Transcending Politics

To be a strong human rights movement, AIUSA must be a broad-based movement. While we strive to make AIUSA a welcoming place for people of different colors, religions, income levels and ages, we must also make it an organization that welcomes people with different political viewpoints. For the people who look to us for help in protecting their rights, we must build an AIUSA that can inspire Americans with divergent political ideologies to fight for human rights.

For Love and for Law

After Masood went missing, family and friends worked tirelessly for months to obtain information about his whereabouts. When they learned he had "disappeared" into Pakistan's large and secretive intelligence netherworld, they called upon their contacts within the country's powerful military and its affiliated intelligence agencies. Masood's father, a retired colonel who knew thenPresident Gen. Pervez Musharraf from his days in the army, asked the most powerful man in the country to secure his...

Reinstate Pakistan's Chief Justice and Other Members of the Judiciary

ACT: Please send a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, calling on him to take the lead in pressuring Pakistan's government to reinstate Chief Justice [Chaudhry] and other judges illegally dismissed by the former military government, and take immediate steps to resolve the "disappearances." This will signal to the people of Pakistan that the new U.S. administration respects the rule of law and mark an important new chapter in U.S.-Pakistan relations.

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld

That torture program has not ended, and the [George W. Bush] administration insists it will continue. President Bush, in September 2006, while claiming that he had not authorized torture, insisted that his administration could still employ an "alternative set of procedures" when prisoners stopped talking. These include techniques such as sleep deprivation, stress positions including standing for long periods of time, raising and lowering of temperatures and even the classic torture of waterbo...

World View

Eyes Off the Prize: Human Rights Vs. Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues

Immediately after the war; in the wake of a series of high-profile lynchings and human rights abuses that engulfed the African American community, the National Negro Congress and the NAACP challenged the domestic jurisdiction clause and petitioned the United Nations to investigate the systematic human rights abuses of African Americans. NAACP attorney Robert Carter stated that it was "impossible for Negroes to attain justice within the United States" and concluded that "the only recourse left...

The Price of Silence

The Price of Silence" brings together 16 of the world's top musicians in a rousing musical plea to the U.N. General Assembly to guarantee human rights for all. The track, donated by Aterciopelados and arranged by fusion music guru Andres Levin, combines the voices of Hugh Masekela, Julieta Venegas, Stephen Marley, Angélique Kidjo, Yungchen Lhamo, Aterciopelados, Yerba Buena, Natacha Atlas, Rachid Taha, Kiran Ahluwalia, Chiwoniso and Emmanual Jal with those of U.S. artists Natalie Merchant, an...

Aiusa Harnesses Satellite Technology to Monitor South Ossetia

"Whenever you see the interior walls of a structure, it means that the structure has no roof, first of all, and secondly, that it wasn't an explosive that did the damage, necessarily, but probably a fire," says Lars Bromley, head of the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project. "This is consistent with on-the-ground reporting of fires during the conflict." In response to AIUSA's image analysis, Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili has publicly stated the need for further ...

Letter From Death Row

Amnesty International, the NAACP, death penalty abolition groups and the collective action of hundreds of thousands of individuals on [Davis]' behalf have brought the injustice of Davis' case and the barbaric practice of execution under the glare of international scrutiny. President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have all joined the call for justice in this case. On Oct. 22, the European Legislature issued a statement calling for Troy's execution to be halted. At ...

Perspectives

I Live Here

My grandparents on both sides were forced out of their homes during the Holocaust - my father's parents were in Germany, my mother's parents in Bulgaria. They lost everything. My father's mother lost her first husband and her son during the war. My father was born in a displaced person's camp in Germany in 1946, and my mother's family moved to Israel. The aftereffects of having to leave against their will have always been something my own family has dealt with, so the subject of displacement ...

Activism: Nuts And Bolts

First Responders

Last year AI's massive squad of first responders mobilized on behalf of more than 800 people in imminent danger around the world. When AI's research team at the International Secretariat in London learns of a developing human rights emergency, it immediately alerts the UAN. AlUSA's Urgent Action office then forwards bulletins containing the particulars of the case to individual subscribers, local and school chapters, religious and professional organizations, and other groups that comprise the...

New Resources From Ai

AIUSA's Online Toolkit a Valuable and Handy Resource Amnesty International USA's updated online Activist Toolkit is the most comprehensive resource an activist can have. It provides old and new AIUSA members with critical information on a variety of topics, from starting a group to sustaining its momentum. The toolkit also shows activists how to post and access their own materials, such as photos from AIUSA events.

Upcoming Events

Guantánamo Anniversary: The seventh anniversary of the first arrival of detainees at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Member Services

A: Yes, tribute gifts and gift memberships are available online at our Web site. Click "Donate" and "Other Ways to Give." You may also mail us your request, with full information on you and your gift recipient, or phone Werner Orellana directly at 212-633-4210. We will send you an acknowledgment of your gift and send a gift-card notification to the recipient.

