AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL(AI)By Yongzhi, Clement, Milton, Derrick, YiXiang, Liki

What is AI?

Founded by Peter Benenson in London 1961

International Non-Governmental Organisation(NGO)

Misson: “To conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.“

2.2 million members and supporters

The work AI does

Exerts influence on governments, political bodies, companies and intergovernmental groups

Mobilizes public pressure through mass demonstrations, vigils and direct lobbying as well as online and offline campaigning.

Through appealing, AI thus pressures the ‘target’ to ‘respect the rule of law’.

Scope of work

Women's Rights Children's Rights Ending Torture and Execution Rights of Refugees Rights of Prisoners of Conscience (Refers

to people imprisoned due to their race, religion, sexual orientation, belief etc, and those persecuted for non-violent expression of their ‘conscientiously-held’ beliefs, so long as they have not advocated violence)

Aims:

Stop violence against women Defend the rights and dignity

of those trapped in poverty Abolish the death penalty Oppose torture and combat

terror with justice Free prisoners of conscience Protect the rights of refugees

and migrants Regulate the global arms trade

How AI does her work

Campaigning Mobilise public opinion 3 Types: Individual, national or thematic Direct appeal (such as letter writing) Media and publicity work Public demonstrations

Fundraising often coupled with campaigning Urgent matters: Urgent Action (UA) appeals

(involves urgent action networks or crisis response networks)

Other matters: Membership

How AI does her work

Issues press releases Publishes information in newsletters and on

websites Official missions to countries to make

courteous but insistent inquiries Publication of reports Involves research via interviews with victims

and officials Observing trials and thus evaluate them Collaborations with local human rights activists Monitoring the media

Rationale for her work

AI envisions for everyone to enjoy all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards

To prevent and end grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity (defined within scope of work)

Argues that human rights abuses anywhere are the concern of people everywhere

Outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world, they go about doing their work

Challenges faced by AI

Criticised for ideological bias One-sided Failure to consider threats to security as a

mitigating factor Criticised for reporting disproportionately on

relatively more democratic and open countries However AI argues that its intention is not to

produce a range of reports which statistically represents the world’s human rights abuses, but rather to apply the pressure of public opinion to encourage improvements

Challenges faced by AI

Detention/Abduction (faced by human rights defenders)

Smear Campaigns (delegitimize, slander) Bureaucratic Barriers (hamper organizations)

Restricting meetings Deny legal registration, or cease operation Obstruct fact-finding visits

Harassment Daily (such as phone tapping, surveillance) Extreme (freezing assets, home raids, confiscation)

Rationale for choosing AI

Longest history Broadest name recognition Believed to set the standards

for the human rights movements as a whole

Effective Pressure has had an effect on

people’s own lives Governments are persuaded to

change their laws and practices Controversy especially

concerning bias Hence subject to (our) pertinent

scrutiny

Direct/Personal impact

“Human rights abuses anywhere are the concern of people everywhere”

Locally in Singapore: Death penalty subject to scrutiny Restrictive laws and defamation suits to muzzle

critics If AI succeeds in ‘persuading’ the

Singaporean Government, this will have great implications especially concerning media freedom and publicity Though this is highly unlikely

Effort evaluation

The Stop Torture campaign (Oct 2000 - Dec 2001) is AI's third global campaign on torture Follows AI's first campaign

denouncing torture (1972-1973) and its second focusing on the prevention of torture (1984).

These campaigns contributed to the UN's adoption of the Convention against Torture, on (Human Rights Day) 10 December 1984.

Effort evaluation

Achievement: In the first five months of the Stop Torture

campaign, over 19,500 subscribers from 188 countries used this innovative form of campaigning on behalf of eight individuals

Within 12 hours of each action, an average of 2,500 appeals was generated.

Three of the eight individuals (in Turkey, Mexico, and Ecuador) have been released.

Effort evaluation

Validity Torture is cruel, inhuman and degrading human

dignity Governments have invoked threats of terrorism to cover

up and justify its use, hence the need to strengthen importance of this issue

Soundness Key issue: Can governments stop shielding torturers and

accept responsibility for their crimes? Governments have a clear duty to protect their civilian

population from violent attacks, including terrorist acts Governments who are concerned with their image will be

spurred on Those who do not stop torture will ironically be harming

their civilians and thus be subject to severe criticism

Denotes ‘Is’ Denotes ‘ Is not

Effort evaluation

Relevance Failure to uphold international obligations Even USA has undermined human rights in the

context of counter-terrorism while continuing to pay lip service to international obligations

However, relevance in our local context is limited due to these acts often taking place under clandestine conditions (convenience of secrecy) Moreover, little concrete action taken to effectively

undertake investigations (due to fear and implications of exposure)

Denotes ‘Is’ Denotes ‘ Is not

Effort evaluation

Failure to address the underlying problem States have made their own self-interest in

removing a particular individual their priority, rather than seeking to change the underlying problem of torture in the receiving country as a whole

This is a betrayal of some of the state’s most fundamental obligations in international human rights law

Moral degradation of state Negligence of victims

Effort evaluation

Bibliography

http://www.amnesty.org/ - Amnesty International

Buchanan, Tom (October 2002). "'The Truth Will Set You Free': The Making of Amnesty International". Journal of Contemporary History 37 (4): 575–597. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180761. Retrieved on 2009-04-17

http://203.147.147.39/achievement/index.html - AI Australia

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