The Quest for Human Rights in a Dark World: I’d Like to Say a Few Words about Amnesty International

Human rights is a subject that has been near and dear to my heart for as long as I can remember. I don’t doubt that the same can be said about most DUers, since human rights constitutes the core of liberal/progressive thought.

In recent centuries and decades there has been more and more awareness in the world of the need for an aggressive effort to make human rights a reality for the peoples of the world. The Declaration of Independence that created our nation constituted a giant step in this direction – notwithstanding the fact that our country has only partially lived up to the ideals expressed in our Declaration:


Following the Nazi Holocaust and World War II the recognition of the need for enforcement of human rights in the world became more acute and widespread. The United Nations was conceived by President Roosevelt and led to fruition by his successor, President Truman, in an effort to make this a reality. This excerpt from the preamble of the United Nations Charter indicates its focus on human rights:


Since its inception, the United Nations has furthered the cause of human rights by adopting numerous conventions, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Criminal Court, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

But the reality has always lagged behind the ideal. George Bush’s United States has now become the most powerful abuser of human rights in the world, and the United Nations does not have the power or the will to successfully challenge it. Thus the need for non-governmental organizations committed to furthering the cause of universal human rights.


Introduction to Amnesty International (AI)

I’m writing about Amnesty International here, rather than any of the other human rights organizations, because I’ve been a member for many years (or decades?) and because I believe it is the premier human rights organization in the world. Founded in 1961, it now has 2.2 million members, supporters, and subscribers in 150 countries. The United States contributes the most members of any country in the world, approximately 350,000. AI’s emphasis on human rights is evident from its mission statement:


More specifically, it fights for human rights by exposing egregious human rights abuses and organizing letter writing campaigns of protest against them. It also has an educational function, seeking to integrate human rights education into the school environment.

I do have some semantic quibbles with the organization, which I believe it’s important to note, for the sake of clarity. First and foremost, I believe that the organization is misnamed. Amnesty International is a human rights organization, not an amnesty organization. Amnesty has been variously defined as a pardon, an act of forgiveness, or the act of forgetting or overlooking past offenses. That is not at all what Amnesty International is about. It seeks the release from prison of “prisoners of conscience”, not as a “pardon” or an “act of forgiveness”, but because people should not be imprisoned for speaking out and working for social justice. And it certainly does not advocate overlooking past offenses – to the contrary, it strongly advocates holding human rights abusers accountable for their actions.

I also take issue with the statement that AI is independent of any political ideology, since I believe it is accurate to say that human rights itself is a political ideology. It is my political ideology, but it is nevertheless a political ideology. And my guess is that less than 0.1% of the 350,000 U.S. members of AI voted for George Bush for president.


A brief account of Amnesty International (AI) priorities and accomplishments

Amnesty International fully supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948. It is most concerned with human rights abuses perpetrated by national governments, especially torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial executions, for which it has specific programs of prevention. In accordance with these concerns it advocates a “15 point program for implementing human rights in international peace-keeping operations”, which starts out:


AI has specific recommendations relating to the role of health professionals and medical investigations in the cause of exposing torture and other degrading treatment. Because the rights of women throughout the world are often abused much more frequently than are those of men, it makes the protection of women’s rights a special priority.

AI recently sent to all its members e-mails which provided some brief details (and in many cases links) on 115 recent “success stories”, along with a two minute video of “Amnesty’s memorable moments of 2007”. I won’t attempt to summarize those successes here, but you can read about them at this site, which was prefaced by the statement, “Here's where all of your hard work writing letters and sending emails pays off! Listed below are some more of our most recent victories in the cause of human rights. Enjoy!”


The priorities of Amnesty International USA

Current priorities of the USA chapter of AI (AIUSA) include the following:

“Torture and Terror”

Darfur

Individuals at risk (“prisoners of conscience”)

Violence against women

(I have previously talked about this issue in this post.)

Death Penalty Abolition


Amnesty International does not shy away from scathing criticism of the most powerful nation in the world

Prior to the passage of the infamous Military Commissions Act of 2006, Amnesty International waged a (unsuccessful) campaign to prevent its passage. Following its passage, AI vowed to continue to fight to restore moral values to our nation, and asked Americans to sign the “America I believe in” pledge. This statement is a bit outdated, but it still applies now as much as ever:


The statement also includes “the America I believe in” pledge:



Thoughts on the need for human rights organizations

There is much violence, cruelty, barbarism, and injustice in today’s world, as there has always been. That will undoubtedly continue to be the case until the human race finds a way to prevent these things. Neither humanity nor our planet will long be sustainable unless and until that happens.

As bad as things are in our world today, I have little doubt that they would be a lot worse if not for the efforts of human rights organizations. They investigate and expose crimes against humanity throughout the world, and they make it a lot easier for others to do the same, by providing them some degree of protection when governments retaliate against them. How much would we know about the many crimes against humanity of the Bush administration if not for these organizations? I don’t know that anyone has the answer to that question, but we certainly can’t rely on our national corporate news media to keep us informed about these things.

The nations of the world, like the individuals within those nations, appear unlikely to solve these problems on their own. Just as the United States itself required human rights activists to push it towards ending slavery, enfranchising women and minorities, and enacting civil rights legislation, the world needs international human rights activists to push us in the right direction. Eventually the world will need an enforceable and just system of international law in order to prevent humanity from destroying itself. In the meantime, human rights organizations need to act as the conscience of humankind in order to stop us from destroying each other.

:kick:

She's president of one of the very few high school chapters in Arizona. I think she loves it and is committed to continuing her work in college next year. She's been pleasantly surprised by the level of participation and the enthusiasm that most of the student members have. Occasionally, students refuse to participate because they insist for example that everyone in Guantanamo deserves to be there, but more often than not they really want to help. We need more high school chapters in Arizona.

I didn't know that there were whole high school chapters that belong to Amnest.

That makes me so mad whenever I hear people claim that tho detainees "deserve" to be in Guantanamo. How the hell can they have an opinion on that?!! Aren't they aware that the vast majority of them haven't even been tried for a crime, and that large portions of them were handed over to U.S. forces for bounties? The fact that so many Americans are willing to assume the guilt of people whom they know nothing about is really scary and depressing. It reminds me so much of Nazi Germany in the early 30s.

Here is how you can. Go to the following link:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/Torture/86_Days/page.do?id=1011410&n1=3&n2=38&n3=1447

Of the many crimes that Bush has committed, the worst IMO is the torture of his prisoners and locking them away indefinitely without charges or trial.

Yes, the bush administration goes against all our founding principles. It must stop and must be addressed NOW, not after an election we may win or may lose.

Borders, Planned Parenthood...

There are more ofcourse, but those 5, are the ones I give to proudly.

even when times are tight. What they do is too important not to support.

She said that the failure to find WMD in Iraq exposed much more than the Bush administration's lies -- it also exposed the complicity of our corporate news media.

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2006/ecosoc6242.doc.htm