Amnesty International (AI)
The vision of AI is to make sure that every person in the world enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international protocols. (“Amnesty International”, 2015) In order to pursue its vision, AI’s official mission statement reads:
“Amnesty International’s mission is to conduct research and take action to prevent and end grave abuses of all human rights – civil, political, social, cultural and economic. From freedom of expression and association to physical and mental integrity, from protection from discrimination to the right to housing – these rights are indivisible.” (“Amnesty International”, 2015)
Since its inception AI has been active in campaigning and
(“WHAT WE DO”, 2015)
The major thrust of AI’s work is to spread awareness of grave abuses of human rights and pressure concerned authorities and governments to consider and take corrective actions in ending those abuses.
AI does not have an administrative authority over jurisdictions to bring in change in the status of human rights and to end its grave violations, but it --- with the assistance of its diverse and global membership of ground workforce, researchers, and activists --- strives towards getting the abuses of human rights heard far and wide through campaigning; lobbying governments and corporate world by reminding them of their promises for respecting international human rights law i.e. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example (“WHO WE ARE”, 2015)--- ; spreading the statistics through local, national, and international media coverage, and reporting of rights-status in different
It was also meant to campaign against and to end the outdated draconian law used by the Malaysian government in curbing the voices of criticism by violating her commitment to international conventions and treaties like International Bill of Rights at UN, for example.
In this story the challenges faced by AI campaigners and activists in voicing for Zunar’s release are yet to be seen.
The second example of one the recent campaigns of AI is the call to Minister of Justice and Human Rights of Burkina Faso to take concrete steps in addressing the widespread practice, especially in the Sahel region, of forcefully marrying the under-aged girls. It is prohibited under national laws of Burkina Faso to allow under-aged and forced marriages as it is under International conventions to which this country is a signatory. (“Burkina Faso”, 2015)
The purpose of this campaign was to pressure Burkina Faso authorities to respect the human rights laws and to spread awareness among public as to how the government has turned a blind eye to this grave violation of human
Human rights are the rights in which all the human beings are entitled by virtue of their being as a human (Manchester University Press, 2001). The concept of the human rights itself is an abstract. However, when it is applied, it has the direct and enormous impact on the daily life of the people in the world. How the human rights applied in the broader circumstance is really having a long journey. Until in 1945, after the World War II, the United Nations (UN) was established as one of the effort to uphold the human rights to encourage the governments in promoting and guarding the human rights. Human rights are a central element of international law and also the UN Charter’s broad approach for the international peace and security
In the introductory part of Wallach and Allen’s book, they present three essential issues, one of them is “does the world need AMAs?”(p.9) Wallach and Allen give a positive answer, they believe that with the rapid development in new technology and mechanization, intelligent autonomous robot begin coming into our lives, AMAs may bring a variety of ethical and social issues, in support of artificial intelligence, to human society. This makes the AMAs show a certain degree of harm to society. However, the development of AMAs cannot be stopped because some futurists and social critics are criticizing the issues in the future technology of AMAs may arise. Facing the importance of risk assessment in the progress of building AMAs, they seek “precautionary principle” from ethics to regulate the AMAs, and point out that there should be a standard to use or not use those ethical principles. (p.52) conditionally assessing risk using appropriate methods, and use this basis to reassess the danger of developing AMAs is greater than risk or not. Wallach and Allen maintain an optimistic attitude about the future, they believe in the near future, “It will be possible to engineer systems that are more sensitive to the laws and moral considerations that inform ethical decisions than anything presently available.”(p.214) in view of this, Wallach a...
They have a responsibility to understand our potential impacts on human rights and to mitigate or eliminate them. They are committed to operating in accord...
There have been many humanitarians that strive to help countries suffering with human right abuses. People think that the help from IGOs and NGOs will be enough to stop human rights violations. However, it hasn’t been effective. Every day, more and more human rights violations happen. The problem is escalating. People, including children, are still being forced to work to death, innocent civilians are still suffering the consequences of war, and families are struggling to stay firm together. Despite the efforts from the people, IGOs, and NGOs, In the year 2100, human rights abuse will not end.
The issue of human rights has arisen only in the post-cold war whereby it was addressed by an international institution that is the United Nation. In the United Nation’s preamble stated that human rights are given to all humans and that there is equality for everyone. There will not be any sovereign states to diminish its people from taking these rights. The globalization of capitalism after the Cold War makes the issue of human rights seems admirable as there were sufferings in other parts of the world. This is because it is perceived that the western states are the champion of democracy which therefore provides a perfect body to carry out human rights activities. Such human sufferings occur in a sovereign state humanitarian intervention led by the international institution will be carried out to end the menace.
