World View

»USA The Backlash Against Torture

Legislators answered the nation’s revulsion to the use of torture in the “war on terror” on Oct. 5, when the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to stop the practice. In a bipartisan act of defiance against a threatened White House veto, the U.S. Senate voted 90 to 9 to pass Senator John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) torture ban amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill.

In a measure of how far the U.S.-led “war on terror” has eroded the legal strictures of conflict, the key provisions in the amendment require the United States to obey its own laws and practice: the first requires all U.S. military personnel to abide by the Army’s Field Manual on Interrogations and the second reiterates the U.S. ban on torture and on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (the language of the Geneva Conventions). The amendment received strong backing from retired military officers and interrogation officials. Amnesty International USA was moving on several fronts to ensure that key provisions of the bill would survive conference committee, in which legislators from the House and Senate hammer out differences between their respective versions of the appropriations bill.

“It is critical for us to step up lobbying for the amendment without any change or loopholes that may allow any U.S. agency or facility to condone or practice torture,” said Jumana Musa, AIUSA’s Advocacy Director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice.

Four AIUSA activists meet with Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.), at right, to discuss allegations of torture in U.S. detention facilities. Pat Westwater-Jong

Field Report

MIKE BROWN/EPA/SIPA

An abandoned guard tower overlooking Camp XRay, the U.S. detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that was closed after the United States built Camp Delta.

In late September delegations of AIUSA activists across the country lobbied their senators and representatives to vote for the torture ban and establish an independent commission to investigate all torture allegations. More than 200 delegations participated in the week of lobbying, including large numbers of first-time activists and many rural delegations. The lobbying followed a wave of Denounce Torture rallies across the country.

Prisoners in U.S. custody in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have become so desperate that more than 200 out of the total 500 began a hunger strike in August to protest their treatment, according to non-governmental organizations. By mid-October U.S. military doctors began force-feeding 21 prisoners through their noses, even though international guidelines forbid force-feeding during a hunger strike.

amnestyusa.org/3505

Ranjani Ramaswamy

Building Community

“A community is a group of people who see the power in being united,” says Ana Moraga, a former Amnesty International USA intern. She uses intimate knowledge of community building to propel the cause of human rights forward.

Moraga discovered the world of non-governmental organizations in high school. Her work with local activist groups produced powerful experiences that fueled her interest in human rights.

As AIUSA’s Latino Outreach Coordinator in the Western Regional Office, Moraga was pivotal to the success of the “Justicia en Juarez” campaign. She collaborated with Latino organizations and rock band Jaguares to boost awareness of the murders of women in Juarez, Mexico, and introduced the campaign to Spanishlanguage media. Her work resulted in 1,500 new AIUSA members and 10,000 letters to promote justice in Juarez.

Moraga, 22, is applying her formidable organizing expertise to the fight for women’s human rights in Guatemala, where more than Ana Moraga 1,600 women have been murdered since 2001. She believes education is the long-term solution to the Guatemalan femicide and is currently working with Loyola Marymount University classmate Tania Torres to launch a literacy program in Guatemala City called Leer es Poder(To Read is to Have Power). The program seeks to provide Guatemalan women with opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.

Moraga, who was born in Guatemala during the most brutal years of the civil war, explains her calling simply: “I felt like a hypocrite standing idly by. I needed to return and do something because so many people here are blind to the suffering.”

AIUSA’s Regional Field Organizer Sandra Perez praised Moraga for her compassion: “Ana’s dedication to social justice is an inspiration to me and to everyone who has the opportunity to meet her. She embodies Amnesty’s vision.”

Artists in Action

From Mine and Yours. powerHouse kids

Rights from the Start

The acclaimed children’s author Joy Berry has partnered with AIUSA’s Human Rights Education Program to create Mine and Yours: Human Rights for Kids Project, which includes a book, CD, DVD, teachers guide and calendar to teach kids about human rights and explain the responsibilities that come with them. Students and teachers from P.S. 1, an elementary school in the Bronx, N.Y., were scheduled to join the author, AIUSA Executive Director William F. Schulz and actress Jennifer Connelly to unveil the partnership in New York City on Nov. 16; Connelly donated 700 copies of the Mine and Yours book to public elementary schools across the city.

“Human rights is a subject that is at the heart of my work,” says Berry, who pioneered self-help literature for children. “How can children help themselves if they don’t have a basis on which to build? Human rights empower kids to assume responsibility for their own lives.” Mine and Yours provides young learners with “a comprehensive approach to human rights,” says Karen Robinson, Director of AIUSA’s Human Rights Education Program, one that can be used at home as well as in the classroom.

