The Problem is Injustice and misuse if powers.

Injustice and Misuse of powers happen only in 3 situations:

1- When a person does not know his rights (or s\he does not believe in those rights) = a person does not know he can
disobey an unjust king or a person does not believe he should disobey an unjust king
2- When a person does not know how to defend his/her rights (or can not defend those rights)
3- when a person does not find others to help him defend his/her rights
People think that Authorities work
this way. THIS IS NOT TRUE!

RULER on the TOP (not true)- Rulers

giving orders and people abide
(not true)
Ci R B P B
A
vi el us
a O ni r
l ig
s io n li ss
m
es
e n k c
y
rv s e
a
n
Ruler, needs pillars of support to be
able to rule and can not rule without
the support, help of others or their
submission.

Elites in society are competing to arriving

to POWER.

But Power corrupts so misuse of power, in Elite have convinced people

the absense of rule of law and justice, will that they are from the
spread… people, by the people and
for the people, while they
have dominated the three
main political powers in
society . Judicial, Executive
and legislative.

www.thecoc.org
In order to protect themselves, people need power. Power is in numbers…! But not only in numbers, in numbers who
have a common goal (or aim) who have a common vision to arrive to that goal and who have a strategic plan to arrive to
that goal, while knowing their strengths, weaknesses, the opportunities available for
them to take and the threats!
"Government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another.“ ~
Montesquieu
“All Government of course, is against liberty” ~ H.L. Mencken
Powers should be separated, and monitored by other powers to prevent their
being misused but ruling Elites gathered and controlled all powers!~ COC
"Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the
subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance." ~
Woodrow Wilson
So life is a battlefield where knowledgeable groups try to control less
knowledgeable groups in order to gain more power…~ COC
The solution of injustice and miuse of power, lays in the opressed, in the weak, in
the victim! ~ COC

The Council of Citizens is an assembly of people of Good will. People, declaring that
Human Rights is their belief and is the ideal they want to seak.
They work to inform others of their rights, how to defend those rights efficiently,
and how to find others to stand with them in defense for those rights.
Four institutions, each having a specific role:
1- Human Rights Prosecutor Office (the Citizens Protector): Provides legal help, consultance and litigation
intervention.
2- Human Rights Media: Provides human rights coverage of news and advocates and spread the ideas and
knowledge.
3- Human Rights and Nonviolent Struggle Academy: Develop materials, trainings and technologies…

4- Human Rights Force: the main core of intervention.

It is composed of trained groups of youth that will be present on the streets and between the people. They will
constitute an awareness tool on human rights and a confrontation tool against HR violations.
They possess the necessary knowledge and tools to implement any nonviolent warfare, to impose human rights and to
help the wronged. The HRF will use teaching strategies, persuasion strategies, confrontation strategies, etc…
They possess all the techniques taught in the Academy.
They will be localized in all regions.
They will pass their skills to the local communities.
They will immediately interfere to stop any striking violation of human rights (ex: the August 9, 2001 incidents in
Lebanon).
All HRF centers will be equipped with a hotline to receive and respond to every complaint or urgent call in cooperation
with the police according to a certain criteria established to maintain their integrity, just causes, and their abidance by
the Lebanese laws.

How to Start?
25 persons will be selected from among the Lebanese youth.
University students, graduated or undergraduate from different fields, 13 female and 12 male students:
- Law (5 persons)
- Political Science (5 persons)
- Art (painters, designers, musicians) (5 persons)
- Sociology (5 persons)
- Journalism (5 persons)
The group of 25 will be trained for 25 days by university professors and international trainers on the following:
www.thecoc.org

Constitutional law (5 days)

Human rights (reporting, monitoring and teaching) (6 days)

Citizen rights and Street law (In Lebanon) (2 days)

Nonviolent Struggle and Civilian-Based Defense (6 days)

Advocacy and leadership skills (2 days)

Human Psychology and Critical Thinking (4 days)

The group of 25 will constitute the Founding Committee of the HRF (The Human Rights Force). It will have to:

1- put the HRF Bylaws, rules and procedures and mission statement

2- prepare for the BIG Camp.

Every 5 persons will train 25 new persons for one month in a BIG Camp.

A contact will be established with international organizations specialized in Nonviolent Struggle (Albert Einstein
institute for example) and with local human rights organizations to organize TOT workshops for the core group of 25

When the workshops finish, the Human Rights Force will start working to achieve its mission statement and
the General Allotment will take place.

Once every 6 months a general Sortition, also known as allotment will take place where the HRF leadership will
be partially replaced by a new leadership selected in its place.

The names of HRF activists who wish to be part of the leadership will be registered and an allotment will take
place.

With each leaders selection a parallel selection will be taking place for a shadow leadership and the shadow
leadership will have responsibilities similar to those of the real leadership.

The HRF will be responsible for establishing the Human Rights Academy, the Citizen protector office, the Human
Rights Media, and most of all the umbrella institution:

The Citizen Protector (either male or female) has offices for his representatives in every Lebanese caza.

He offers to help victims of human rights violations and he uses the litigation strategies as a method of working.

He is elected by the General Assembly of the Council of Citizens for five years.

Every five years, he renews for himself or he appoints a substitute.

He can be dismissed by 85% of the General Assembly’s votes.

He must be a lawyer for more than 15 years, holding a doctorate in law, and he must be known for defending
human rights.

He appoints representatives for him in every caza to help him carry out his tasks.

Those representatives can be dismissed by 85% of the General Assembly’s votes if the “Citizen Protector” does
not approve of that dismissal and by 55% of the General Assembly’s votes if he does not object.

He follows any Human Rights Violation or major Citizens’ rights violation and offers suggestions to improve the
Lebanese Judicial system and establish integrity in the judicial system.

All lawyers who will to work with the CP will undergo a special training.

HRM: It is a media network specialized in human rights, run by a board of 3 trustees appointed by the CP.

The objective is to have a TV station that broadcasts in all regions and reaches every house in Lebanon and
abroad teaching human rights and Nonviolent Action skills, in addition to a website, a newspaper and a radio.

It publishes annual and quarterly reports in cooperation with the Academy and the HRF, that contain their
recommendations for the competent administrations and ministries in order to put an end to human rights
violations, corruption and offer suggestions for improvements in the delivery of government services to citizens.

www.thecoc.org
Who Appoints who:

Who Dismisses who :

www.thecoc.org