Amnesty International calls for action against repression, injustice

May 27, 2011
Accra , May 27, GNA - Global human rights organisation, Amnesty International (AI), will mark its 50th anniversary on May 28 with the launch of a Global Call to Action designed to help tip the scales against repression and injustice.

A statement received in Accra on Friday ahead of the celebration said the anniversary comes against the backdrop of a changing human rights landscape, as people across the Middle East and North Africa courageously confront oppression, tyranny and corruption - often in the face of bloodshed and state violence.

It said with these protests dramatically demonstrating the need for international solidarity on human rights, Amnesty International's new Global Call to Action includes a digital "Earth Candle" - a significant online breakthrough that allowed activists for the first time to see an overview of the organisation's worldwide actions, and how their own actions added to this force for change.

"This is accompanied by a new drive - 'Be one more, ask one more, act once more' - that aims to achieve a huge collective impact worldwide."

The AI urged everyone, including its three million members and supporters in more than 150 countries and territories, to encourage at least one other person to take action for human rights.

"The launch of the global initiative will see dozens of countries from Argentina to Ghana to Turkey to New Zealand holding a symbolic toast to freedom."

It said this global event paid tribute to the tale of two Portuguese students imprisoned for raising their glasses to liberty - an injustice that so outraged British lawyer Peter Benenson that he launched Amnesty International on 28 May 1961.

Mr Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General, said the call for freedom, justice and dignity had moved from the margins and was now a truly global demand.

AI said despite progress, human rights violations were at the heart of key challenges facing the world today.

"Governments are failing to uphold the promises of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and are fuelling or ignoring violations.

"Almost two-thirds of humanity lacks access to justice; abuses are driving and deepening poverty; discrimination against women is rife; and in the last year alone Amnesty International has documented torture and ill-treatment in at least 98 countries."

Mr Shetty said that activism was a powerful force for change, as shown by the brave protestors in the Arab Spring.

"We can offer something that the forces of repression can never contain or silence: people united in common action; the sharp and powerful rallying of public opinion; the lighting of one candle at a time until millions of candles expose injustice, and create pressure for change," he said.

AI said it would this year focus on six areas where people power can create real improvements: freedom of expression, abolition of the death penalty, reproductive rights for women and girls in Nicaragua , ensuring international justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, corporate accountability in the Niger Delta, and ending injustice and oppression in the Middle East and North Africa .

GNA