'A mobilization of shame'

...On October 1,1993, Amnesty was working on 3,507 "action files" involving 8,906 persons and had so far that year initiated 551 urgent appeals to its networks across the globe These new actions were issued on behalf of people who had been victims of torture, political killings, disappearances, or similar serious violations of human rights...

...6 REPORT ON AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 'A MOBILIZATION OF SHAME' SPEAKING AGAINST THE UNSPEAKABLE I first became closely acquainted with Amnesty International in November 1976, when I was on an Amnesty delegation to Argentina, a nation which in March 1976 had been taken over by a military coup...

...Within a day Amnesty had alerted over fifty nations to launch a protest The ambassadors of these nations in Chile brought intense pressure on the Pinochet government to release this political prisoner Within seventy-two hours the outspoken doctor was back with his family A recent visit to Amnesty's London headquarters reminded me of the vast, worldwide network of resources which the organization possesses I was not prepared for the intense security around Amnesty's building in London, but clearly tyrants everywhere in the world would like to destroy the files kept there...

...In 112 nations prisoners were tortured or abused Political assassinations occurred in sixty-one countries The extent of the human rights violations in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe is appalling The report also discloses the persistent, pervasive, and penetrating messages Amnesty sent to the world press The 352-page annual report also desenbes at some length the intense collaboration which Amnesty International maintains with human rights groups, both public and private, across the globe I saw that collaboration at its finest in 1993 during the eight days of the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna I was there as a representative of the American Bar Association and witnessed the magnificent leadership which Amnesty gave to other nongovernmental organizations and to the entire conference...

...The 1994 report reveals the details of Amnesty's somber mission...

...Amnesty was looked to by everyone as a pnncipal architect of that remarkable gathering, which brought together delegates from 154 nations and from two thousand nongovernmental organizations Amnesty's crusade for human rights concentrates on political rather than economic rights Central to its agenda is an opposition to capital punishment In annual report after annual report the entry about the United States repeats Amnesty's condemnation of the practice, and notes that the death penalty has been abolished everywhere in Europe and in almost every nation in Latin America Amnesty is also the world's clearinghouse for information about the progress of the ratification of the United Nations covenant on human nghts Again the United States lags behind almost every other nation In June 1994, the United States finally ratified the international covenant on political and international nghts, but has yet to ratify major UN covenants on the nghts of women and children Indeed, the United States has not even ratified the Amencan Convention on Human Rights, thus depnving the United States of a voice and vote in the InterAmencan Commission and Court of Human Rights based in Costa Rica The massive outpounng of literature from Amnesty is filled with facts, names, and tragic stones There is no concentration on theory or philosophy Amnesty, in its own words, wants to orchestrate a "mobilization of shame...

...Accompanied by Sir Enc Avebury, a member of the Bntish House of Lords, and a staff member from the London office of Amnesty, I helped to conduct inquiries for several days, wrote the report, gave the government thirty days to reply to it, and then released it...

...And it has succeeded far better than could conceivably have been imagined by its founder in 1961 When I speak at the first meeting of the Amnesty chapter at Georgetown University Law Center each fall, I usually remind the students that Amnesty has helped to liberate 25,000 political prisoners I also recall the stirring statement made by Amnesty on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary—a statement which epitomizes the very essence of its mission4 When you do something to help a pnsoner of conscience or to try to save someone from torture, you are doing something of incalculable value—even if it may seem very modest to you You are taking a stand for human dignity You are saying that you refuse to accept the torture, the humiliation, and the silencing of another human being...

...My rejoinder that Amnesty had just recently published a definitive study of the horrors of the Soviet Gulag never made the press in Argentina Since 1976 my admiration for Amnesty has increased in every way...

...In the face of cruelty and the arrogant abuse of limitless power, you are proving—by personal example— to both the victims and their tormentors that compassion, justice, and human love are still alive ROBERT F DRINAN Robert F Drinan, S J, is professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D C 7...

...The recent publication of Amnesty's thirty-second annual report confirms and deepens my appreciation and gratitude for this organization established by an English Catholic attorney in 1961 after he became angry when he read of the brutal repression earned out on citizens in Portugal This man, Peter Benenson, deliberately chose Trinity Sunday in 1961 to launch Amnesty It was an appropriate year, Mr Benenson noted, because it commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in America and the liberation of the serfs in Russia Amnesty now has 1 1 million members in over 150 countries There are 4,349 local units plus several thousand university and other groups in eighty nations...

...The process was scrupulously fair, comprehensive, and impartial Although Amnesty International had not yet won the Nobel Peace Prize, the military and government-controlled press in Buenos Aires knew the worldwide power of Amnesty The visiting human rights delegation was excoriated in the press and Amnesty was scorned as a Communist front...

...I personally witnessed the impact of an "urgent action message" from Amnesty In the 1980s I was on a human rights mission in Chile—immediately before Pinochet was removed from office by a democratic election The government in Santiago had just imprisoned and sentenced to interior exile a prominent physician because he had stated openly that the government was engaged in torturing political dissidents...