Who are we? Amnesty International is the world’s largest human rights organization. We fight for the protection of human liberties, as detailed in the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights): like freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and protection from physical abuse. Amnesty International is a charitable organization, funded entirely from donations. We serve no economic or political interests, only what is right. All our campaigns are founded on research from our tireless investigators who help us to bring attention to those whose human rights are being denied them. We are currently active in 150 countries, from Britain to Bangladesh, and have over 7 million supporters worldwide.
What do we do? The official Amnesty International website details the most pressing human rights violations, whether they are committed by corporations or countries. Past examples include: the numerous activists that the Chinese government have detained over the years; the Venezuelan government’s attacks on political opposition in the wake of economic turmoil; and the injustice of American Glen Ford, a man who spent 20 years on death row for a crime that he didn’t commit. The Write for Rights campaign is our central engine for change. Through it, the worldwide members of Amnesty International pick up pens and sign petitions demanding change from governments or companies that deny people their natural rights. With the help of signatures from people like you, we can quickly fill these petitions with names and have them sent off. You might be sceptical of how effective this is. Surely massive corporations or governments don’t listen to people like us, or care about little scraps of paper?
Well, actually, they do. Most countries and companies are surprisingly vulnerable to negative media perception. When organizations like Amnesty make a noise and bring attention to their actions, a companies’ stock value often takes a large hit and nations that rely on tourism and trade to bring in a significant portion of their economic activity suddenly find themselves losing income fast. There’s a reason that we have forced
the hands of huge companies like Shell to pay £55 million to people whose lives were ruined by oil spills and powerful nations like China, who released activists Wei Tingting, Wang Man, Wu Rongrong, Li Tingting and Zheng Churan in 2015 alone; not to mention the United States government, who ruled the NSA (National Security Agency)’s mass surveillance of phone records was fundamentally wrong.
Where are we? The schools’ Amnesty club is led by Mr Woolley, where a group of students discuss different Amnesty cases. You can find us in Room 46 in the RMPS department on a Tuesday lunchtime. If you feel unsure about Amnesty as a club and just want to try it for a small period of time or won’t be able to regularly attend but still want to join in, that’s fine. You can come along whenever it suits you and join us in learning about new cases and writing letters. We’d love to see you there!
James Hossack 5K, Sam Skakel 5K, Brodie Miller 5E, James Macinnes 4G
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