The story of the blessed matron. Biography of Matrona of Moscow

Why collect signatures?

There are many situations that are not regulated or described by law. There are times when it is possible different interpretation laws or even a clash of laws governing the same social relations. In such cases, it is important to articulate public interests and convey the position of citizens to officials.

The rights of citizens and the obligations of officials to consider citizens 'appeals are enshrined in Federal Law No. 59 "On the Procedure for Considering Citizens' Appeals Russian Federation"Dated 02.05.2006. Under this law, a citizen has the right:

- apply to the authorities personally,

- to send individual and collective appeals.

When are collective appeals necessary?

Collective appeal is effective:

- if the problem affects legitimate interests a large number of people,

- if an individual appeal regarding common problems did not give a result,

- to involve citizens in solving socially significant problems,

- if decision-makers are obliged by law to take into account the opinion of groups of the population interested in making decisions. For example, the head of the district is obliged to take into account the opinion of the residents, the head of the school - the opinion of the parents, and so on.

What tasks will the signature collection campaign help to solve?

- to draw public attention to the problem,

- to attract the attention of the media,

- attract new supporters and like-minded people,

- create a support group.

At the stage of preparing a petition, some important issues need to be resolved.

How to prepare a petition, an algorithm of actions:

1. We see that a certain event or phenomenon affects our interests.
2. We collect information:

- we study the laws governing "our" sphere,

- we make information requests to public authorities and local authorities, etc.

1. We evaluate the event / phenomenon from the point of view of fairness and legality.
2. We formulate ways of a possible solution to the problem.
3. We create an initiative group, establish coordination of its members.

Petition:

1. Who are we writing to? We determine the addressee of the appeal, the person who can resolve the issue.
2. How long does it take to collect signatures? There are issues that require urgent solutions, in other cases there is time to mobilize supporters. Sometimes the treatment time may have special meaning(for example, in the period before the elections, the resolution of the issue may be accelerated).
3. Who cares about it? We define the target audience that can be attracted and outline the ways to attract it.
4. How many signatures do you need? It is necessary to understand how many signatures will be sufficient to resolve the issue, and identify ways to attract potential signers.
5. Choose a method of collecting signatures and the form of sending an appeal - by regular mail or e-mail.
6. Competently compose the text of the appeal.
7. Publish an open letter in the press or post on the official website of the organization. The transmission of the appeal may be accompanied by a media campaign. In order for the topic of the appeal to receive a resonance, even at the stage of preparing the text of the appeal, you can find journalists interested in the topic and enlist their support.

How to choose a recipient?

According to the law, the authorities must redirect the appeal, received to the wrong address, to the authorities of the appropriate competence. But according to the same law, this is not an obligation, so you can only hope that your appeal will get to the right place.

The recipient of the appeal is always a specific person - not an institution, but its director, not a government body, but its head. In this case, you can send an appeal simultaneously to several persons, each of whom has the right to resolve the issue.

You can go to the website of the relevant department and see how the sphere of its activity corresponds to the topic of our appeal. There you can also learn about the procedure for registration and consideration of citizens' appeals.

Online collection of signatures

Benefits of collecting signatures online:

- easier to organize,

- faster,

- more opportunities: the Internet allows you to attract attention different ways, provide details, additional information,

- it is easier to convey information to the target audience,

- wider coverage: there are no territorial restrictions, you can collect signatures throughout the country, uniting people from different regions

- it is more convenient to create groups of people united in support of the appeal, who continue to exchange information, propose new solutions and promote the idea,

- cheaper and more efficient.

However, one has to take into account the topic of the appeal and the specifics of the target audience interested in solving the problem. In addition, not everyone has access to the Internet.

The range of issues on which collective petitions to the authorities, signed using electronic services, are accepted and taken into account, is not so wide.

Collecting signatures online is more suitable for attracting public attention and finding supporters than for concrete decisions followed by legal consequences.

9 sites for collecting signatures

The Internet, of course, has simplified the procedure for collecting signatures, but the effectiveness of petitions still depends on what happens next with the collected signatures. On some sites it is part of the service, on others it is not. Here are a few sites that collect signatures.

1. Сhange.org / ru

Sergey Yarkov's petition was signed by 210 thousand people.

But the industrial slaughter of seals, most likely, was just an initiative that, perhaps, no one was going to take. But the petition was signed by 160 thousand people who are not indifferent to the problems of seals.

By signing the petition, you transfer your personal data to the service. How correctly will they be treated? In theory, all services must comply with the law on personal data, but in practice this condition is not always observed.

Thanks to the Internet, writing all kinds of petitions and appeals has become a part of public life, but the number of sites in in this case hardly transforms into quality, they still need to be written competently.

Thank you for your help in preparing the material Perm Regional Human Rights Center and lawyer Olga Kocheva.

Image caption Petitions posted on the website of the Russian Public Initiative will go through several stages of verification.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the rules for considering Internet petitions, according to which only adults will be able to post them on a special website, and a year will be allotted to collect signatures.

Before the petition is published, it will be checked for the absence of calls for extremist activity, as well as for "relevance," the decree says.

According to the document, the site for collecting signatures "Russian Public Initiative" should start working at the federal level from April 15, 2013.

The site will be run by the Information Democracy Foundation, a non-profit organization headed by former Deputy Minister of Communications Ilya Massukh.

Earlier, Putin has repeatedly stated that public initiatives that will collect one hundred thousand or more signatures on the Internet should be considered in the State Duma. At the same time, many petitions, in particular with a call for the dissolution of the Duma, were not considered by parliamentarians.

Year to collect votes

Any citizen over 18 years old who has registered in the Unified Identification and Authentication System in the field of public services can place a petition on the website of the Russian Public Initiative.

The Information Democracy Foundation will conduct a preliminary review of the petition, determining whether it is in accordance with the constitution and other legal norms. The maximum period for such a check is two months.

Also, the check should confirm "the urgency of the problem contained in the public initiative, the validity of the proposed options for its solution," the decree says.

The author of the petition may receive a refusal to publish without preliminary examination - if the site management considers that the document contains offensive language, threats to the life or health of citizens, as well as calls to carry out extremist activities

In order for the petition to proceed to the next stage of consideration, it needs to collect at least 100 thousand signatures in a year. In the case of initiatives at the regional or municipal level, 5% of local residents must vote for them.

After that, the petition will be sent to an expert group of parliamentarians and government officials, who will decide whether to create a bill based on this document.

Internet Initiatives

At the end of last year, Novaya Gazeta made two high-profile Internet petitions.

In December, the publication collected more than 100 thousand signatures against the adoption of a ban on the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans, but the State Duma decided that the legal basis for considering such a petition as a legislative initiative in currently no.

Later, Novaya Gazeta made a petition for the early dissolution of the State Duma, which was supported by 137 thousand Russians. The signatures were sent to the State Duma.

At the same time, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the calls to dissolve the Duma did not deserve attention, and the head of the Russian State Duma's committee on constitutional legislation, Vladimir Pligin, called the newspaper's initiative unconstitutional.

According to Pligin, Putin's proposed discussion public initiatives currently does not include issues related to the termination of the operation of certain government bodies.

If you or your friends have signed at least one petition, you are more likely to receive invitations to continue to do so on Change.org.

At first glance, a site where signatures are collected in the thousands should be something like a campaign headquarters, where dozens of people check subscription lists, sort them and deliver them in boxes, for example, to the State Duma.

We also thought so. It was a little embarrassing, however, that on the site, unlike the form in support of, for example, a deputy, one does not need to sign in person, leave the address and passport data. That is, according to existing laws, signatures left by citizens on the portal have no legal force. But then why subscribe there?

And what was our surprise when it turned out that the signatures from the portal ... don't go anywhere at all.

Well, that is, the author of the petition, of course, can print out the names and surnames of all who supported him, and personally bring this list to the addressee who violated his rights - for example, an official. Resource holders even claim that such a measure is used often and that it is effective. But the fact remains - no one checks the signatures on the portal, most often collecting them is generally only the first part of the work.

We are waiting for changes

The stories of the creation of civic platforms are somewhat reminiscent of fairy tales.

One day in 2007, two Stanford University students, Ben Rattray and Mark Demas, conceived the idea of ​​starting a blog on human rights and social injustice.

Over time, however, it became clear that simply flagging problems was not enough. We need to find another tool to solve them. This is how the Change.org platform for online petitions and civic campaigns was born.

Today it works in eleven languages ​​in one hundred and ninety-six countries of the world and brings together more than eighty million users.

How it works?

And at the same time, petitions are only an external part of the platform's work.

By Dmitry Savelov, head of the Russian-language segment “Change. org ":

“Petitions not only allow collecting signatures, but do something more important - they unite in one place people who are not indifferent to some common problem. Then these people can work together, agree on how they can get the necessary attention from the addressees of the petition (authorities, companies, organizations).

That is, collecting signatures is often only the first step. This is followed by work with subscribers, which is carried out by the author of the petition, organizing various online and other actions, communicating with the press and so on. "

Thus, by signing a petition, a person actually only confirms his interest in a particular problem. At the same time, he leaves his email address in the system; you can also check the box next to the request to keep him informed of the situation. Then notifications are received by e-mail, including about various events organized by the authors of the petition. It is clear whether to walk or not to walk on them, the person chooses for himself.

The press eagerly draws attention to events in which a large number of people have shown interest. In addition, the form for creating a petition has the option to "insert the e-mail of the addressee" - that is, the institution, official or company, on which the solution of the problem depends. Then the system from time to time sends to this address information about the number of signers and their requirements.

And yet, the main task of "Chang" is the coordination of people.

“The number of signatures is really not that important. How the campaigners organize the work itself plays a big role.

We help organizations that are running their campaigns for positive change to find potential members among our users. In fact, we are Youtube of social campaigns, ”says Dmitry Savyolov.

That is, it turns out that the meaning of the portal's activity is the coordination of not at all virtual actions of activists and sympathizers. And the effectiveness of collecting signatures alone is not so great.

Moderators and money

It is clear that every Internet resource must exist for something. However, posting a petition on Change.org is free.

Just like the real YouTube, YouTube Social Campaigns sometimes show its users sponsor petitions. True, there is no such option in the Russian segment yet.

But the creators of the resource decided the issue with moderation in an original way. The platform declares its openness and neutrality, so petitions are rarely removed from it as a whole. Although in the event that the creator of the appeal promotes violence, discrimination, threatens a person, the question of deleting his message and blocking the author may be raised.

Appeals on the portal, of course, are viewed. However, since a total of about two hundred people are working to maintain the entire huge platform, the organizers are very grateful for the messages about the content of the petitions to ordinary users.

List of victories and battles

To date, the Change.org platform has hosted many successful campaigns. In February 2013, signatures were collected here for the preservation of 31 hospitals (with the department of oncology and hematology) in St. Petersburg.

In July 2014, after numerous appeals and rallies, the Moscow authorities decided to leave the Shukhov Tower in its place.

After almost a year of rallies, appeals to the prosecutor's office and television broadcasts, in October 2014, money was allocated to repair a specialized Olympiad scientific center (the Solntse school) in Kazan, which the authorities had previously wanted to close.

Now the portal has posted petitions in support of 11 hospitals in the city of Moscow (with a multiple sclerosis department), which the authorities want to sell, and doctors are asking to be converted into a palliative medicine center.

There is also a petition in support of the doctor Alevtina Horinyak.

From the fire ...

The story of the emergence of another networked civilian platform is more reminiscent of the scenery for a horror movie.

In 2010, the outskirts of Moscow were on fire. Muscovites formed detachments of volunteers and went to the fires, someone collected things for the victims of the fire. It is clear that all these processes had to be coordinated somehow.

Then in the LiveJournal of Grigory Asmolov, a record appeared about the existence of the Ushahidi Internet platform.

Glafira Parinos, the moderator of the Virtual Market (rynda.org) portal, says:

“What is the principle of this platform? It is such a connection of people who need help and people who can provide it. That is, there are two buttons “I need help” and “I want to help”.

The group was very different people... Grisha wrote in his LiveJournal: "We need moderators." His friend Nastya responded. She also wrote in her LJ. I was not in Moscow for a very long time, I then returned somewhere on August 6, accidentally saw her post.

I came to her house, there were some strangers... We didn't quite understand what we should do. It was clear only that there is big stream requests for help and a fairly large number of people who want to provide this help, but do not know how. And, accordingly, we started to deal with this coordination and logistics ”.

Gradually, Russians living in different countries- different time zones. So very quickly the work of the portal became round-the-clock. And then the fires began to subside. And then the organizers were surprised to find that the flow of requests, although it has become smaller, does not dry out at all.

Then the story of fires turned into a story of cold weather.

Glafira Parinos, moderator of the portal "Virtual Market"

... in the cold

"From" help, we are on fire "it turned into" the house burned down, it's very cold, there are no warm clothes. "

Then, together with Novaya Gazeta, we made the Cold.Info project. We pulled out stories like "there is no heating in Krasnoyarsk for a week, and people freeze in their houses." Journalists took stories from our portal, tried to promote them.

It's just cold - this is a situation where it is almost impossible to do something yourself. The fire can be extinguished with your own hands - it is impossible to connect the heating in the house if a pipe burst somewhere. You can help with warm things, there was such a little coordination work too. But, in general, the project was informational, ”says Glafira Parinos.

Then there was an accident at the Japanese power plant Fukushima, and the organizers tried to coordinate those residents of the Far East who had dosimeters with those who did not.

And it became clear what to create every time new card and unwinding it again, it makes no sense. Then there was only one platform - "Virtual Market".

"Bey in the bell!"

By Glafira Parinos:

“We are a non-profit initiative and are not even registered as a legal entity. Just in their free time, several people support the portal. There is a general skype chat, there are moderators who deal with the portal more or less regularly - some less often, some more often.

Requests for help are received daily, not just during crises. We try to spread the word that someone is in trouble, except in financial situations. Since it is very difficult to check them, and we do not want to be held responsible for someone's machinations at all, we do not provide financial assistance.

A person who wants to help simply visits our site, registers and indicates which topics are of interest to him. For example, he wants to help animals, he is interested in environmental problems or orphans. Let's say he has a car and an hour a week.

Then, if, for example, children from a boarding school came to Moscow for a Christmas tree and they need a ride and escort, the person receives this request, and he decides for himself whether to respond to it or not. And the person who left the request then notes: "the problem is solved."

Our main goal? It often happens that there is a request for help somewhere near Kazan, but the help is in Arkhangelsk. And this is a very complex logistics that makes the solution very expensive. That is, in addition to our hours of work, this, for example, a wheelchair is simply far and expensive to carry.

Therefore, our main task is for regional non-profit initiatives, some active people on the ground, to know about us. So that, for example, if a request comes from St. Petersburg, in St. Petersburg it is resolved. Because now, if help comes from Moscow, this is the best option.

Therefore, we are actively looking, and people from the field also come to us. In fact, we just give them a tool so that they can work effectively. "

Who are the moderators?

“Now the portal has one programmer who solves current issues. Several people are engaged in moderation on a regular basis, three or four more rarely. This is completely voluntary. If some new people appear, we are completely free to let them into our team.

There have even been weddings in the history of the portal, though not between moderators. But we all drove them to different cities and in the end we all got to know each other and became friends. Now we communicate online regularly, "live" - ​​less often.

By the way, we had a programmer and web designer from Kagalym, and I only met him when I myself visited this city. That is, the person worked on fires and said: "For now." And then I come to Kagalym, and in one of the social networks they write to me: "Your friend is not far from you." So we met personally after a year and a half and now we continue to follow what is happening in each other's life, ”says Glafira Parinos.

By the way, the first acquaintance of the correspondent with the "Virtual Market" took place in 2012, when, cooperating on another portal, we, just in case, calculated ways to deliver aid to the flooded Krymsk.

Then there was the 2013 flood in the Khabarovsk Territory. Now on the project platform there is a map of assistance to Ukrainian refugees. Although there are still more current requests here.

***

This is how it is, network democracy, a way of cooperating caring people. However, as you can see, the Internet for them is mainly a method of communication.

And you can talk “for life” and “in real life”.

Desiring to draw the attention of the authorities to existing problem, a person can submit a petition - an appeal in writing or electronic form... Drawing up a petition can be personal or collective, but in the future it must be signed by a group of people. Its main task is to improve public life, to protect one's own rights and freedoms. Russian citizens can submit petitions via the Internet using the official website of the Russian Public Initiatives (ROI) or the Petition to the President portal. Whether the voice of the people will be heard and how to correctly compose an appeal will be described in this article.

What is a petition?

A petition is a concept that means a request, appeal or complaint of a citizen or a group of persons addressed to local, regional or federal authorities. It can relate to various problems in any of the spheres of human life: economy, ecology, health care, education, culture.

Important: everyone has the right to apply online.

How to file a petition in Russia?

To create appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation to the authorities, a special resource has been created - ROI - Russian Public Initiative. You can find it at www.roi.ru. The site was created back in 2013 by presidential decree.

The site of public initiatives raises problems related to the socio-economic life of citizens of the country, municipal and state administration. With the help of the resource, everyone can take part in the management of state affairs.

Another resource created specifically for filing petitions is called Petition to the President. You can find it at http: // petition to the president. Rf. The portal provides an opportunity to contact the head of state.

Features of the ROI portal

On the portal of Russian Public Initiatives, you can submit your petition / complaint or vote for already published citizens' initiatives. In order to use the functionality of the resource, certain conditions must be met:

• Russian citizenship;
• over 18 years of age;
• having an account on the State Services portal.

In order for the initiative to be seen by representatives of the authorities, it is necessary that it pass the verification of the site moderators and a sufficient number of caring users voted for it. After the publication of the initiative, it can be checked by the moderators for 2 months. If the appeal is made in accordance with the rules of the portal, it is published on the site, assigning it a certain number. After that, users can vote for it for 1 year.

