Collecting Signatures

Why should I collect signatures?

Both the process to collect signatures and the message the signatures send to your target audience are very important!

Collecting signatures in your community helps to:

Raise awareness of the landmine problem;
Creates public awareness and support for your campaign activities;
Mobilizes youth around a common cause; and,
Creates a fun advocacy environment. It's often much more fun to take action together than by writing letters on your own.

Sending petition signatures to governments helps to:

Put pressure on a government to create a change in its policies;
Demonstrate youth commitment to creating a peaceful, mine-free world;
Show the strength and diversity of support for actions against landmines; and,
Let governments know just how many people are against landmines.

Choosing a target

If you've decided that collecting signatures will be an effective tool for creating social change, you need to decide who to target and why!

Here's why you might wish to target a particular government:

To urge a country to join the Mine Ban Treaty;
To condemn mine use or production;
To ask for increased and sustained funding for victim assistance, mine risk education and mine clearance programs domestically or internationally;
To encourage a country to enact and implement legislation promoting the rights of persons with disabilities;
To request that community leaders get involved in the development of community-based mine action projects; or,
To request community, regional or national leaders to change their policies related to landmines.

Here's some suggestions of people that might be appropriate to send petition signatures to:

Head of State
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Defense
Person in charge of mine action programs
Head of department/ province/ state
Local community leaders

Think locally, act globally

In the past, signatures were collected around the world for one global target. The ICBL led major signature collection campaigns for the US (1998-2001) and India and Pakistan (2001-2004), encouraging these countries to join the Mine Ban Treaty. The ICBL has decentralized signature collection and it is up to you to organize your signature campaign and decide who to send your signatures to.

You could:

Send signatures to your government (national, regional or local);
Send signatures to another government; or,
Work with other youth campaigners in your sub-region or region and select one country for you to all send signatures to.

Organizing Signature Campaigns

Once you have selected your signature campaign target and focus it's time to plan how you will collect signatures! You might wish to read the ICBL guide to taking action at http://www.icbl.org/youth/action/ for more information on how to organize campaign activities.

When organizing a signature campaign it is very important to have a goal of how many signatures you would like to collect. Make sure the goal is realistic and achievable. It's also good to have a time deadline of when you will finish collection. For example, you might start your signature collection campaign on 1 March 2004 and decide that by 3 December 2004 your goal is to collect 1000 signatures. Publicize this goal! People love competition, so challenge your peers to collect a certain number of signatures. Have prizes donated for the campaigners that collect the most signatures.

Look at what events and activities are taking place in your community during the campaign. You may wish to organize an event to launch the signature collection. Send out a press release, invite the media, let your community know that you are looking for their support! Include signature collection in local festivals, celebrations and other events and use international days such as the Treaty-signing anniversary as opportunities to highlight your campaign and collect signatures.

Whatever you choose to do, be creative, and make sure that your campaign is well-suited to target youth in your community. Good luck!

Where can I collect signatures?

Where do youth gather in your community? Be creative and collect signatures at places where youth spend time including:

Schools
Landmines Awareness Presentations
Community Centers
Markets and Shopping Centers
Sporting Events
Monuments, Museums, Tourist Attractions
Bus and Train Stations
Dances, Theatres
Wells and other Public Gathering Places
Religious Gatherings
Community Festivals

How should I collect signatures?

Make sure you are prepared to answer questions about the landmines issue. Many youth will ask for more information before signing. Sometimes it helps to practice difficult questions beforehand.
Decide ahead of time how you will approach people. Will you walk up to them and ask them to sign? Will you have the treaty on an information table?
What are you going to say to youth? Example: My name is Song Kosal, will you please join other youth around the world and sign this treaty calling for peace and a world free of landmines?
Sometimes it helps to start by approaching family and friends first.
Take a friend along for company and support.
Put up a banner, poster, or wear a badge or t-shirt that will attract attention.
Have a pamphlet or fact sheet with information about the treaty and the landmines issue for people to take away with them.
Be sure to clearly explain what you are collectins signatures for.
It may be useful to ask people who sign if they are interested in helping to promote the treaty further . Make sure to bring paper to write down their names and contact details. This is an excellent way to build up your group of
supporters!

What if someone doesn’t want to sign?

Not everyone is going to sign the treaty. Some may not know enough about the issue to feel comfortable signing, and others may not agree with the treaty or may not be interested. You can try to encourage them to sign, but if they still refuse, don’t take it personally.

Try to engage them and find out why they do not want to sign.
Try to counter their arguments. Let them know how landmines affect youth, how many people are affected by landmines, etc.
Encourage them to take information about the issue with them. Perhaps they will read about the issue later and become more supportive.

If youth still don’t want to sign, then don’t bother them. While changing someone’s opinion on the issue feels wonderful, it doesn’t happen all the time. Don’t get discouraged!

How should I send in or hand over my signatures?

How do you plan to give your signatures the recipients? Is it possible to organize a public event and hand over the signatures in person? Do you need to mail in the petition signatures? Here are some organizing tips.

Public Handover Event

The goal of such an event is to publicly hand over all the signatures to the recipient in person at an activity that can involve the whole community, the government and the media!
It is important to find out if the person/ persons you have targeted be willing to publicly accept the signatures. If so, you may want to consider holding a public event.
Send letters of invitation to the recipients and confirm their participation.
Locate a location for the handover well in advance and secure any necessary permits.
Invite the public to participate in the handover. In particular, invite youth who signed the petition to come and show their support again at the handover.
Invite the media. Let them know in advance and issue a press release on the day of the activity.
Be creative! How will you hand over the petitions? Will you have bags of petitions to handover? A pile of papers? Will you have artistic petitions (i.e. banners with signatures) that you can use as a backdrop to attract media attention?
Who will speak at the event? What is the key message to convey to participants and the media?
If the recipients will not or cannot participate in the event, consider having a symbolic handover. Present the signatures to an empty chair or deliver the signatures to the recipient's office. There's many creative ways to acknowledge incredible campaign successes without having the recipients present.

Mailing Signatures

If it is not possible to hold a handover event, consider mailing the signatures to the recipient.
Make sure you have the correct mailing address.
Send the signatures with a letter explaining your campaign and its outcome.
If you are mailing the signatures within your country, research and find out the postage costs and the best way to send materials to the recipient.
If you are mailing the signatures to another country, research the postal system of the recipient country. Look into customs restrictions. Make sure you find a shipping method that is reliable and has a minimum of customs and duties challenges.
Many government offices have high security, so make sure that the signatures are sent in compliance with security regulations.

Who should I contact for more information?

For more information please contact yaw@icbl.org.