Amnesty International

1. Amnesty International Feng Chong WeFeng Weidong Gao ChuanyuGideon Purwono Goh Id Gordon Goh

2. Content Page • Introduction • Difficulties Amnesty International faces • Efforts of Amnesty International • Opinion on Death Penalty • Detriments of Leaving human rights unchecked • Suggestions

3. Introduction

4. Amnesty International • Campaign for internationally recognized human rights to be respected and protected for everyone. • Human rights abuses are the concern of people. • Inspired by hope for a better world

5. Mission “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”

6. Aims

7. Means of promoting Human Rights • Exert influence on governments, political bodies, companies and intergovernmental groups. • Mobilising public pressure through mass demonstrations, vigils and direct lobbying as well as online and offline campaigning. • Work to improve people’s lives through campaigning and international solidarity.

8. Why we chose amnesty • The organisation was awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its "campaign against torture" and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1978. • Amnesty has the longest history and broadest name recognition, and "is believed by many to set standards for the movement as a whole." • Independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion

9. Democratic and self-governing • Financially self-sufficient, thanks to the generous support of donations provided by individual members and supporters • they do not support or oppose any government or political system and neither do they necessarily support or oppose the views of the victims/survivors or human rights defenders whose rights they seek to protect.

10. Difficulties Amnesty International faces

11. Difficulty AI faces • Unable to present accurate research or information or evaluation or help countries that deny access to them. • ‘If Amnesty International is denied official access to a country, research teams may have to rely on sources of information outside the country, including news media reports, experts, refugees, diplomatic representatives and human rights defenders. ‘

12. Difficulty AI faces • The reports they give and evaluations are biased in that they report more on countries that are democratic and open and countries that are closed are unable to be helped. • They get complaints from countries that they are giving biased reports and are ideologically biased. For example china, Vietnam, usa complained that their reports biased.

13. Efforts of Amnesty International

14. Aim of Amnesty International • Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. • Their mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of our work to promote all human rights.

15. What is the Problem? • Amnesty international has been trying to make Human Rights universal. • The problem is that there are too many challenges facing the issue currently. • There are many countries that have agreed to only part of the International declaration of Human Rights and not to the whole declaration.

16. What is the Problem? • Difficult to convince every single country to agree to the entire declaration. • Each country has its own moral value system, culture and different things that can be considered extreme and as taboo in other countries might be perfectly normal and fine to the country in which the practice originated.

17. What are the Points of View? • Amnesty believes that all their campaigning and research is fact based. Among the many activities they carry out, they: • send experts to talk with victims • observe trials • interview local officials • liaise with human rights activists • monitor global and local media • publish detailed reports • inform the news media • publicize our concerns in documents, leaflets, posters, advertisements, newsletters and websites

18. Amnesty • They also help stop human rights abuses by mobilizing the public to put pressure on governments, armed political groups, companies and intergovernmental bodies via: • public demonstrations • vigils • letter-writing campaigns • human rights education • awareness-raising concerts • direct lobbying • targeted appeals • email petitions and other online actions • partnerships with local campaigning groups • community activities • co-operation with student groups

19. Amnesty • Amnesty’s Sources come from: • prisoners and others suffering other human rights abuses and their representatives • survivors of abuse and their families • lawyers and journalists • refugees • diplomats • religious bodies and community workers • humanitarian agencies and other human rights organizations • human rights defenders

20. Amnesty • They monitor newspapers, websites and other media outlets. Amnesty International often sends fact-finding missions to assess the situation on the spot. • If Amnesty International is denied official access to a country, research teams may have to rely on sources of information outside the country, including news media reports, experts, refugees, diplomatic representatives and human rights defenders. 

21. Amnesty • Before any statement, publication or report is issued, its text is subject to close review to ensure it is factually accurate, politically impartial and consistent with Amnesty International's mission.  • When Amnesty International deals with allegations rather than undisputed facts, it makes this clear in its findings and may call for an investigation. 

22. Amnesty • If Amnesty International makes a mistake, it issues a correction. • As a result, Amnesty International's research is recognized globally for its reliability. They are consulted widely including by governments, intergovernmental organizations, journalists, scholars and other human rights organizations and campaigning groups.

23. Criticism • However, Amnesty is also criticised in two main ways, where it suffers from accusations of selection bias and ideological bias. • From Amnesty’s point of view, AI admits to reporting disproportionately on relatively more democratic and open countries, arguing that its intentions is not to produce a range of reports which statistically represents the world’s human rights abuses, but rather to apply pressure of public opinion to encourage improvements.

24. Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for human rights. Our work is based on careful research and on the standards agreed by the international community. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. • Amnesty International mobilizes volunteer activists - people who give freely of their time and energy in solidarity with those whose rights have been abused. We have more than one million members, supporters and subscribers in over 140 countries. We come from all walks of life, with widely different political and religious views, united by our determination to work for a world where everyone enjoys human rights.

25. Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. • Our mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of our work to promote all human rights.

26. Opinion on Death Penalty

27. Views on the death penalty • opposes it regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner • ultimate denial of human rights • cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice • violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights • the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment

28. Views on the death penalty • no special deterrent effect on crime • denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation • prolongs the suffering of the murder victim’s family, and extends that suffering to the relatives of the condemned prisoner • executions are a symptom of a culture of violence rather than a solution to it • By executing a person the state commits a premeditated • killing and shows a similar readiness to use physical violence as the criminal

29. Belarus • the last country in Europe that is still carrying out executions • estimates that as many as 400 people may have been executed since Belarus gained its independence in 1991

30. Issue • torture and ill-treatment are used to extract “confessions” • may not have access to effective appeal mechanisms • inherently cruel, inhuman and degrading nature of the death penalty is compounded for death row prisoners and their relatives by the secrecy surrounding the death penalty

31. Condemnation • the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis • “I am upset by an insistent intention of the Belarusian authorities to isolate their country from Europe.” • “By these death sentences they seem to be proud of defying human values common for other European countries.”

32. Actions taken • European Union has also made abolition of the death penalty one of the conditions for closer relations with Belarus • the European Commission released a document offering a full partnership to Belarus as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, provided that Belarus takes “convincing steps towards democratisation, respect for human rights and the rule of law”.

33. Criticism • Regarding ideological bias, many governments subject to critical AI reports, including those of China, the Democratic republic of Congo, Israel, Russia, South Korea, the United States, and Vietnam have defended themselves by accusing AI of one-sided reporting or of a failure to treat threats to security as a mitigating factor. Criticism has also come from companies, such as Total. The Catholic Church has also criticised Amnesty for its stance on Abortion. • Our research teams focusing on particular countries and themes investigate reports of human rights abuses, cross checking and corroborating information from a wide variety of sources and contacts. 

34. Leaving human rights unchecked

35. Detriments •  In a bid to keep power over a group, many political institutions have resorted to the violation of certain human rights so as to maintain their sphere of influence. • Case Study: to keep control over Iraq, Saddam Hussein resorted to the ‘ethnic cleansing’ (i.e. genocide) of not just the ethnic Kurds whom he viewed as a “long term threat to Iraq’s survival” • But also the Shiite Muslims that posed as a threat to the legitimacy of the rule of the Sunni Baath Party. • Such violations like the Halabja poison gas massacre of 1988 alone killed over 5,000 people, just to show the high human cost of such violations. • Extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust during Hitler’s reign, otherwise known as the Holocaust, where it is estimated that 6,000,000 Jews were slain in a period of just 6 years.

36. Detriments •  People who lack the capacity to defend their rights will be dealt with a severe treatment that infringes such rights. • Case study: the execution of nine men in Sudan. • Though they were convicted of the murder, it is known that the confessions were extracted under torture, and that there was a slight chance that these men were really innocent. • However, since they have little capacity to defend their rights, their rights to a fair trial were violated and hence they were executed without receiving a second verdict. • Should human rights go unchecked, many who are powerless to defend these rights would be subject to violations that they cannot stand against.

37. Suggestions

38. Educating students about human rights • Education about human rights must become part of general public education • Technical and financial assistance should be provided to increase knowledge about human rights • Research institutes and schools should train lawyers and judges who possess a strong sense of justice

39. Case Study: In Hwa Chong, students are required to study about human rights and come up with quality presentations and seminars, thereby increasing their knowledge about human rights and boosting their sense of justice • The Ministry of Education should make this topic compulsory for all other schools as well judging from its effectiveness in Hwa Chong

40. Encouraging students to speak up about mistreatment from teachers • Allowing teachers to mistreat students will evolve into the acceptance of mistreatment among students which might make them turn a blind eye to human rights abuse in future • Students should thus be encouraged to speak up about mistreatment from teachers such as excessive homework and unreasonable deadlines and demand for fair treatment

41. Students will thus learn to uphold their rights as students, and in the long run, to uphold their rights as humans, which are fundamental and inalienable