The book is available at amnestyusa.org/education/

»PAKISTAN Success Story Out of Limbo

One midnight in February 2002, while his wife and children slept, Moazzam Begg answered a knock on the door of his Islamabad apartment. Armed men forced him to his knees, hooded and shackled him, and drove away with him in the trunk of the car. He wouldn’t see his family again for almost three years.

A British-Pakistani dual citizen, former law student and bookstore owner, Begg said that he and his family went to Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 to help with educational and economic development. After the 9/11 attacks, the Beggs escaped the expected retaliation by evacuating to Pakistan, where Moazzam was seized by the U.S. military.

The United States designated Begg an “unlawful combatant” and held him at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. There, he says, guards hog-tied and beat him and hanged him from the ceiling with handcuffs. After a year, he was transferred to solitary confinement in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In July 2003, President Bush declared Begg subject to trial by a military commission empowered to hand out death sentences with no possibility of appeal.

AIUSA’s Urgent Action Network quickly mobilized broad activist pressure on Begg’s behalf. Amnesty’s concern for the case ran deep: the UAN issued seven follow-up actions over the next year and a half, an almost unprece

Moazzam Begg at the 2005 Amnesty International UK Annual General Meeting. Marie-Anne Ventoura

dented step. Those alerts generated tens of thousands of appeals from around the world.

A November 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal maintained Begg’s standing as an “unlawful combatant” but still failed to accuse him of a crime. Two months later, he was sent back to the United Kingdom, taken into police custody, questioned briefly and released. During his nearly three years in detention, no charge was ever made.

Now home with his family, Begg works to raise awareness of conditions in Guantánamo and Bagram. Earlier this year, he addressed Amnesty International UK’s Annual General Meeting, thanking Amnesty for its efforts on his behalf. As for campaigning, he told AI members, “I think you’re the best people to do it.”

Jason Opeña Disterhoft

Sound Bite

“The USA Patriot Act was destined to foster abuses, as it weakened the system of checks and balances on law enforcement while setting aside due process safeguards under the law.” —Jumana Musa, AIUSA Advocacy Director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice, Inter Press Service, Sept. 21

“I carried this ‘black book’ (that’s the color of the cover) around for a good part of the summer, reading it in jibs and jabs. In a way, it’s an almanac of the dark side. Report 2005 catalogues the forces that govern and impact millions of people.” —Karen Norvig Berry, coordinator of AI group 347, referring to AI’s Annual Report on human rights, Allentown Morning Call, Sept. 27

»USA AGM 2006

Let Your Voice Be Heard in Portland, Oregon

In a world marked by escalating violence and fear, powerful states are bypassing international institutions and reviving the use of torture. In this climate, it is important for our voices to unite in defense of justice, fairness, freedom and truth.

Amnesty International USA members will have an opportunity to let their voices be heard in Portland, Ore., at the 2006 Annual General Meeting (AGM), from April 28 to 30. The AGM is AIUSA’s national conference for all members. This year’s theme is “Make Some Noise for Human Rights at High Volume!” Activities will include panel discussions, testimonies from human rights defenders and workshops. Members can participate in networking sessions, attend working parties and vote on AIUSA resolutions.

Known for its long-standing tradition of human rights activism, Portland has also been proclaimed North America’s “Best Big City” for its unmatched natural beauty and bustling local scene. Visit amnestyusa.orgfor the lineup of dynamic speakers. Register before Jan. 31 for a significantly lower registration fee. amnestyusa.org/events/agm/ Laura Spann

Violence Against Women Act

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), bringing it one step closer to being reauthorized. At press time the two chambers had yet to reconcile the differences in their respective bills in conference committee before bringing it back for final approval. Since VAWA was enacted in 1994, states have passed more than 660 laws to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The National Domestic Violence Hotline has handled more than 1 million calls.

Reauthorization of VAWA is a central goal of Amnesty International USA’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign, which gathered more than 94,000 signatures in an online petition in support of the act and created a powerful record of victims’ and activists’ personal testimonies (700women.org). Ranjani Ramaswamy

In Memoriam: Sheri O’Dell

Sheri O’Dell (1943 — 2001) Amnesty International USA marks the passing of Sheri O’Dell, a renowned feminist leader and important contributor to AIUSA’s membership and fundraising efforts. Ms. O’Dell passed away on Sept. 24 after a long and distinguished career marked by her dedication to human rights, women’s rights and civil liberties.

Prior to working with AIUSA’s Development Department as a writer and strategist for public interest firm CMS, O’Dell served as vice-president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She organized the 1989 March for Women’s Lives that brought more than 700,000 people to the nation’s capital and was instrumental in the drive to block Robert Bork’s 1987 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

O’Dell’s friends and colleagues remember her for the passion and urgency she brought to her advocacy work.

Truth to Power AI members and staff urge policymakers at all levels to protect human rights. Recent developments:

Staff and volunteers from AIUSA’s Business and Human Rights Program met in early September with U.S. Export-Import Bank and International Finance Corporation representatives to demand that legal contracts for the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project be amended to protect human rights. AIUSA co-sponsored a September Capitol Hill screening of Lord of War, a film about the devastating impact of the global small arms trade. The event drew 130 people, including eight U.S. Representatives from both sides of the aisle. The audience listened while AIUSA Director of Government Relations Alexandra Arriaga and Advocacy Director for the Americas Eric Olson, five Congressmen, the film’s writer and director Andrew Niccol and actors Ethan Hawke and Eamonn Walker addressed the light weapons business and voiced support for AI’s Control Arms campaign.

Between March and August, a nationwide team of volunteers led by AIUSA activist Eve Lotter, working closely with Refugee Program staff, supplied detention center libraries around the country with Amnesty International reports and other human rights resources, ensuring that detained asylum-seekers have access to materials vital to pursuing their claims.

AI Global Policy Meeting Addresses Key Issues

The International Council Meeting (ICM) is Amnesty International’s highest policy-making body, where hundreds of volunteers and staff from around the world meet to debate and decide issues crucial to the international movement. At the August 2005 meeting in Mexico, two issues dominated the debate.

While AI generally takes no position on specific military interventions except to demand respect for human rights, the ICM determined that, in exceptional circumstances, AI can either call for military intervention to end widespread and grave human rights abuses or oppose the use of military intervention when it is particularly likely to lead to increased human rights abuses. AI is strengthening its work on conflict-prevention and conflict-resolution.

Delegates also agreed that AI will develop a comprehensive set of policies that affirm the organization’s commitment to defending and promoting sexual and reproductive rights, including the right of access to information and health services. AI will initiate international consultation so that the International Executive Committee (AI’s international board) can make policy related to the decriminalization of abortion; access to quality services to treat complications from abortion; and legal, safe and accessible abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest and risk to a woman’s life. As part of this consultation, members will be asked to consider whether the 2007 ICM could make policy on other abortion-related issues.

The ICM considered other human rights policy issues and decided to call for studies on: disproportionate punishments; the relationship between economic development, forced displacement and human rights abuses; and company investments in countries whose governments commit massive human rights violations. In addition, delegates decided to place renewed emphasis on long-term campaigning for prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders. The full texts of all the ICM decisions can be found at amnestyusa.org/members/icm/2005.

ADVERTISEMENT

THE SPIRITUAL GLOBAL NETWORK

Today we can discern a growing global network of people who are becoming an increasingly potent force for transformation in human affairs. They are inclusive, not separative; they seem to be in touch with the “soul of humanity,” urging “a conspiracy of love,” as did paleontologist-priest Teilhard de Chardin. People aligned with this higher consciousness inevitably become transmitters of a wider vision, dedicated to the well being of humanity. They are linked together by an attitude of mind and heart rather than by outer organization.

A view of the deeper spiritual significance of this integrating group, including practical evidence of their work today, is offered in Building and Bridging: The New Group of World Servers, available free from:

School for Esoteric Studies

275 S. French Broad Avenue Dept. A Asheville, NC 28801-3951 www.esotericstudies.net

Three Intensive Weeks in Washington, D.C. Summer Prog ram of the Academ y on Human Rights and Humanitar ian Law MAY 30–JUNE 16, 2006

Classes about Regional Human Rights Approaches; United Nations; International Criminal Tribunals; Human Rights and Development; Women’s Rights; Terrorism and Human Rights; International Humanitarian Law; and many more…

Sponsored by: • 15 classes in English and Spanish with more than 120 contact hours • Law school credit or Certificate of Attendance • Eligible participants include lawyers, human rights professionals and law students from all over the world • Features workshops, specialized conferences, distinguished lecture series, visits to international organizations and NGO fair • Professors include: Phillip Alston, Rebecca Cook, Baltasar Garzón Real, Robert Goldman, Claudio Grossman, Elisa Massimino and many more

For more information, contact us at: Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law American University Washington College of Law Co-Directors Claudia Martin and Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón Phone: (202) 274-4070 • Fax: (202)274-4198 E-mail: hracademy@wcl.american.edu Apply on-line: www.wcl.american.edu/humright/hracademy