Taken from an edited version of a speech by Sabina Virgo, given in L.A. on International Human Rights Day, December 8, 1990.
One of the key International Organizations that work on behalf of Human right issues is Amnesty International. It is a global nongovernmental organization that is campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. It is independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion. The primary mission of the organization is to investigate and expose the facts, whenever and wherever abuses happen, lobby governments, and other powerful groups such as companies, Making sure they keep their promises and respect international law, By telling the powerful stories of the people we
An AI, Portia fighting to have the rights of a human was in court yesterday. Representing her, a very well-known and an experienced Human Rights Lawyer, Kimiko Saunders. The Recovery Program, designed to recycle old AI’s were intent on taking Portia and recycling her but she had other plans. She believes that she is a human and is fighting to have the rights of a human. Beside her in court was a Human Rights Lawyer, Tara (the owner of the AI) and Sam (friend of Tara). The fierce court case lasted for three full days and as the days passed the battle of the opinions kept mounting until it met a conclusion, Judge Ironmonger declared the AI as Human.
In the article “Opinion: Robots and Refugees” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, she talks of the World Economic Forum, a meeting of many people which discuss the things going on in the world. Two of the many topics discussed were robots and refugees. The refugee crisis, which continues to be a problem today, the same as it had been when the article was written in February 2016. The chairman of the WEF Klaus
...s Watch | Defending Human Rights Worldwide. Human Rights Watch, 29 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
Every day, people are denied basic necessary human rights. One well known event that striped millions of these rights was the Holocaust, recounted in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. As a result of the atrocities that occur all around the world, organizations have published declarations such as the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights. It is vital that the entitlement to all rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, freedom of thought and religion, and the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of themselves be guaranteed to everyone, as these three rights are crucial to the survival of all people and their identity.
Amnesty International helps develop programs that will assist people to stop institutionalized discrimination against a group of people. A great of example of how Amnesty helped stop discrimination against women in Morroco, according to their website, is when they assuaged the Moroccan parliament to change it 's rape law in 2014. This meant rapists cannot escape jail, by forcibly marrying the person they raped (aljazeera.com). These steps to prevent discrimination, needs to be done so that we have a fair world, where no one is dicriminated against for who they are or what they believe
it is their very incapacity that brings us in” meaning people do not earn human rights via revolution, reform, or through any other means, but rather they are inherent to all humans, whereas sovereignty acts merely as a tool which allows a government to have rule over its citizens. When we take into account the fact that the government of the nation committing the rights abuses uses sovereignty as an instrument to contradict its purpose, it becomes obvious that we can no longer find value in it, however human rights are always of value, and always an end we are obligated to strive for. A global obligation to protect the rights of all humans exists, and in situations such as the one at hand choosing not to act equates to allowing the injustice to
The current century has witnessed immense improvement and re-conceptualization of standards and sovereignty of human rights in Latin America. With the endemic repression and violations of human rights throughout Latin American in the mid to late 20th century, the International human rights regime, an amalgam of international and intergovernmental organizations and bodies, expanded exponentially. By conducting investigations within certain countries, or simply monitoring overt violations of human rights, the international human rights regime stimulated global awareness of violations of human rights in different countries; soon to follow was change in domestic policy in response to international policy. This also led to increased opposition by domestic NGOs against repressive governments or dictatorships largely responsible for human rights violations. Just as well, a number of organizations and groups aided domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their growing efforts to establish judicial practices that better protected human rights. Declarations, conventions, and charters, established a number of values that served as the credo for the organizations that constituted the international human rights regime. Over time, more and more countries were pressured and held accountable for these values, which developed into universal standards for human rights practices. Thus the International Human right regime and the pressure they imposed upon governments ultimately resulted in widespread positive changes in human rights.
"The only thing necessary for the persistence of evil is for enough good people to do nothing." (Peter Benenson). Those words have reflected the reality of our world since the cavemen ages to the present time. If those words had been heeded, Germany wouldn't have advanced past Rhineland to cause World War 2. If those words had been followed, people in places like Burma or North Korea would have the right to express their opinions. If only all human beings followed that simple one sentence, our world would be a more beautiful, peaceful, and joyful place for everyone. However, it is never too late to change the way people listen to those words. Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization formed in 1961 is designated to stop the persistence of evil by helping all citizens in the world gain internationally recognized human rights such as freedom of speech, humane treatment of prisoners, the right to education, and they also make a global report each year to inform the world about human rights issues in each country.