Presentation by Mirela Matei

& Mirela Soare

BRIE – February 2011

BACKGROUND• British lawyer Peter Benenson

launched a worldwide campaign, ‘Appeal for Amnesty 1961’ with the publication of a prominent article, ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’, in The Observer newspaper. The imprisonment of two Portuguese students, who had raised their wine glasses in a toast to freedom, moved Benenson to write this article. His appeal was reprinted in other papers across the world and turned out to be the genesis of Amnesty International.

• The first international meeting was held in July, with delegates from Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the US. They decided to establish "a permanent international movement in defence of freedom of opinion and religion".

• On Human Rights Day, 10 December, the first Amnesty candle was lit in the church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Peter Benenson

31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005

HISTORICAL FACTS• 1962 - AI’s first annual report was published; it contained details of 210 prisoners who had been

adopted by 70 groups in seven countries; in addition, 1,200 cases were documented in the Prisoners of Conscience Library.

• 1963 - Amnesty International now comprised 350 groups – there was a two-year total of 770 prisoners adopted and 140 released.

• 1964 - Peter Benenson was named president. There were now 360 groups in 14 countries. In August the United Nations gave Amnesty International consultative status.

• 1965 – 1975 – An important activity for death penalty abolition in Romania, Portugal and South Africa for peacetime political offenses. Over 4,500 peoples released from prisons and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted. The United Nations unanimously adopted a Declaration Against Torture. 1975 – present – The United Nations unanimously adopted a Declaration Against Torture. There were now 1,592 groups in 33 countries and more than 70,000 members in 65 countries. Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "having contributed to securing the ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in the world"and won the United Nations Human Rights prize for "outstanding contributions in the field of human rights". The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment enters into force. Membership passed one million. Amnesty International launched major international campaigns on women's rights, disappearances and political killings. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted in July 1998.  Launched the Stop Violence Against Women campaign. Amnesty International has more than 2.2 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries and territories in every region of the world.

ORGANIZATION ( extract from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL STATUTE)

• AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is an organization based on worldwide voluntary membership and it shall consist of sections, structures, international networks, affiliated groups and international members.

• Ultimate authority for the conduct of the affairs of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is vested in the International Council. The primary functions of the International Council are:(i)    to focus on strategy; (ii)    to set AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’s vision, mission and core values; (iii)    to determine AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’s Integrated Strategic Plan including its financial strategy; (iv)    to establish systems and bodies of governance and delegation for the movement, to elect members to those bodies, and to hold those bodies and their members accountable;(v)    to evaluate the movement’s performance against its agreed strategies and plans;(vi)    to hold sections, structures and other bodies accountable.

There is an International Executive Committee. The primary role of the International Executive Committee is to provide leadership and stewardship for the whole of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL worldwide. The functions of the International Executive Committee are:(i)    to take international decisions on behalf of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL;(ii)    to ensure that there is a sound financial policy for AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL and that the financial policy is consistently implemented across the international organization;(iii)    to ensure implementation of the Integrated Strategic Plan;     (iv)    to make any necessary adjustments to the Integrated Strategic Plan and other decisions of the International Council; (v)    to ensure compliance with the Statute; (vi)    to ensure human resources development; (vii)    to hold sections, structures and other bodies of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL accountable for their functioning by presenting reports to the International Council;(viii)    to perform the other functions conferred on it by the Statute.

The day-to-day affairs of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL shall be conducted by the International Secretariat headed by a Secretary General under the direction of the International Executive Committee.

• FINANCEAn auditor appointed by the International Council shall annually audit the accounts of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, which shall be prepared by the International Secretariat and presented to the International Executive Committee and the International Council.

No part of the income or property of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL shall directly or indirectly be paid or transferred otherwise than for valuable and sufficient consideration to any of its members by way of dividend, gift, division, bonus or otherwise howsoever by way of profit.

Mission• Working with and for individuals the world over, Amnesty International

 campaign so that every person may enjoy all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  They undertake research and take action aimed at preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights, demanding that all governments and other powerful entities respect the rule of law.  It means they campaign globally and locally where ever they can make a difference. For example, they take action to:

• 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• Thousands of Amnesty International members respond to Urgent Action

appeals on behalf of individuals at immediate risk. Publicity through the news media and the internet takes their message in many languages to millions of people.

Campaigning can change people’s lives – of victims and survivors of human rights abuses, of human rights activists and defenders and even of the abusers.

THE DEATH PENALTY IN 2009

CASE STUDY• More than two-thirds of the countries of the world

have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. While 58 countries retained the death penalty in 2009, most did not use it. Eighteen countries were known to have carried out executions, killing a total of at least 714 people; however, this figure does not include the thousands of executions that were likely to have taken place in China, which again refused to divulge figures on its use of the death penalty.

• Methods of execution in 2009 included hanging, shooting, beheading, stoning, electrocution and lethal injection.

• Where "+" is indicated after a country and it is preceded by a number, it means that the figure Amnesty International has calculated is a minimum figure. Where "+" is indicated after a country and is not preceded by a number, it indicates that there were executions or death sentences (at least more than one) in that country but it was not possible to calculate a figure

Amnesty International calling the Chinese government to reveal the number of people it executes each year

• Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to reveal publicly the number of people it executes each year. In its annual report on the death penalty worldwide, Amnesty says thousands of executions likely took place in China in 2009.  But it points out that information on the death penalty remains a Chinese state secret.

• China is said to be the world’s largest executioner, putting more people to death than the rest of the world altogether. The Amnesty report says at least 714 people were executed last year in 18 countries March 30, 2010

• . Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director Philip Luther says that some countries are using capital punishment to send political messages, silence opponents or promote political agendas. Amnesty reported a spike in executions in Iraq to 120 last year while Iran remained the biggest executioner in the region, putting at least 338 people to death. IRAQ 2009

• The United States, the report points out, is the only country in the Americas to consistently carry out executions – with 52 last year.In 2009, Europe had its first year without executions since Amnesty has been keeping records.  Belarus is the only European country that continues to impose the death sentence.  Two weeks ago, it executed two people.

• Amnesty International’s interim secretary-general, Claudio Cordone, calls the death penalty “cruel and degrading.”  The report for 2009 notes that fewer countries are carrying out executions.  As Cordone puts it, the death penalty is “on its way out.”

CASE STUDIESExtract from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT

2008• Bangladesh• Prisoner of conscience Jahangir Alam Akash, a journalist

and local head of two human rights organizations, was arrested on 24 October 2007 by RAB agents in the north-western city of Rajshahi. He was reportedly given electric shocks, beaten on the soles of his feet with a stick, and hung from the ceiling with his hands tied. He was transferred to the Rajshahi Jail hospital with multiple injuries. His detention followed his television news report in May about the shooting of an unarmed man by RAB agents.

• He was charged with extortion, a charge widely believed to be false and politically motivated, and held in detention for over a month before being released on bail.

• USA/Afghanistan• Sami al Hajj was a journalist working for al-Jazeera when he and his crew were• stopped by the Pakistani police close to the Afghan border. He was• transferred from Pakistani custody to American custody, taken to Bagram• airbase in Afghanistan, then to prison in Kandahar and ultimately Guantánamo• Bay. He described his 16 days in detention at Bagram air base as “the worst• in my life”. He says he was physically tortured, had dogs set upon him, was• held in a cage in a freezing aircraft hangar and was given insufficient, often• frozen food. In Kandahar, he says he was beaten regularly by guards, was by• US soldiers, forced to kneel for long periods on concrete floors, had all the• hairs on his beard plucked out one by one, and was not allowed to wash for• over 100 days. After his transfer to Guantánamo, Sami says that military• dogs were used to intimidate him. Guards at the camp shattered his knee cap• by stamping on his leg, beat him on the soles of his feet, subjected him to• racist abuse and gave him less time for recreation because he is black. Before• being allowed to see Sudanese intelligence agents who had come to• Guantánamo to interview him, he says that he was shackled and pepper• sprayed. He was released on 1 April 2008.

HungaryZsanett E., a 21-year-old woman,

was allegedly assaulted by five policeofficers at the beginning of May 2007 in Budapest.

While the case was allegedly initially covered up by police, after Zsanett E reportedly identified her alleged attackers, five officers were taken into preliminary custody, but were released a few weeks later.

On 20 May, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany accepted the resignation of the Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement and the chief of the Police Security Service and dismissed the chief of National Police and the Budapest Police chief.

In December, the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office dropped the investigation into the police officers.

Zsanett E.’s lawyer appealed against the decision.

Violence against women

• Saudi Arabia• A 20-year-old woman, known as the “al-Qatif girl” to protect her

identity,was gang-raped by seven men in 2006 in al-Qatif city. When the case cameto court, she and a male companion who had been with her before the rape were each sentenced to 90 lashes for committing a khilwa offence.

• The rapists were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to five years in addition to flogging. All the sentences were then increased on appeal.

• The rape victim and her male companion were sentenced to six-month prison terms and 200 lashes, while the rapists’ sentences were increased to prison terms ranging from two to nine years in addition to flogging.

• In December 2007, the King pardoned the rape victim and the case against her and the male companion was reportedly withdrawn.

THE END

REFERENCES• http://www.adverbox.com/ads/amnesty-trafficking/• http://maryelise.com/blog/?p=419• http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR01/027/2010/en/

17f7484c-e514-4d12-bf4f-a2a45728e5f5/eur010272010en.pdf• http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2010/en/

17348b70-3fc7-40b2-a258-af92778c73e5/act500012010en.pdf• http://www.hotindienews.com/2010/03/30/1021409• http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/death-sentences-and-

executions-in-2009• http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/accountability/statute-of-

amnesty-international• http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/history• http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/about-amnesty-

international• http://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/about-amnesty-

international