Category Archives: Amnesty Members

General news about Amnesty International and our members.

10 Fair Trade Gifts for Mother’s Day

May 3, 2012 at 2:33 PM
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What better way to give thanks to mom then by giving her something beautiful and with a sincere message!

Our mother’s day picks are all handmade, fairly traded and support local mothers and their families.

We source products from organizations like Mercado Global and Swahili Imports that work with local communities to produce beautiful, high quality and sustainable crafts to increase livelihoods of their artists. Your gift would not only be in celebration of your own mother, but also a contribution to other mothers and their families!

And feel free to explore more free trade items on our online store. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Amnesty Is Up For a Webby But We Need Your Vote!

April 16, 2012 at 4:11 PM
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The annual Webby Awards – or the “Oscars” of the Web – honors the best of the Internet. And this year we are honored to be nominated!

Our website, Amnesty International USA, is nominated under the category for Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit.

Help us win by voting for us now! Everyone over 13 is allowed to vote once a day until April 26th.

Our website is crucial to connecting our members to the important issues we work on every day.  It also empowers users to take action to free prisoners, end torture and improve the human rights situation in places everywhere.

Thank you to the Webby Awards for recognizing our work! Also thanks to our online community for helping us earn this nomination. We hope the exposure this nomination (and a possible win?) brings will help us reach even more people and advance our global movement against injustice both on and offline!

The Year of Rebellion

January 9, 2012 at 9:24 AM
egypt demonstration protest

Demonstrators' resilience in 2011 has changed the regional context for human rights © AP Photo / Tarek Fawzy

This week, we  approach the first major anniversary of the popular uprisings that began to sweep through the Middle East and North Africa last year. On January 14, 2011, Tunisia’s long time president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, fled the country to Saudi Arabia. Since December Ben Ali has been on trial – in absentia – along with about 40 other senior officials, for the killing of protesters.

The following weeks will be marked by the anniversaries of uprisings and the resignations of repressive dictators who were ultimately swept away by “a power governments cannot suppress” (transporting a Howard Zinn term to a different region).

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A Lens on Human Rights: Film Festival Marks Amnesty's 50th Anniversary

October 13, 2011 at 11:16 AM

Artists, musicians and filmmakers have always played a crucial role in the human rights movement, using their voices to protest injustices and inspire others to care. This Saturday, October 15th this vital relationship continues, as the Hamptons International Film Festival marks the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International with a special panel focusing on the 50-year legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement.

The panel looks at this movement through three feature films about Americans who worked tirelessly for human dignity and equality during the 1950s and 1960s: Sing Your Song about Harry Belafonte; The Loving Story; and All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert.  The panel will be an open discussion featuring each of the film directors, led by Amnesty International USA board member Joan Libby Hawk. If you’re in the New York area, join us at 2PM October 15th at the First Presbyterian Church Session House in East Hampton, New York. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Syrian Activist Ghayath Mattar Killed In Detention – Show Your Solidarity

September 16, 2011 at 10:08 AM

Eight ambassadors to Syria took a dramatic step this week in condemning the Syrian crackdown by attending a vigil for a well-known Syrian activist. The activist, Ghayath Mattar, was reportedly killed under torture by security forces last week in Daraya, and his death was honored by hundreds of Syrians and the ambassadors from the US, Great Britain, Japan, and other EU countries.

The coordinated attendance of so many foreign leaders was an unprecedented and powerful statement of solidarity with the Syrian people that follows the deaths of an estimated 2,600 Syrians to date and confirmed reports of at least 95 deaths in detention.

The spiraling total of detainee deaths, together with the Syrian authorities’ failure to conduct any independent investigations, points to a pattern of systematic, government-sanctioned abuse in which every detainee must be considered at serious risk. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Joan Baez, Amnesty and You

September 8, 2011 at 9:38 AM

Following is a special message from longtime Amnesty supporter Joan Baez during our annual September Membership Drive:

Joan Baez

Dear Amnesty Supporter,

All my life I’ve felt humbled in the face of the suffering of others. It is only that I, by accident of birth, was born in the right place at the right time, and that someone else, not me, huddles in a prison cell, is tortured, and faces the unbearable consequences of having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, as the legendary Phil Ochs song says, there but for fortune, go you or I.

Happily for me, I discovered early on that, in the words of Swedish Ambassador Harald Edelstam, “I cannot tolerate injustice.” This inability to tolerate injustice has brought me to the roots of human misery, called me to engage in the fight for the rights, freedoms, and the dignity of others. And in so doing, has helped me to maintain my own dignity.

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Amnesty Activists Worldwide Convene To Address Human Rights

August 16, 2011 at 1:46 PM

Several hundred Amnesty activists from around the world are currently gathered to discuss the most pressing human rights issues of our time at Amnesty International’s 2011 International Council Meeting (ICM) in Noordwijkerhout, near Amsterdam, the Netherlands from August 14-19.

The ICM happens every two years and attendees decide on the future direction of our movement. This year for the first time you can go online to follow events as they unfold and join in the conversation.

We love this special message Aung San Suu Kyi recorded for ICM attendees and all Amnesty members everywhere.

Act Now or Gitmo Never Ends

August 3, 2011 at 3:30 PM

© US DoD

When Congress returns from its summer recess in September one of the first tasks on its agenda will be hammering out a final draft of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Unless we take action now this bill will lay the foundation for a permanent military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

As things currently stand, both the House and Senate have both produced language in their respective drafts of the NDAA that seeks to redefine the authority under which the President conducts the ‘war’ on al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ‘associated forces’.

One lingering concern in Congress is that the original Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks failed to create a framework under which to detain private individuals captured during military operations. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

10 Books for Your 2011 Summer Reading List

July 27, 2011 at 2:06 PM

Looking for a good book to add to your summer reading list that won’t bore but will also educate you about human rights? We asked our bloggers and staff members to recommend fiction and non-fiction titles published in the last year that do just that.

So behold, our list of 10 books (in no particular order) to add to your Kindle, Nook, or library queue right now. If your favorite didn’t make the list, please share your recommendations in the comments area below.

1. Then They Came For Me by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy
Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist, tells the story of his imprisonment and mistreatment in Iran for four months in 2009. His own story is weaved into that of his father and sister, who were also imprisoned for political reasons in earlier years. This book makes both for a gripping memoir and an introduction to the history of human rights in Iran. To learn more about human rights in Iran after reading this book, visit our website. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST