•What
is Amnesty International?
Amnesty
International is an independent worldwide movement campaigning to protect
and promotebasic human rights. The main focus of its campaigning is to: |
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| 1-Free
all prisoners of conscience; these are people who have been detained for
their beliefs or because of their ethnic origin, sex, color or language,
who have not used or advocated violence. |
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2-Ensure
fair and prompt trials for political prisoners.
3-Abolish
the death penalty, torture and cruel treatment prisoners.
4-
End extra judicial executions and "disappearances". |
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•.How
did Amnesty International begin?
In 1961
a British lawyer, Peter Benenson, wrote a newspaper article urging people
everywhere to work impartially and peacefully for the release of prisoners
of conscience. Within a month more than a thousand people from various
countries had offered practical help. What started as a one off publicity
effort became a growing international movement. |
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•.Who
supports Amnesty International?
Amnesty
International is open to anyone who supports its goals. The members come
from all walks of life and reflect a wide variety views. All are encouraged
to
participate as fully as possible in Amnesty International many activities. |
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•Is
Amnesty International political?
Amnesty
International does not support or oppose any government or political system.
it is impartial. it does not necessarily support or oppose the views of
the prisoners whose rights it seeks to protect it. it is concerned solely
with the protection of the human rights involved in each case, regardless
of the ideology of the government or the beliefs of the victims. |
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•Does
Amnesty International oppose abuses by opposition groups?
Yes. Amnesty
International opposes hostage taking, the torture and killing of prisoners
and other arbitrary killings by opposition groups. This does not, however,
change Amnesty International primary focus on government responsibilities. |
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•How
does Amnesty International obtain its information?
Amnesty
International attaches have great importance to impartial and accurate
reporting of facts. Its activities depend on meticulous research into allegations
of human rights violations. The International Secretariat in London
(with some 300 staff comprising about 40 nationalities) has a Research
Department which collects and analyses information from a wide variety
of sources. These include hundreds of newspapers and journals, government
bulletins, transcriptions of radio broadcasts, reports from lawyers and
humanitarian organizations, as well as letters from prisoners and their
families. Amnesty International also sends fact-finding missions for on-the-spot
investigations and to observe trials, meet prisoners and interview government
officials. Amnesty International takes full responsibility for its published
reports; if proved wrong on any point it issues a correction. |
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•What
does Amnesty International do with its information?
Once the
International Secretariat has established that a case should be acted upon,
details and action suggestions are sent to its volunteer membership. In
some cases a dossier will be sent to one or more Amnesty International
groups, which will then begin campaigning from abroad to the authorities
of the country concerned. In addition, information about current or long-term
human rights concerns is documented in reports, newsletters, books, videos,
photograph exhibitions and other campaigning material. Such material is
always circulated to the membership during major campaigns. Every year
a worldwide summary of Amnesty International research and activities is
published in an annual report. |
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•How
is Amnesty International financed?
Amnesty
International rules about accepting donations are strict and ensure that
any funds received by any part of the organization do not affect its integrity,
make it dependent on any donor or limit its freedom of activity. By far
the greatest part of the movement funds come from small, individual donations,
from membership fees and local fund-raising events. It does not seek or
accept government money under any circumstance. |
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•Amnesty
International around the world.
Amnesty
International members run the movement they finance. There are sections
in more than 40 countries and many more local groups worldwide. Major policy
decisions are taken by an International council made up for representatives
from all Sections. They elect an International Executive Committee which
carries out their decisions and appoints the movement Secretary General
who also heads the International Secretariat. To maintain the impartiality
that is fundamental to the movement, Amnesty International groups and members
do not provide information on human rights violations in their own country.
Nor do they take action, as Amnesty International members, on individual
cases in their own countries. Such concerns are taken up by members in
other parts of the world in the spirit of international solidarity. Members
do, however, take part in campaigns to prevent human rights violation in
their own country. For example, they mount human rights education program
in local schools, campaign for the abolition of the death penalty, and
lobby their government to ratify their international human rights standards.
Groups also translate and distribute Amnesty International human rights
reports on every country in the world, including their own. |
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TO JOIN
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PLEASE CONTACT:
http://rights.amnesty.org/
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