In order for the application to be considered by the expert group of the project, it is necessary that it has received a sufficient number of users' votes:

• if it is a municipal problem, the application must receive at least 5% of the votes of the total population of the municipality;
• for issues at the regional level, it is necessary to collect more than 5% of votes FOR from the total number of residents of the region;
• when submitting appeals on federal issues, the application must collect at least one hundred thousand votes in favor.

Those initiatives that have received a sufficient number of user votes are sent for consideration to the authorities of the local, regional or municipal level. Within 2 months, a decision must be made regarding the raised issue. The initiative must either be rejected or accepted. The decision and comments on its adoption are published on the ROI portal.

Important: to create an application, you need to go through authorization in. This can be done through State Services.

Due to the fact that the entrance to the ROI takes place through the State Services, vote cheating is excluded. One citizen can leave only one vote for a certain initiative. Given the multistage registration procedure for the State Services, the likelihood of creating "fake" pages decreases.

How to make an application for ROI?

In order for an initiative to pass the moderators' review, it must be drawn up in accordance with the rules of the portal:

• the request must not contain obscene words;
• it should not contain insults, threats, calls for extremism;
• the requirements in the application must not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation;
• it should clearly identify the problem and offer options for its solution.

Before submitting your question for publication, you need to make sure that there are no references to the same topic in the archive yet. To do this, you need to use the search.

Website Petition to the President

Another way to reach out to the authorities is to post an appeal on the official website http: // petition- to the president.rf ... For the convenience of users, the site is consulted free of charge by lawyers who can be contacted in case of controversial issues.

To create an application, you must click on the "Submit your petition" button on home page resource or the button "Create" in the header of the site. In the new window, you need to fill in the blank columns, writing the subject of the question, outlining the essence of the problem, indicating the contact information. To send a petition, you must answer a simple security question, and then click on the "Send" button.

Each user can vote FOR or AGAINST the questions already posted on the site. To do this, go to the "Sign petitions" tab, select the category of questions and find the one you need in the list of publications. Next, you need to read the text of the appeal and click on the blue or red button at the bottom of the page. Below you can leave your comment on the issue raised by the applicant.

Attention: on this portal, the user can vote once a day.

If a person is faced with the goal of contacting the authorities with an exciting issue, he should familiarize himself with the rules for writing a petition. A well-written message is more likely to be heard:

• the title of the appeal should be succinct, interesting, meaningful;
• in the text, you need to indicate to whom the question is addressed, which authority should deal with the solution of the problem;
• in no case should you use offensive expressions, rude phrases and words, obscene language in the text;
• it is imperative to clarify what is the importance of the problem, suggest ways to solve it;
• at the end, you need to check the text for errors (grammatical, stylistic, semantic).

After the publication of the application on the Internet portal, one should not forget about the distribution of the link to it on the Internet in order to collect as many votes of like-minded people as possible. It is most convenient to use social networks to send links.

For a long time, we believed that the city authorities were 100% responsible for the convenience of the city, streets, courtyards - this led to terrible distortions. The local authorities are so carried away by ostentatious landscaping and "licking" the streets to a state of sterile cleanliness that because of this our cities have lost their charm and attractiveness, have become similar to the same type of agro-towns. In the struggle for cleanliness and uniformity, we have lost the convenience and "atmosphere" of the city.

But something else is much more important - having pulled the blanket of responsibility for the development and transformation of urban space onto themselves, the officials killed the initiative in the townspeople. Listen to what the neighbors are talking about, read the comments, and you will hear that the officials are to blame for everything, idlers and parasites, but at the same time there are very few people who want to somehow improve their yard or their street.

Together with the initiative and desire to do something on their own, the townspeople also lost the skill of communicating with officials. Indeed, where will the townspeople get the culture of communication with the city authorities, if these very authorities, in general, never intended to communicate with people on an equal footing? Instead of public discussion - informing, instead of taking into account interests - imposition, instead of providing services - regulation. All these are echoes of the Soviet system of city and country management, elements of which have happily migrated into our time.

But where does the motivation come from after decades of "peace, prosperity and stability"? An active and responsible city dweller - just like an abnormal one - is brought up for generations.

So it turns out that our people endure and wait, wait and endure, when the official will pay attention to his problem. And an official has a leader who sets tasks, control and inspection bodies that check him, and he has enough of his own everyday questions. He is also a man. And when the hands and the head come to the solution of the city's problems - God alone and the head of the official knows. Because there is no feedback from the citizen, there is no complaint or appeal, which means that the official has no problem.

So maybe it's time to give this very feedback to the official? Maybe instead of curses and angry posts on social networks, send officials your ideas, suggestions, requests and complaints? Maybe you can use the simple and convenient online tool "Convenient City -" to write an official petition and give it more weight in the eyes of an official and society by collecting signatures?

Someone will say that electronic petitions are nonsense, that one person decides everything in the country, that nothing can be changed, etc. But how then to be with huge amount already solved problems by collecting signatures for "Convenient City -"? How can you ignore the fact that among the officials there are a large number of worthy and professional people who are ready to meet the townspeople halfway and solve their problems?

“What if the official doesn't want to move? What if he doesn't give a damn? " - many ask a question. But even such a negligent official is afraid of public outcry, the anger of his superiors and checks from above, so he will be forced to respond to the petition. That is why well-designed collective electronic petitions work better than single ones, which is why the authorities are so attentive to them.

As of today, no easier way collect signatures than through the Convenient City online platform. There are other services for sending electronic requests, but they either do not receive answers at all, since they are foreign and do not adhere to the procedure required by our legislation, due to which government agencies are simply not obliged to consider petitions received from such services, or they do not provide the publication of responses for familiarization of citizens and making the activities of officials more public. Create petitions, write your proposals to the authorities, seek better life for yourself and your loved ones - it's time to make our city, and then the whole country, better together!

How to start collecting signatures?

It doesn't matter if you are an individual or part of an initiative group, a little planning in the campaign to collect signatures does not hurt at all. It is always worth starting with a clear formulation of the problem and the proposal that will form the basis of the petition. Next, you need to conduct a small study of the problem in order to support your position with facts, documents and references to regulatory legal acts. In general, this is already enough to formulate a competent text of the petition. But if you need to attract the attention of a wide audience and conduct a large-scale campaign to collect signatures, then you cannot do without searching for stakeholders, analyzing their opinions and positions, interacting with government officials, initiative groups, civil society organizations and the media. But first things first.

Formulation of the text of the appeal

To form a full-fledged text, use the algorithm and consistently reveal the essence of your petition-appeal, answering yourself the following questions:

• What is the problem that I think needs a solution?
• What do I propose (ask the government agency) to do to solve it? What will be the result from the implementation of my proposals (requirements)?
• What facts and other supporting information do I have to support the urgency of the problem?

And if you can formulate the answers to the first and second questions yourself, then to answer the third question you may have to resort to the support of experts. These can be lawyers, economists, environmentalists, technicians - in general, all those people who deeply understand the stated problem and can give valuable advice or provide the necessary information.

We continue to improve the text of the petition by answering the following questions:

• What will be the effect of solving this problem for my community, home, street, city?
• What does it mean for my community, home, street, city?
• What is the cost of delaying or not taking action to fix the problem? What losses will this bring to society and the authorities?
• What actions could be taken by you and what authorities? What are the consequences of these actions?
• Who else is affected by this problem in my community, home, street, city?

Answering these questions will make your petition more valid in the eyes of potential allies, society and officials.

IT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW: in accordance with Art. 14 of the Law "On Appeals of Citizens and Legal Entities" (hereinafter referred to as the Law) in the absence of any recommendations, requirements, petitions, reports of violations of legislative acts, shortcomings in the work of organizations, or if they only contain gratitude, such appeals are taken into account and no responses are sent.

In addition, so that your appeal is not left without consideration on a formal basis, you should refrain from writing petitions consisting of slogans. For example, "Enough to endure it!"

Also, do not include in the text of the petition appeals that are not addressed to the state body to which it is sent. For example, "people, what is this going on!" "People, fly in, sign", "we will help the whole world."

It is strictly forbidden to use obscene or offensive words or expressions in addresses. It is also prohibited to post slander, humiliation of honor, dignity, business reputation of individuals, belittling the business reputation of organizations, etc., materials of a pornographic nature, information that is aimed at overthrowing or forcibly changing the constitutional order, violating the integrity and security of the state, propaganda of war, violence, incitement to national, religious and racial hatred, other information that may harm the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

Stakeholder analysis

The first step in stakeholder analysis is to identify and search for stakeholders. The next step is to determine the strength, influence and interests of each of the parties. The final step is to identify the most important players in order to predict their possible retaliatory moves and, if possible, enlist support or, conversely, neutralize them. Negative influence on the development of the situation.

Step 1 - Identifying Stakeholders

The first step is brainstorming, with the help of which all possible parties are interested in resolving your situation. As part of your brainstorming session, think of all the people, groups of people, civil society organizations, business organizations, associations, authorities that may be affected by your petition, who have any influence or power over the resolution of the situation, who are interested in its success or unsuccessful completion.

For example, suppose you want to take a part of the footpath for the arrangement of the bike path. Who may be affected by this situation? Pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, traffic police, housing and communal services, road services, local administration? Who else? Maybe some groups of pedestrians? Elderly pedestrians, young families with children, mothers with strollers? The more complete the list, the better.

Now divide the stakeholders into stakeholders and actors:

• Stakeholder- an interested party who has the right and authority to make decisions on the petition
• Actor- an interested party who does not have the rights and powers to make decisions on the petition, but has the ability to influence the decision

You need to know this in order to correctly prioritize your work and create the message you need for each of the parties. In the example of the construction of a cycle path, the stakeholders are likely to be the traffic police, local administration, housing and communal services and road services. Based on this, a petition will be addressed to some of these organizations. The actors will be cyclists, pedestrians of various categories, motorists.

Step 2 - Prioritizing Stakeholders

You should now have a long list of people, communities and organizations that will be affected by your petition initiative. Some of them may have the ability to influence the decision: both block and promote. Some may be interested in what you are promoting, others may not care.

Mark on the diagram (Fig. 1) first the stakeholders, then the actors according to their level of power and degree of interest, and you will receive a power-interest matrix for all stakeholders.

Rice. 1

In the cycling lane example, the “key players” will be the traffic police and the local administration, as they have decision-making power and are highly interested parties. Maximum efforts will be directed to work with them, most likely you will indicate them as recipients of the text and signatures of the petition. Road services and utilities are likely to have low power and high or low interest. Everything according to the situation.

Now let's look at the actors. Among them, the “key players” will be cyclists and cycling organizations, as they are most interested in the arrangement of the cycle path and have the right to sign the petition. Pedestrians of various categories will have a high level of interest with a low level of authority, so educate them about the safety and benefits of a cycle path. Finally, motorists will have low power and low interest. Use minimal effort on them.

IMPORTANT! Each situation is individual and it may happen that one of the interested pedestrians will have close relationships with decision-makers in the local administration or traffic police. It is necessary to maintain an individual approach to any petition initiative.

Step 3 - Understanding the Interests of Your Key Actors and Stakeholders

At this stage, you need to learn as much as possible about the key stakeholders. It is worth finding out how they will react and how they will react to your petition initiative. It is also necessary to understand whether they can somehow be involved in the campaign and how best to convey information to them.

Below are basic questions, the answers to which will help you understand actors and stakeholders:

• What are their financial or personal interests in relation to your initiative? Are these interests positive or negative?
• What motivates them the most?
• What information do they want to receive from you?
• How do they want to receive information from you? What are the best channels to convey your message to them?
• What is their current opinion of your business? What information is their opinion based on?
• Who influences their opinion about the initiative, and who influences their opinion about you personally? Will any of these influencers become stakeholders?
• If the opinions and interests of stakeholders are negative in relation to your initiative, what can change their opinion?
• If you think that you will not be able to win over one of the interested parties to your side, how do you plan to cope with their opposition?

The best way to answer these questions is to speak directly with the representatives of the actors and stakeholders. People are often quite outspoken in their views, and their opinion is often the first step in building a successful relationship with them.

Divide stakeholders and actors into three categories: (1) Allies; (2) Opponents; (3) Oscillating. You are now ready to design an action plan, build relationships, design a PR campaign, and create a personalized message for each stakeholder.

Wherein IMPORTANT adhere to the following strategy for working with stakeholders

• Allies - motivate, engage, inform
• Opponents - appease, calm down, take into account their interests, where possible, and block their actions
• Those who waver - agitate, lure to your side.

How to run a signature collection campaign?

The campaign to collect signatures online using the "Convenient City -" begins with registration on the site. All collected personal information, with the exception of the username (nickname), will be hidden from public viewing. Real name, address and e-mail are required only for the legal significance of the signature under the application.

After registering on the site, follow these steps in sequence:

1. CREATE A PETITION - if you have followed all the steps in the previous steps, then most likely you already have a draft of the petition, and you will simply copy it into the appropriate field for creating a petition.
2. DISCUSS AN IDEA OR PROBLEM - The discussion stage is necessary if you are not yet sure about the text of the petition and want to discuss the text with other users and stakeholders. At this stage, the user can change the text of the petition on his own, but the collection of signatures is not yet open. You yourself choose the timing of the discussion - it can be a day or a month.
3. FINALIZE THE TEXT OF THE APPEAL - together with friends, experts, stakeholders and our lawyers (if necessary), finalize the text of the appeal and start collecting signatures.
4. CONDUCT A PR CAMPAIGN AND COLLECT SIGNATURES - read about the methods of conducting signature collection campaigns below.
5. AFTER THE PERIOD OF COLLECTING SIGNATURES, the petition-appeal will be automatically sent to the addressee, that is, to a government agency or government organization.
6. WAIT FOR AN ANSWER OR SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM. According to the law, the response must come no later than 15 days from the date of submission of the application, and for applications requiring additional study and verification - no later than one month, unless another period is established by legislative acts.
7. ON THE RESULTS OF THE ANSWER from the government agency, publish the text of the response and make a decision on further actions. Possible options:
   1. The problem is solved - there is a result!
   2. The problem is not solved - there is also a result! The answer can be appealed to a higher authority.

Promotion of petitions and collection of signatures online

The approach is simple and obvious: the more people you tell about the petition, the more more people it will be signed, the more significant the problem or idea will look from the point of view of an official, and, accordingly, the higher the chance of victory.

What kind of promotion tools can you use?

The first is the help of our team. We, as the creators of the site, are sure that you yourself are interested in promoting the petition and collecting signatures. Therefore, the site team does not take responsibility for promoting the idea and drawing public attention to the petition, but, if necessary, is ready to provide all possible assistance.

Our help can be as follows:

• We can place a petition in the "TOP petitions" section for some time, so that it is visible to all users of the site and quickly collects signatures.
• We can contact our partners in the electronic media and invite them to write an article about your petition. It is important to understand that the decision to publish will be made by the journalists and editors of a particular publication, but not by the site team.
• We can draw the attention of civil society activists and NGOs to your petition. If your idea interests them, they will help you with the "promotion".
• If you need our help, please contact us by e-mail

The second is your own strength. It is worth using all the means available to you here. Here's a classic checklist:

• Friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances- ask them to support you, sign and spread the idea.
• Social networks. The easiest way to tell a large number of people about your petition is to post a link to it on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and others. social networks... For this, use special buttons with the logo of social networks inside your petition, in the text of the publication ask your friends and acquaintances to subscribe for the petition and make the maximum repost.
• mass media is a great way to draw attention to your petition. According to our observations, articles in electronic media work best, since they have the ability to insert a link into the text of the article and thereby increase the number of clicks and signatures of your petition.
• Email. Here, the principle is the same as in social networks. Send letters to friends and acquaintances asking them to sign the petition and tell your friends about it. The more mass mailing, the better!
• Chats and messengers. It can be Skype, Viber, WhatsApp or other messengers. Submit your message and link in your status. Messengers are a great way to collect signatures.
• Online forums and blogs. It's a good idea to post your petition signature campaign on your personal blog, forum, or guest comment on someone else's blog. And you can also post a link to the petition-appeal in the comments to the news, which corresponds to your topic. Many readers will want to read your petition, and the journalist who wrote the article will know about your efforts to solve the problem.

Third - collecting signatures offline... If you want to collect additional signatures offline, and this is very reasonable in the case when your "key players" are people aged 45+ or just neighbors in the house or on the street, then it makes sense to use the following methods of collecting signatures:

• Advertisements and leaflets for neighbors. If the petition concerns your yard, street or house, then it is worth drawing the attention of your neighbors to it. Posting announcements in public places and scattering flyers asking you to subscribe to the petition in the mailboxes will help you collect additional signatures and show the authorities the importance of the problem being raised.
• Continuous door-to-door walk. Household visits are best done in evening time when people got home from work. The algorithm itself is quite simple: (1) We distribute houses or entrances between signature collectors; (2) We call each apartment in turn, say hello, introduce ourselves, tell us why we came and what problem we want to solve, we ask you to sign in the signature list. (3) The person signed? - Wonderful! No? - Well, okay. (4) We call the next apartment.

The main thing is without demagoguery, slogans, debates, persuasions, predictions, promises, laments, etc. Polite, short, clear and to the point. The main goal is to collect as many signatures as possible, and not argue with everyone.

It is important to remember that even an individual appeal has legal force, but an appeal signed by many people gains a much higher public importance in the eyes of the authorities and increases your chances of solving the problem.

What does the legislation say?

The main way of official communication between the population and the authorities and one of the forms of participation of the population in the government is the filing of appeals. This is the main way to protect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens.

By sending their appeals, citizens, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs can influence the adoption of managerial decisions: make proposals on the advisability of making a particular decision, support or criticize the measures taken, give their arguments, etc.

Types of appeals:

1. By content:

• application - a petition for assistance in the implementation of the applicant's rights, freedoms and (or) legitimate interests, not related to their violation, as well as a report on violation of legislative acts, shortcomings in work;
• proposal - a recommendation for improving the activities of organizations, individual entrepreneurs, improving the legal regulation of relations in state and public life, solving issues of economic, political, social and other spheres of activity of the state and society;
• complaint - a requirement to restore the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of the applicant violated by the actions (inaction) of organizations, citizens, including individual entrepreneurs.

1. By form:

• oral (presented at a personal reception). It should be noted that telephone calls are not provided for by the Law; moreover, even the obligation to receive telephone calls is not enshrined in legislation in any way.
• written (submitted: by courier); by mail; during a personal reception; by making comments and (or) suggestions in the book of comments and suggestions);
• electronic - an appeal sent to the organization's e-mail address or posted in a special section on the organization's official website on the global computer network Internet.

Important: the obligation to consider electronic applications is assigned by law only to state bodies and state organizations. Non-governmental organizations, individual entrepreneurs have the right not to consider electronic applications.

1. By the number of applicants:

• individual - application of one applicant;
• collective - an appeal of two or more applicants on the same issue (several issues). In the collective appeal, all the data of each applicant provided for by law must be indicated (for example, for citizens the surname, name, patronymic, address of the place of residence). Thus, appeals that simply indicate "residents of house No. 2" or "students and teachers of school No. 8" will not be considered collective.

Despite the fact that all types of appeals are legally equivalent, the Law provides for increased attention and special control with regard to the consideration of collective appeals, taking into account the fact that they raise issues that, as a rule, have any public interest, and sometimes even whole social groups. So, paragraph 2 of Article 22 of the Law provides that the consideration of applications from 30 or more applicants is carried out on site, unless otherwise follows from these applications. For example, there is no need to visit the site when considering collective proposals for amendments to legislation or, for example, collective appeals demanding to redo a development project that has not yet been implemented.

The law does not contain the term "petition", but in practice it refers to collective appeals, including electronic ones.

Subjects of the right to appeal

Citizens, individual entrepreneurs, legal entities can submit applications. Foreign citizens and stateless persons staying on the territory of the Republic of Belarus enjoy the right to appeal on an equal basis with citizens of the Republic of Belarus, unless otherwise specified by the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, laws and international treaties of the Republic of Belarus.

Requirements for the presentation and content of appeals

This is a comprehensive list of information. The right to establish additional mandatory requirements (indicating a phone number, date of birth, citizenship, etc.), limiting the rights of citizens to apply and complicating the procedure for submitting it, the Law does not provide state bodies and organizations.

It should be borne in mind that the operation of the Law does not apply to appeals subject to consideration in accordance with the legislation on constitutional proceedings, civil, civil procedural, economic procedural, criminal procedural legislation, legislation determining the procedure for the administrative process, legislation on administrative procedures, employee appeals to the employer ...

This means that if there is a separate procedural regulation of the procedure for considering a certain issue, then the appeal on it will at least not be satisfied. So, for example, the renaming of a settlement is carried out through a local referendum and no matter how many citizens sign the application with a request to assign Minsk the name of the Solnechny city, such an appeal must be left without consideration, since it does not fall within the scope of the Law. Similarly, if a court verdict has been passed against a citizen, it can only be appealed in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code (only a participant in the process can appeal, within a certain time frame, by drawing up a special document and sending it to a limited number of bodies or officials). Even if the entire Republic signs a letter to the President to overturn the sentence, it will remain in effect, since no one has the right to influence the judges in the administration of justice.

Subjects considering appeals

When choosing a state body to which an appeal needs to be addressed, it is worth starting from the lowest level, as Clause 1.1 of Decree No. 498 prescribes, according to which appeals, regardless of which state body or other organization they received, are initially subject to consideration on the merits in accordance with the competence in local executive and administrative bodies within the administrative-territorial unit, on the territory of which the questions set forth in the appeals arose, or in other organizations, if the questions set forth in the appeals relate to the exclusive competence of these organizations.

Therefore, it makes no sense to immediately write to the ministry if the issue has not yet been considered at the level of the executive committee - you will only waste time redirecting the appeal to a lower body. If the issue was previously considered by a subordinate body, then when contacting a higher one, you must attach a copy of the previously received answer.

In the case of a written application not within the competence of the organization that received such an application, there are the following alternative options:

• within five working days, send an appeal for consideration to organizations in accordance with their competence and notify the applicant about this within the same period.
• within five working days, leave the appeal without consideration on the merits and notify the applicant about this with an explanation of which organization and in what order to address the issues set out in the appeal.

Violation of the requirements for appeal may result in its abandonment without consideration on the merits. In addition, the use of obscene or offensive words or expressions in communications may be the basis for bringing the relevant person to justice.

By general rule if a written appeal is left without consideration on the merits, the applicant is notified in writing within five working days of the abandonment of the appeal without consideration on the merits, indicating the reasons for making such a decision, and the originals of the documents attached to the appeal are returned to him.

Notification of the applicant about leaving his appeal without consideration on the merits is not required:

• upon receipt of a request from the applicant with whom the correspondence has been terminated (paragraph seven of paragraph 1 of Article 15 of the Law);
• upon receipt of an anonymous appeal (Article 23 of the Law);
• when making comments and suggestions in the book, comments and suggestions that are not related to the activities of an organization, an individual entrepreneur, and do not relate to the quality of the goods produced (sold) by them, the work performed, the services provided (part two of paragraph 1 of Article 24 of the Law).

Deadlines for considering applications

Part one of paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Law establishes that the course of time periods, determined by months or days, begins on the day following the day of registration of the appeal in the organization, making comments and (or) suggestions in the book of comments and suggestions.

Please note that some deadlines are calculated in working days, and some in calendar days.

