How to write a Petition

To get the petition process started you have to define

  • how your agenda looks like,
  • who is the official recipient of your petition,
  • which investigations you have to undertake to examine and to clearly present your issue,
  • how one formulates a petition in the most effective way,
  • and how the campaign concerning your petition should look like.

Thus one has to settle if the petition deals with an issue concerning either politics, the media, education or something else. Does it concern the people right there in my street or is it something that affects everyone in this country? How do the circumstances look like, what was exactly missed by the lawmakers and which problems result from that? The petitioners have to provide a detailed and solid documentation for the recipients which in the best case is accompanied by well-defined campaign.

Different Forms of Petitions

Once you start thinking of how to write a petition it is important to differentiate between different forms:

  1. Petitions put forward by one person
  2. Petitions put forward by a group of persons (These are accompanied by a list of signatures)
  3. Several petitions put forward by single persons dealing with the same issue

Petition Examples

The bandwidth of petition examples seems to be endless. Some petition examples would be the raise of the gasoline price, noise disturbances caused by planes or the violation of human rights.

A sample petition would be the online petition stated by the German Midwives Association in 2010. It dealt with the raise of the liability premium and the generally quite low fees of midwives. To reach a public sitting the midwives had to collect 50.000 signatures. The public sitting was held, the government reconsidered the matter.

online petition by the German Midwives Association

online petition by the German Midwives Association

Text of the Petition Example

The German Bundestag may enact immediate measures to ensure a supply of the help of midwives located nearby for women as well as the free choice of the place of birth also after July the 1st, 2010. Another requirement would be the acceptance of a service guarantee for the help of midwives on the lines of § 72 SGB V. Furthermore the German Bundestag may determine a data ascertainment concerning the need of help by midwives and its coverage. (Online source with original text in German: www.hebammenverband.de (07/03/2011)). Subsequent to this request the Internet page provides a 400-word-long statement of grounds referring to it.)