We decided to launch the AI Report 2007 in Beirut, part of a volatile region in which the human rights record is a challenging one.
A week prior to the event, with the help of Lebanese AI members, we had almost everything prepared. Then, four days before the launch, the country was rocked by an explosion of violence.
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In her 2007 Report speech, Secretary General Irene Khan described how “powerful governments… deliberately fomented fear to erode human rights.”
In my job at Amnesty International I think a lot about torture. I think about how governments are able to make people think that torture is acceptable — at least in some circumstances. And I think about the people I have met who have been tortured - and the disconnection between their experiences and what government officials try to argue.
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Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General, has followed up her post on Comment is Free with a post on one of the world’s most popular blog sites - The Huffington Post.
Our world today is deeply polarized. Comparisons are increasingly being made with the Cold War but in many ways it is more complex and dangerous now, because the opponents are not just governments but also armed groups with little or no stake in international relations.
Like the Cold War times, the political agenda is being driven by fear: fear of ‘rogue states’ with weapons of mass destruction; fear of being blown up by terrorist bombs; fear of being swamped by migrants; fear of ‘the other’ and of losing one’s national identity.
Read more: Report 2007: The State of the World’s Human Rights
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As we pulled together press packs in English and Russian for today’s simultaneous launch of the AIR in Moscow, we wondered nervously how many people would come. Not only was it a wilting 32 degrees C, but the evening before we had heard from a group of journalists and civil society activists how difficult it presently was for independent voices to speak out and be heard in the Russian Federation.
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As I stood in the launch room of the Foreign Press Association in London, watching the videos, photos and individual testimonies of those on the front line of human rights, I felt a genuine swell of emotion and pride wash over me. Which I had certainly not been expecting!
The Editorial and Publishing Programme has been working with researchers, campaigners and policy and legal advisers for at least six months, trying to ensure we represent the organization’s research and the concerns of the individuals we work with and for accurately and powerfully.
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Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General, has posted an entry on the popular Comment is Free blog on the website of the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
There was real optimism in international relations in the early 1990s - the Berlin wall had fallen; democracy and freedom were on the march in many parts of the world; peace in Northern Ireland looked possible; talks at Camp David promised reconciliation in the Middle East.
“But just a decade and a half later, the world is again mired in conflicts and crises, reviving a cold war mentality of a polarised international community, proxy wars and human rights sacrificed in the name of security or political expediency. Agendas driven by fear dominate.
Read more: Ending the politics of fear
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There are a few major tasks that need to be completed before the public gets its first look at each year’s Amnesty International Report online. All of the entries need to be written, checked, and formatted, images need to be added, video and audio material needs to be uploaded - and then they all need to be combined to create the website.
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