2008 The Year In Review

Power of the Pen

Amnesty International was founded in 1961, when British barrister [Peter Benenson] read a newspaper story about two Portuguese students who had been sentenced by the regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to seven years in prison-for raising a toast to freedom in a restaurant. Outraged, Benenson decided to bombard Salazar with letters of protest.

On Capitol Hill

* AIUSA helped introduce the Global Online Freedom Act in advance of the Beijing Olympics, with Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ.). AIUSA also worked with Congress to allocate $15 million to the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to combat Internet censorship with an emphasis on China's policies. * AIUSA's advocacy director for Asia helped draft House Resolution 1370-which urged President Bush to take action on China and...

Faces of the Freed

Your actions helped free at least 98 people in 2008 and protected several more from persecution and danger. Here are just some of those protected by our life-saving activism. "Myself, my son Mohammed and my wife Asma thank all AI members for supporting me. We will work hard with them together until we achieve peace for all people in the world." -Sami al Hajj Arrested in January 2008 for "activities harmful to China's security" Detained in November 2007 and accused of "disturbing public opinion"

People Power

Sudanese Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al Hajj is released from [Guant]ánamo after six years' detention without charge or trial following a massive world-wide letter writing campaign by Amnesty International members; al Hajj reports receiving more than 10,000 letters during his detainment. AlUSA's Counter Terror with Justice Campaign opens the Guantánamo Cell Tour with orangeclad activists distributing more than 5,000 fliers to curious onlookers. The tour's final stop coincides with AlUSA's Midwe...

Web Wise

Human Rights Now!, AlUSA's comprehensive new blog, launched in the fall. The blog features up-to-the-minute human rights coverage and commentary by special guest writers and regional/topical experts. www. blog. amnestyusa. org

Ai in the Headlines

Beijing Olympics and Human Rights in China: AIUSA was instrumental in the widespread media coverage of human rights in China before the Beijing 2008 Olympics; AIUSA was quoted or mentioned by The New York Times eight times in five consecutive days. Al concerns were also covered by CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal ana Sports Illustrated. The Chinese government unblocked AI's Web site in China after widespread media coverage of the censorship.

Activism Action: Al In Action

Fight to the Finish

[Emily Gayong Setton] had not been born on December 2, 1984, when more than 35 tons of toxic gases leaked into the night air over Bhopal, India, from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide. The leak immediately killed 7,000 people, and 15,000 more died in the aftermath. But the 22-year-old Amnesty International activist, formerly the co-president of Columbia University's ARJSA student chapter and student area coordinator for New York, has made the fight for justice in Bhopal central to her ...

Justice and Security for Darfur

"More than a year ago, the Security Council promised to protect Darfur. Today, less than half of the pledged peacekeepers are on the ground. It is unacceptable," said [Larry Cox]. "The people of Darfur urgently need protection, but they also need and want justice. And this is why any attempt by the U.N. Security Council to defer-or suspend-the International Criminal Court investigation against Sudanese President Al-Bashir must be rejected." Al welcomed a statement by Richard Williamson, the U...

Guantánamo Closure Within Reach

LEVEL 2 Write a letter on behalf of Mohammed Odaini, a [Guant]ánamo detainee from Yemen cleared for release but still imprisoned. Visit www.amnestyusa.org/ctwjior a sample letter calling for Odaini to be released unless he is charged and tried in accordance with international standards of fairness. Be sure to include Odaini's prisoner number (ISN-681). Appeals to: Rear Admiral David M. Thomas, Jr. / Commander, Joint Task Force Guantánamo / Department of Defense / Joint Task Force Guantánamo /...

Stop Violence Against Women

Armed groups continue to target women and children in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a September report by Amnesty International, which elevated its work on the crisis to "rapid response" in November. The report, North Kivu: No end to the war against women and children, is based on research and eyewitness testimony collected by an Al research mission that visited North Kivu last spring. The region has experienced convulsions of violence since t...

Individuals at Risk

When a human rights activist takes up a pen to write on behalf of someone unfairly imprisoned overseas, it is usually an exercise that, though based on empathy, essentially remains distant. But when Group 530 in Reston, Va., adopted the case of Belarusian opposition presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin, the case suddenly and unexpectedly became very personal. In December 2006, Amnesty International adopted Kazulin, who had been arrested earlier that year for organizing a demonstration to...

Abolish the Death Penalty

[Brian Evans] also expects legislative action in other states, including New Hampshire, where a commission similar to Maryland's death penalty will be up for debate. New Hampshire has no one on death row and has not executed anyone since 1939. Additionally, public outrage over the Troy Davis case in Georgia has spurred a broad coalition of death penalty abolitionists in that state to push for significant reforms, including changes to eyewitness identification procedures and indigent defense. ...