In working days, the calculation of the following deadlines is provided:

• a five-day period for sending an appeal for consideration to organizations in accordance with their competence and notifying the applicants, or for leaving the appeal without consideration on the merits and notifying the applicants about it with an explanation of which organization and in what order should be contacted to resolve the issues set forth in the appeals (part the first paragraph 3 of Article 10 of the Law);
• a five-day period for the return of written applications, in which the court decisions are appealed, to the applicants explaining to them the procedure for appealing against court decisions (part two of paragraph 3 of Article 10 of the Law);
• a five-day period for sending applications containing information about an impending, committed or committed crime or other offense to the relevant law enforcement or other state bodies (paragraph 5 of Article 10 of the Law);
• a five-day period for notifying the applicant about leaving the appeal without consideration on the merits (part one of paragraph 4 of Article 15 of the Law);
• a three-day period for notifying the superior organization about the execution of the order, as well as notifying the applicant (paragraph 2 of Article 20 of the Law).

If the appeal was redirected to another organization for consideration in accordance with its competence, then the period for consideration starts from the date of registration of the appeals in this organization.

If the last day of the term for considering applications falls on a non-working day, then the first working day following it is considered the day of expiry (part two of paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Law).

The term for consideration of applications, calculated in months, expires on the corresponding day of the last month of this period. If the end of the period, calculated in months, falls on a month in which there is no corresponding date, then the period for considering applications expires on the last day of this month.

Written applications must be considered no later than fifteen days, and applications requiring additional study and verification - no later than one month, unless another period is established by legislative acts.

If the 15-day period is exceeded, the Law does not require mandatory notification of the applicant about the extension of the period for considering the appeal up to a month.

In addition, in accordance with part two of paragraph 3 of Article 17 of the Law, if certain actions (performance of work, provision of services) are required to resolve the issues set out in the applications, obtaining information from a foreign state within a period exceeding a month, applicants within a period of no later than one month from the day following the day of receipt of applications, a written notification is sent about the reasons for exceeding month term and the timing of such actions (performance of work, provision of services) or the timing of consideration of appeals on the merits. In practice, such appeals are monitored and the applicant is periodically informed about the progress of work necessary to resolve the issue stated in the appeal.

Requirements for answers

Written responses (notifications) to written requests:

• are stated in the language of appeal;
• must be substantiated and motivated, if necessary - with references to the norms of legislative acts No.
• must contain specific language that refutes or confirms the arguments of the applicants.

In addition, according to part two of paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Law, written responses to complaints regarding actions (inaction) of organizations, individual entrepreneurs and their employees must contain an analysis and assessment of these actions (inaction), information on the measures taken if the complaints are recognized as justified.

In a collective appeal, the applicants themselves can indicate which of them needs to send a response. In this case, a response to such a request is sent to this applicant with a request to inform other applicants.

Otherwise, the response to the collective appeal is sent to the first applicant on the list, who indicated the address of his place of residence (place of stay), with a request to inform other applicants.

A written response can also be sent to an electronic appeal if the applicant himself asked about it in the appeal or if it was not possible to send a response to the e-mail address indicated in the appeal (due to technical reasons or a typo if the address was deleted).

In the event that incoming electronic applications of similar content from different applicants are massive (more than ten applications), responses to such applications can be posted on the official website of a state body or other government organization on the global computer network Internet without sending responses (notifications) to applicants.

Answers to anonymous requests are not sent. Such appeals are:

• addresses that do not indicate the surname, proper name, patronymic (if any) or the initials of the citizen;
• applications that do not indicate the address of the place of residence (place of stay) of the citizen;
• applications that do not indicate the name of the legal entity (full or abbreviated);
• applications that do not indicate the location of the legal entity;
• requests in which the specified data do not correspond to reality.

At the same time, to recognize the appeal as anonymous, it is sufficient to have one of the indicated signs.

Appealing responses to appeals

The organization's response to the appeal or the decision to leave the appeal without consideration on the merits can be appealed to a higher organization.

If the organization has a superior, then without contacting it, the person does not have the right to appeal to the court. If there is no superior organization, the complaint can be filed directly with the court.

A complaint can be filed with a court within a month, calculated from the day the citizen receives the refusal of a higher state body, legal entity, organization or official to satisfy the complaint, or from the day of the expiration of one month after filing the complaint, if the applicant has not received a response to it, and in the absence of a mandatory extrajudicial procedure for appeal - from the day when the citizen became aware of the violation of his rights (Article 355 of the Civil Procedure Code).

A responsibility

For violation of the procedure for considering applications of organizations, their officials, individual entrepreneurs and their employees are liable in accordance with legislative acts.

Administrative liability is provided for in Article 9.13 of the Administrative Code "Violation of the legislation on appeals of citizens and legal entities".

Article 9.13 of the Administrative Code provides for liability in the amount of 4 to 10 basic units:

• for refusal to accept an appeal from a citizen or legal entity;
• for violation of the established terms for considering such an appeal;
• for failure to inform the applicant about the decision taken as a result of consideration of the appeal;
• for an unlawful refusal to the applicant to familiarize himself with the materials directly related to the consideration of the appeal;
• for failure to take, within the limits of their competence, measures to restore the violated rights, freedoms and (or) legitimate interests of the applicant.

Does it really work?

On this moment the experience of a successful solution has already been accumulated a large number problems with the help of the "Convenient City -" project. The conditional efficiency is about 60%, that is, six out of ten petitions-appeals end in victory for the citizen and lead to a solution to the problem. It should be borne in mind that in the formation of such statistics, as unresolved issues were taken into account, including those that were not satisfied (let's call them "somewhat unexpected") proposals, such as: make entry to Minsk paid, cancel personal numbers in passports, make 17 September as a holiday, to give the status of historical and cultural value to the tradition of giving socks on February 23, to erect a monument to the Linkin Park soloist Chester Bennington in Brest, to prohibit knocking out carpets in the courtyards, and to prohibit pensioners from working. Agree, it is difficult to expect a positive solution to such issues.

Whether it is a lot or a little - the efficiency is 60%, taking into account the above, it is not for us to judge. But is there a simpler, more effective and safer instrument of communication with the authorities at the moment?

So maybe you shouldn't wait, endure and accumulate negativity in yourself until the official notices and solves your problem? Maybe you should write your petition right now?

Nobody but us will take care of us!