Tag Archives: Amnesty Members

Dirty Wars: It’s Time to Pick Sides

October 8, 2013 at 2:33 PM

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This post is part of a series written by Amnesty USA’s National Youth Program Coordinator Kalaya’an Mendoza from the road of the Game of Drones tour. Follow the tour on Tumblr and take action to prevent extrajudicial killings with drones and other weapons.

By the time the stragglers reached the auditorium at the Ithaca College showing of Dirty Wars, everyone was packed shoulder to shoulder in their seats, a solid mass of people talking excitedly and straining to get closer to the screen. I saw one young woman squirm through the crowd to find one of the last empty seats, wedging herself between two others.

A quiet slowly settled across the room and the film began, Jeremy Scahill’s voice carrying through the auditorium. The faces of children who have lost mothers and uncles and grandparents to U.S. strikes with drones and other weapons flashed across the screen. The film details the raids and strikes that characterize President Obama’s deadliest and most secret game: the Game of Drones.

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Why I Fight to End the #GameOfDrones

October 4, 2013 at 2:55 PM

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This post is part of a series written by Amnesty USA’s National Youth Program Coordinator Kalaya’an Mendoza from the road of the Game of Drones tour. Follow the tour on Tumblr and take action to prevent extrajudicial killings with drones and other weapons. 

As a young activist, I stood up for the first time when I was in middle school at a school board meeting on racial profiling. I was so nervous as I walked up to the microphone; sweat was beaded on my forehead and my heart was pounding in my chest. Though my voice was shaking, I found the courage to speak, but within a few sentences, I knew the board wasn’t listening.

My eyes passed over these people who were supposed to be our leaders, and I saw one of them nodding off. In a flash of anger, I decided that I would not be silenced. I turned to the crowd of people who had come with me that day and shouted, “What do we want?”

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“I Knew I Could Not Be Silent”: How This Student Helped Free An Imprisoned Activist

September 26, 2013 at 5:02 PM
The Urgent Action Network continues to be one of the most powerful tools student activists have (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

The Urgent Action Network continues to be one of the most powerful tools student activists have (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

This post is the third in a three-part blog series commemorating the launch of Amnesty USA’s redesigned Urgent Action Network. Read on for how this updated tool will help activists make a stronger impact.

In the never ending stream of pamphlets, tri-fold boards, and issues on college campuses, students are often left wondering what impact their voice actually makes. As an Amnesty International student leader at Virginia Commonwealth University, I was able to show students that their voice had the power to impact the lives of people at risk of human rights violations around the world. I used the tools provided by Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network to engage students and send their voices to the chambers of a legislature, into the ears of oppressors and through the bars of a jail cell.

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Will Rouhani Create Meaningful Reforms or Play Political Games?

September 26, 2013 at 10:54 AM

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The global community recently celebrated the release of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and what appears to be dozens of others, among them political prisoners. However, we should reserve judgment regarding the future of human rights under the new administration in Iran until all those who remain unjustly imprisoned are freed and Iranians achieve the freedoms they have been demanding for several decades.

Sotoudeh, who had been detained in Iran since September 2010, was originally sentenced to 11 years in jail for “spreading propaganda against the system” and “acting against national security.” In reality, she is a lawyer who has defended many high-profile human rights campaigners, political activists, and juvenile offenders on death row. Throughout her career she publicly, but peacefully, challenged the Iranian authorities about the shortcomings of the rule of law and due process in the proceedings against her clients.

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Bringing Human Rights Home: A Message From Amnesty USA Executive Director Steven W. Hawkins

September 25, 2013 at 10:17 AM

I grew up in the shadow of Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York. As a boy, I would walk by Sing Sing and hear the inmates talking, a stark and sobering reminder of the dashed dreams of the many men I knew growing up who ended up impoverished, incarcerated or killed. Young men like my childhood best friend, who is currently serving a life sentence.

For many activists who join the struggle for human rights, there is a transformative moment, which inspires a lifelong commitment to social advocacy. For me, that moment came inside the walls of Sing Sing prison.

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6 Questions Shell Oil Doesn’t Want You to Ask About Oil Pollution in the Niger Delta

September 24, 2013 at 2:50 PM

By Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Thematic Issues at Amnesty International

Full transparency is vital to establishing real solutions to oil spills and oil theft in the Niger Delta. But those that resist this most are oil companies such as Shell. If they are committed to addressing the Niger Delta’s problems of theft, sabotage and oil spills, why will they not disclose the relevant oil spill investigation data?

With that question in mind, here are 6 other questions Shell seems to be unable to answer about their role in oil pollution in Nigeria.

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Inside the Development of Amnesty’s New Panic Button App

September 2, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Activists create a visual agenda for a week of workshops focused on using technology in human rights work (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

Activists create a visual agenda for a week of workshops focused on using technology in human rights work (Photo Credit: Amnesty International).

By Tanya O’Carroll, Technology & Human Rights Project Officer at Amnesty International

When Amnesty was founded 50 years ago, our tool of choice was the pen. Thousands would write letters to governments demanding the release of Prisoners of Conscience. Pen and paper helped release human rights advocates in many countries around the world.

New technologies – such as social media and mobile Internet – have fundamentally changed how we shed light on and respond to human rights abuses. Today, almost anyone with a mobile phone can be a human rights monitor and challenge the abuse of power by capturing and sharing documentation of abuses as they happen.

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Why We Write #4Rights

December 5, 2012 at 2:53 PM

Loneliness is creeping in.  You’ve pushed beyond the limits of exhaustion.  Your bones ache and tears have dried to your face.

You can’t go on like this. 

Then, the letters arrive.  At first, just a few.  Then, day by day, they grow.  Soon, beautiful messages scrawled on colorful paper and decorative cards fill your world.  These are letters written by people in nearby cities and far away countries.  They are messages of support and solidarity, hope and inspiration, and strength and motivation from people you don’t even know.  They are messages written to both you and those who have imprisoned you.

At that moment, you realize that these aren’t just letters – they are life lines.  You feel free again.

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