’t understand why civic space mattered, and the media were uninterested in reporting on the erosion of civil society’s framework. And when NGOs were talked about, it was for all the wrong reasons. In an attempt to win votes during election periods, certain political actors labelled them as “parasites”, corrupt, or agents of left-wing parties. When CPS spoke out in favour of migrant rights, they were accused of being smugglers or destabilising the country.

CPS responded to these attacks, but, according to Sara, their communication was not as effective as they had hoped. Civil society had become an echo chamber, with NGOs “basically talking to themselves” about civic space issues. With hindsight, she realises their language was too technical, and they focused solely on the problems without offering tangible solutions or explaining how these issues affected ordinary people.

An Evidence-Based Approach to Human Rights Messaging

The Access Project, coordinated by Liberties, invited four partner organisations from Croatia, Sweden, Italy and Hungary to improve their knowledge and skills in persuading people to join their cause. A unique component of the project was the two-phase data collection; Liberties facilitated social media analysis and focus groups to understand the perspectives of people who don’t actively support civic space and migration, but potentially could with messaging that resonated with their values.

Sara tells me the social media narrative analysis confirmed her belief that many people don’t understand the importance of advocacy organisations, particularly those working on “controversial” issues such as migration. While discussions on Facebook were predictably heavily skewed against NGOs, Sara describes message testing during focus groups as a “game changer”. The focus group participants reacted more positively than she would have expected when shown prototypes of campaign materials designed to encourage people to support migration and NGOs.

This realisation was a lightbulb moment for Sara. The overwhelming negativity of opponents online can create a false impression of unpopular public sentiment towards migrants and civil society. However, the focus groups confirmed that this vocal minority does not represent most citizens of Croatia.

While the participants lacked a nuanced understanding of the civic space and migration, it was clear to Sara that they could be persuaded to support CPS’s campaigns by messages that explained why these causes impacted values they cared about. From that point onwards, she tells me, she became "determined to persuade other NGOs and activists that our primary mission in the foreseeable future should be to bring the undecided people to support progressive causes".

Overcoming Fatalism

Sara and the other project partners learned how to build values-based persuasive messages during an intensive workshop led by Liberties. With each of the organisations working on civic space and similar local topics, the collective learning environment encouraged participants to take creative inspiration from one another and discuss their common struggle counteracting threats to NGOs.

Since then, CPS has gone on to train other local NGOs in Croatia working on similar topics using an evidence-based approach following the findings of the focus groups.

One big takeaway that Sara highlights from the workshop was the lesson on how to overcome fatalism by talking about meaningful past successes of social movements: “I think that this issue of overcoming fatalism is really important, because it's like an epidemic that got into our supporters as well. Our supporters today don't think that they can do anything about the horrible situation that is happening in our country and in the world.”

Sara also praises the “constant guiding and mentoring by Liberties” over several months during the development of campaign materials, which she says made it easier to apply the principles of persuasive messaging and helped the lessons stick.

As well as feeling more hopeful about overcoming Europe’s troubles in these dark times, Sara tells me the experience of the Access Project was, above all, fun: “It was really, for me personally, the most fun thing that I did at my job in the last several years.”

Resources for activists who want to learn more about persuasive messaging:

Case Study: Selecting Keywords to Map Audience Perceptions of Civic Space on Facebook

Sample Message on Migration from Civil Rights Defenders in Sweden