 |
|
Thousands of people are in prison because of their beliefs. Many are held without charge or trial. Torture and the death penalty are widespread. In many countries men, women and children have "disappeared" after being taken into official custody. Still others have been put to death without any pretence of legality: selected and killed by the governments and their agents.
These abuses - taking place in countries of widely differing ideologies - demand an international response. The protection of human rights is an international responsibility, transcending the boundaries of nations and ideologies. This is the fundamental belief upon which the work of Amnesty International, an independent worldwide voluntary movement, is based.
Amnesty International has an active worldwide membership with more than 1,100,000 individual members, subscribers and supporters in over 160 countries and territories. The movement is open to anyone who supports its goals.
The work is impartial. Amnesty International is concerned solely with the protection of human rights involved in each case, regardless of either the ideology of the government or the beliefs of the victims.
Amnesty International attaches great importance to impartial and accurate reporting of facts. Its Research Department collects and analyses information from a wide variety of sources. These include hundreds of newspapers and journals, government bulletins, transcripts of radio broadcasts and reports from lawyers and humanitarian organizations. Information also comes in from prisoners and their families, refugee centres, religious bodies, journalists and other people with first-hand experience. In addition, Amnesty Internatioanl sends fact-finding missions for on-the-spot investigations and to observe trials, meet prisoners and interview government officials.
The Amnesty International movement is run democratically. It is funded by donations from its members and supporters around the world. Its supreme governing body is an International Council of elected delegates from its sections in the various countries. The Statute of Amnesty International - which defines the organization's work and structure - can be altered only by a two-thirds majority at the International Council. The first article of this Statute sets out the objects of Amnesty International: the release of all prisoners of conscience, fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners, an end to torture and executions. These goals define the scope of Amnesty International's work and are commonly referred to as the organization's "mandate". The full text of article 1 of the Amnesty International Statute is reproduced below.
This booklet answers some of the most common questions about Amnesty's scope or mandate. It is hoped that by giving a clear picture of this mandate, more and more people, as well as governments and other institutions, will develop a greater understanding of the role of Amnesty International in the international protection of human rights.
As amended by the 21st International Council, meeting in Boston, United States of America, 6-14 August 1993
1.The object of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is to contribute to the observance throughout the world of human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In pursuance of this object, and recognizing the obligation on each person to extend to others rights and freedoms equal to his or her own, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL adopts as its mandate:
To promote awareness of and adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other internationally recognized human rights instruments, the values enshrined in them, and the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights and freedoms;
To oppose grave violations of the rights of every person freely to hold and to express his or her convictions and to be free from discrimination by reason of ethnic origin, sex, colour or language, and of the right of every person to physical and mental integrity, and, in particular, to oppose by all appropriate means irrespective of political considerations:
a) the imprisonment, detention or other physical restrictions imposed on any person by reason of his or her political, religious or other conscientiously held beliefs or by reason of his or her ethnic origin, sex, colour or language, provided that he or she has not used or advocated violence (hereinafter referred to as `prisoners of conscience'; AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL shall work towards the release of and shall provide assistance to prisoners of conscience);
b) the detention of any political prisoner without fair trial within a reasonable time or any trial procedures relating to such prisoners that do not conform to internationally recognized norms;
c) the death penalty, and the torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners or other detained or restricted persons, whether or not the persons affected have used or advocated violence;
d) the extrajudicial execution of persons whether or not imprisoned, detained or restricted, and þdisappearancesþ, wheth or not the persons affected have used or advocated violence.
