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.
Continue reading ‘Launching Report 2007 in a volatile environment’
Add to social bookmarking sites:
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
Add to social bookmarking sites:
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.
Continue reading ‘A swell of emotion and pride’
Add to social bookmarking sites:
It was a bright, cold December morning and I was cycling through the streets of London in an orange jumpsuit. Not something I’d normally do, but I had a good reason. I was on my way to an AI demonstration at Downing Street - organised to mark the beginning of a month of activism calling for the closure of Guantánamo and the return of UK residents. My role was back-up protestor - called into action if any of the eight others didn’t make it.
Add to social bookmarking sites:
This is an extract from the blog by Amnesty International’s delegation who went on mission to Chad in November 2006:
The attack left 40 dead –shot or burned to death including three babies and one crippled elderly man. Seven women were abducted during the course of that attack and held for several hours during which time they were gang raped by Janjawid fighters.
Now the entire village has fled and perches, displaced, on the outside of Goz Beida with no security, no assistance.
Continue reading ‘Reassuring the survivors in Chad, November 2006′
Add to social bookmarking sites:
