Rhetorical Analysis: Amnesty International

Human rights have only been around since the 20th century. The issue raised is whether or not these rights belong to every person. Amnesty International provides a brochure arguing that not everyone has access to human rights. Amnesty International believes many people in third world countries are not given basic and fair human rights and they believe the Australian public should ‘speak out’ for these people.
The front page of the brochure presents an image depicting a zip tie with writing over it. It states “You have the right to remain silent” with the zip being opened a small amount. This suggests that the zip is the lips of a person and they are not speaking out. Behind this image is another image with the same concept but the zip is more open and has the words “You also have the right to speak out”. The repetition of “right” shows the audience of the issue surrounding. Above this image, the writer of the brochure lists anecdotes of numerous ways of how human rights are breached. The writer does in an attempt to get the audience to feel empathetic for the people involved. Each of these anecdotes is used to also draw the feeling of empathy from the audience. The use of words such as “death”, “no justice” and “tortured” appeals to our sense of fear and fairness, with fear in the way these people are treated and the unfairness that they are

They do this to make the audience feel that they can become someone who is of authority and thus gives them the ability to influence a change. Statistics are also presented to keep the interested and aware of the issue. The brochure told us that we had the right to remain silent but as we go on they ask the audience to “please don’t remain silent”. They do this to show the audience that they have a choice to do what’s “right”. It is also done to not make it feel like the audience is forced to donate but to be eased into doing