“It is better to light a candle than to curse the
darkness”. This is the motto of Amnesty international, an organization of 2.2
million members and supporters founded in 1961. Its General secretariat is
located in London. Amnesty International is an International non- governmental
organization whose stated mission is to conduct research and generate action to
prevent and bring to an end grave abuses of human rights have been violated.
Amnesty
International draws attention to human rights abuses and campaigns for
compliance with international laws and standards. It works to mobilize public
opinion to exert pressure on governments than perpetrate Human Rights in 1978.
In the field of human rights protection. Amnesty has the longest history and
broadest name recognition. It is believed by many “to set the standards for
human rights movements as a whole”
History
and background- Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961 by English
labour lawyer, Peter Benenson. According to him, he was traveling in the London
underground on November 19th, 1960, when he read about two Portuguese students
who were sentenced to seven years imprisonment for “having drunk a toast to
liberty”11. In 1960, Portugal was one of the last remaining powers in Africa
ruled by authoritarian Estado Novo. The Portuguese government vigorously
repressed most associations considered anti- government.
Benenson wrote a significant newspaper
article condemning the spate of abuses and victimization of innocent people
around the world. He condemned a situation where people are imprisoned,
tortured or executed because of political or religious opinions considered
unacceptable to their government. Benenson worked in consultation other
writers, activists and academics and lawyers to create awareness to these
prevailing situations. They called attentions to the deliberate violations by …
of articles 18 and 19 of the universal Declaration of Human Rights. The article
described these violations occurring on a global scale in the context of
restrictions to press freedom, to political oppositions, to timely public trial
before impartial courts and to asylum issues.
It
marked of Appeal of Amnesty in 1961 whose aim was to mobilize public opinion
quietly and widely in defence of these of these individuals whom Benenson
described as “prisoners of conscience”. The Appeal for Amnesty was reprinted by
a large number of international newspapers. In the same year, Benenson
published a book “Persecution 1961” in which he detailed the cases of several
prisoners of conscience investigated and compiled by Benenson and his
colleagues. In July 1961, the group decided to form a permanent organization.
What started as a short appeal soon became a permanent international movement
fro non- violent expression of their views and to secure world wide recognition
of Articles 18 and 19 of the universal Declaration of Human Rights. By the
middle of 1960 global presence of Amnesty International began to grow and the
organization began to exp and in many directions and respects. An International
Secretariat and International Executive Committee were established to manage
Amnesty’s national organizations in other countries. Its activities and
influence also began to increase within intergovernmental organizations. By the
end of the 1960s, Amnesty was accorded a consultative status by United Nations,
the Council of Europe and UNESCO.
In
the decade of the 70s Amnesty’s pursued expanded to include “fair trial” and
opposition to long detention without trial. Torture and the treatment of
prisoner also became grave political issues in Amnesty’s work schedule. Amnesty
contends that the reason for torture by governments and their agencies is
either to obtain information or to quiet opposition through the use of terror
or both. Also of much concern was the export of more sophisticated torture
methods, equipment and teaching by the super powers to “client state”. By the
early 1980s Amnesty International had expanded its scope to include
disappearances, the death penalty and the rights of refugees and displaced
persons.
At
this point, Amnesty started drawing criticism from governments in return. The
Soviet Union claimed that Amnesty International was involved in espionage
activities. The Moroccan government denounced Amnesty as a defender of law
breakers and the Argentine governments banned Amnesty’s 1983 Annual Report. In
the 1980s, Amnesty further widened its scope to include extra- judicial
killings and military, security and police transfers, political killings and
disappearances and other activities of government that takes a toll on the
freedom and human rights of people all over the world.
Throughout
the 1990s Amnesty continued to grow in membership, influence and scope of its
activities. Presently, Amnesty has a global membership of 2.2 million in more
than 150 countries12. Amnesty continued to work on a wide range of issues and
world events venturing into new means like arms sale, arms proliferation and
abolition of the death penalty and various aspects of several human rights
issues.
Amnesty International brought world attention to
violations committed on specific groups including refugees, racial, ethnic and
religious minorities, the plight of woman and those executed are on death
row. At the intergovernmental level,
Amnesty spear headed the creation of United Nations High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) established in 1993 and an international criminals court
established in 2002.
After
the year 2000, Amnesty’s agenda turned to challenges arising from globalization
and the aftermath of September 11, 2001, attack on the US. The issue of
globalization provoked a shift in the policy of the organization. The scope of
its work was widened to include economic, social and cultural rights, thereby
taking a plunge into an area it had declined to work on in the past. Amnesty
felt a need to involve itself here because of the growing power and influence
of non- state actors like companies and corporations. Of further concern to
Amnesty in this respect was the ability of globalization to undermine nation,
states and their governments.
Amnesty
International also focused attention on the issue of violence against women and
gender inequality, abuse of children and ….aged, control of the global arms
trade and concerns about the effectiveness of the United Nations as a world
body. In 2008, Amnesty condemned the human rights situation in Iraq and
indicted the US and her allies of serious violations. In 2009, Amnesty
International accused both Israel and Palestinian movement Hannas of
committing against each other during the January offensive in Gaza.
Key objectives of Amnesty International- The key means
in which Amnesty International concentrate its activities are summarized as
follows:
1. The protection of the rights of children
and the …aged.
2. Protection of women’s rights and promotion
of gender equality.
3. Ending torture and the use of torture
instrument by government and their agencies.
4. Abolition of the death penalty in the penal
codes of all states.
5. Protection of the rights of refugees and
displaced persons.
6. Rights of prisoners of conscience.
7. The protection of human dignity in all its
forms.
8. Promotion of religious tolerance.
9. To end the recruitment of child soldiers.
10. To respect
the rights and privileges of asylum seekers.
11. To stop
unlawful killings during armed conflict and show greater respect for the laws of man.
12. Respect for the rights of ethnic and religious
minorities.
Criticisms
1.
There
are serious claims of selective approach, bias and ideological learning against
Amnesty International.
2.
Have
been accused of pursuing the foreign policies of some countries against those
of others.
3.
Criticized
ever its attitude of tolerance towards abortion.
4.
Accused
of one sided reporting or neglect of threats as a factor.
Countries that criticize Amnesty
International most severely are Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, DRC, China,
Vietnam, United States and Vatican.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Introduction: The human rights watch is a
non-governmental organization whose basic function is to conduct research and
advocacy on human rights. It was founded in 1978 and it has offices in Berlin,
Brussels, Chicago, Hemeva, Johannes bony, London, Losangeles, Moscow, Paris,
Sanfrancisco, Tokyo and Washington DC. Its head quarters is located in New
York.
History and background:
The human rights watch was
founded in 1978 under the name, Halsinki watch. The major aim at the time was
to monitor the performance of the Soriet union in human rights issues in
compliance with the Helsinki Accords’ the HRW has a methodology of publicly “
naming and shaming” abusive government through extensive India coverage and
through direct exchange with policy makers. By relentlessly shining the
international spotlight on human rights violation in the former soviah union and its satellite
states in eastern Europe, the Helsinki watch contributed to the democratic
transformations of the region in the late 1980s. other branches of the watch
were founded in other regions of he world to carry out human rights activities.
Americans, watch was founded in 1981, at a period when bloody civil wars and
military dictatorship had engulfed central America. Relying o n extensive on-
the –ground fact finding, Americas watch not only addressed perceived abuses by
government forces but applied
international humanitarian and to investigate and expose war crimes by
rebel groups and other participants. In addition to raising its concerns in the
affected countries Americas watch also examined the role played by foreign
governments particularly the US in propping up abusive regimes by providing
both political and military support.
Asia
watch was founded in1985, Africa watch in 1988 and middle east watch. There
bodies became known as the watch committee. In 1988, all the committees were united
under one umbrella to form the human rights watch.
Profile and activities: With respect to the universal
declaration of human rights, the human rights watch have campaigned vigorously
to uphold the principles of this declaration. It opposes violations of what it
considers baric human rights which include capital punishment and
discrimination on the baris of sexual orientation. Human rights watch advocates
freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights such as freedom of
religion and the press.
Human
rights watch produces research reports on violations of human rights and what
it perceives to be other internationally accepted human rights norms. There
reports are used as the baris for drawing international attention to abuses and
putting pressure on government and international organization to carry out
baric reforms.
Researchers
carryout fact-finding missions to investigate suspicious situations and
generate coverage in local and international media. Issues raised by HRW in its
reports include social and gender discrimination, tortune, use of children for
military purposes, political comption, abuses in criminal justice systems and
the legalization of abortion, HRW documents and reports violations of abortion. HRW documents and reports
violations of the laws of war in international humanitarian law.
HRW
also supports writers worldwide who are being persecuted for their work and who
are in need of financial assistance awareness of activities who are being
silenced for speaking out in defence of human rights the grant has been a major
source of finding for HRW.
Each
year, HRW presents the human rights defenders award to activities around the
world who demonstrate leadership and courage in defending human rights. The
award winners work closely with HRW in the investigation and exposure of human
rights abuses.
Human
rights watch was one of six international NGOS that founded the coalition to
stop the one of child soldiers in 1998. it is also the co-chair of the
international campaign to Ban Band mines. The ICBL is a global coalition of
civil society groups that successfully lobbied to introduce the Ottawa treaty.
A treaty that prohibits the use of anti
personnel land mines. The HRW employs more than 275 human rights professionals,
experts, lawyers, journalists and academics.
Campaign issues: The human rights watch concentrates
in activities in the following key :
1. Traffic
in small arms
2. Land
mines
3. Gay
rights
4. Legislation
of abortion on demand
5. Pro-matriarchy
feminism
6. Rights
of aids patients
7. Safety
of civilians in war
8. The
use of cluster bombs
9. Child
labour
10. Child
soldiers
11. Street
children
12. Torture
and abuse of prisoners
13 Genocide,
war crime and crimes against humanity
14. Extra-judicial
killings and abductions
15. Trafficking
in women and girls
16. Legal
proceedings against human rights abuses
17. Abolition
of capital punishment worldwide
18. Extra-ordinary
rendition by the US
Topics and compiles annual reports world wide
presenting an overview of the state of human rights organs the world. HRW has
published extensively on the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the conflict in the DRC
and the Arab- Israeli conflict.
Comparison with Amnesty international Human rights watch and Amnesty international
one the only two western – Oriented international human rights organizations
operating world wide in most cases in situations of severe oppression or abuse.
Though close allies, the two organizations play complementary moles, more or
less, reflecting a division of labour. The major difference lie in the group’s
structure and methodology for promoting change. Amnesty is a mass-membership
organization and the mobilization of there members is the organizations central
colvocacy tool. HRW’s main products are its crisis- directed research and length
report whereas Amnesty lobbies and writes detailed reports but also focuses on
mass letter. Writing campaigns, adopting also individuals as prisoners of
conscience and lobby for their release. HRW will openly lobby for action for
other governments to take specific actions against human rights offenders
including naming specific individuals
for arrest for sanctions to be uniposed
on specific countries or organization for human rights violations. HRW has
called for punitive sanctions against the top leadership in Sudan who have
overseen a killing rights abuses often include extensive analysis of the
political and historical background of the conflicts concerned, some of which
have been published in academic journals. Amnesty’s reports on the other hand
tend to focus on specific abuses of rights, in 2011, the times of London wrote
that the HRW has ‘ all but eclipsed” Amnesty international. According to the
times, HRW depends on healthy donors who like to see the organizations reports
make headlines unlike Amnesty which is being supported by a mass membership.
The repoval further revealed that HRW
tends to concentrate much on places that the media already cares about and on
issues that tend to captivate world attention- in other words, HRW have
attracted more attention to itself and its activities than Amnesty
international. There are small difference on the issue of policy, for instance,
while HRW belives that women have the right to wear a veil, Amnesty has no
policy on the issue.
Criticisms:
1. Often
accused of poor research methods thereby leading to inaccurate reports. Many
HRW reports have been criticized as not representing the real nature of events
and issues.
2. Also
accused of selection bias: crities argue have that HRW watch tend to judge some
countries and their leaders more harshly while treaking others with kid
glovers. HRW is perceived to be anti-china, anti Serb, anti-srilanka, anti-
Ethiopia and Protsrael and pro-US. In 2008, Benzela expelled the organization
for its harsh criticisms.
3. HRW
has been accursed of ideological bias and preferences. It farous the belief
systems and ways of life of some countries and political relationships while
condemning others. It is argued that HRW’s assessments have often lack merit
and credibility.
4. HRW
funding have attracted Criticisms- it is accused of accepting money and other
financial assistance from odd sources and donors some of whom could not stand
objective secreting on human rights issues.