Ethics: Focus on Amnesty International

According to their website, Amnesty International cites itself as “a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights” (Amnesty International 2011). For over 50 years Amnesty International has campaigned tirelessly throughout the world to ensure the equality of human rights for all people.

Amnesty International is a large multi-national organisation which aims primarily to protect the human rights of marginalised, victimised and persecuted people worldwide. It can be classed as a non government organisation, or NGO, since it does not affiliate itself with any particular governments, regimes, political parties or ideologies. The organisation began in 1961 as a result of British lawyer Peter Benenson’s anger at the imprisonment of two young Portuguese students who had been jailed that year solely for “raising a toast to freedom” (Amnesty International 2011). Benenson published an article on the topic named ‘The Forgotten prisoners’, which in turn launched an ‘Appeal for Amnesty’ for the two men. This marked the beginning of Amnesty International, which was viewed as the first “permanent international movement in defence of freedom of opinion and religion” (Amnesty International 2011).

Most, if not all of the information regarding Amnesty International’s mission statement, goals and ethics can now be found on its official website; www.amnesty.org. The organisation is primarily based in London, which is where the International Secretariat, the ‘head committee’ of the organisation resides. However, they also have offices and bases in other major cities worldwide. Amnesty International clearly outlines its mission statement on its website; stating that “Amnesty's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination -in the context of our work to promote all human rights, as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (Amnesty International 2011). Amnesty’s vision is that all people, worldwide may fully enjoy all their human rights as outlined within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They say that until this goal is achieved they will not stop their efforts (Amnesty International 2011).

As part of its ethics code Amnesty does not affiliate itself with any particular government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. Since they are not aligned with any particular government or political agencies, they remain completely financially autonomous and thus rely heavily on donations and funding from the public and pre-approved businesses. As part of their code of ethics, the organisation states that it “neither seek[s] nor accept[s] any funds for human rights research from governments or political parties. It believes that through receiving donations from the public only they are “able to stand firm and unwavering in our defence of universal and indivisible human rights” (Amnesty International 2011).

In regards to its administrative structure, Amnesty International prides itself on being a completely democratic system, thus all staff within the ­­organisation are elected, from the very bottom to the very top. They top potion within the internal hierarchy is that of Secretary General, a position currently held by Salil Shetty a human rights campaigner from India. Beneath that is the position of International Secretariat, a committee who are in place to support the Secretary General, followed by the International Executive Committee. Despite the complex hierarchy, the organisation relies heavily on its volunteers across the globe and encourages the public to spread its message and stop human rights abuses by mobilizing public pressure through letter-writing campaigns, demonstrations and government lobbying.

As an organisation, Amnesty relies on publicity in order to spread their message to a wide audience and gain support for various cause and movements, therefore they tend to publish the majority of their concerns, findings and causes either via their own website or their stories are often picked up by other publications. Their official website has an online library and resource

There is a list of six primary ethical considerations which were developed within Anthropology in order to help guide the discipline. They are particularly relevant to anthropology that is conducted outside of the institution; applied anthropology. Firstly, there is a responsibility to those studied. Within the context of Amnesty International, the people being ‘studied’ would be the victims of persecution, though the guidelines might also cover those doing the persecuting as they are also the focus of attention. However, since people are not being studied in the conventional way precedence will obviously go to the victims of human rights violations. Individuals will almost certainly be named during the campaigns as a means of gaining publicity for the issue. Secondly, there is a responsibility to the public. Since Amnesty review and then publish all their findings they actively encourage transparency and public involvement. Thirdly, there is a responsibility to the discipline. Although Amnesty often deals inter-culturally, its primary concern is with the human rights of an individual regardless of nationality, culture, political ideology or ‘race’ thus slightly overriding cultural relativity to some degree in favour of protecting their universal right to life. Next, there is a responsibility to students, which does not really apply in this situation since it is outside of an institutional scholarly setting. After that, there is a responsibility to sponsors. The sponsor in the case of Amnesty International are mainly the public; since it will not take sponsorship form governments or political parties it relies on the donations of members of the public who want to support the cause. Finally, there is a responsibility to one's own and/or host governments. However, since Amnesty International is an NGO and desires not to be affiliated with any particular government or ideology it has no responsibility to any government but only to the people it aims to help. As a result Amnesty is much more free to speak its mind and be critical of regimes, governments and dictatorships that its see violate the human rights declaration.

            

 In light of these considerations I would feel ethically comfortable working for Amnesty International since they have such an amazing track record of helping push for human rights across the globe. I think they have far greater freedom in a sense, to be critical since they are an independent organization and unaffiliated with any particular governments. This independence means there is no one to report to or please thus minimizing the possibilities of ulterior motives; the primary goal is the protection of human rights for all, beyond national, political and geographic boundaries. 

Shannon Turner-Riley
ANTH 311: Applied Anthropology
Instructor: Dr. Heather Botting
Tuesday 11th October, 2011

Bibliography

Amnesty Intentional Official Website
2011
http://www.amnesty.org/, accessed October 7th, 2011.

Recent Publications by Amnesty International

Amnesty International Library and Resource Centre
2011
http://www.amnesty.ca/library/, accessed October 7th, 2011.

Amnesty International Media Centre
2011 Saudi Arabia Executes Eight Bangladeshi Nationals.
http://www.amnesty.ca/media2010.php?DocID=997, accessed 7th October 2011.

Amnesty International Media Centre
2011 Bush Should be Investigated by Canada for Crimes Under International Law, Says Amnesty International.
http://www.amnesty.ca/media2010.php?DocID=994, accessed 7th October 2011.

Critiques and Criticisms of Amnesty International

NGO Monitor
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/amnesty_international, accessed October 7th, 2011.

NGO Monitor is a website which states its defining mission as “making NGOs accountable”, has a long list of criticisms of Amnesty International, predominately based on the ___ Amnesty International being anti-Israel and unfairly biased towards Palestine in its reports of the conflict in Gaza. NGO Monitors states that although Amnesty International claims as an organisation to be independent of any governments, regimes or political ideologies, it in fact consistently singles out Israel “for condemnation” (NGO Monitor 2007) and in doing so overlooks “more severe human rights violations in the region”. Additionally, NGO Monitor claims that although Amnesty International states that since it is an independent organisation and will not accept any funding or donations from governments or any political parties, they have in fact in the past accepted donations from the British, Dutch and Norwegian Governments (NGO Monitor 2007).

The Economist Magazine Online
2007 Amnesty International: Many rights, some wrong, The World’s Biggest Human-Rights Organisation Stretches its Brand.
http://www.economist.com/node/8888792, accessed October 7th, 2011.

In a 2007 article, British based publication The Economist criticised Amnesty International’s effectiveness, saying that it had recently become “too ambitious” (cite) it its goals; fighting not only against human rights violations as its mission states, but also aiming to improve political and economic conditions throughout the world. Amnesty International, states the Economist, has moved away from working with individual people and its focus on an individual’s rights, to rallying against much larger, broader and faceless causes. The article implies that the broad and often hard to pin-down nature of these causes means that they are just too difficult for an organisation like Amnesty International to tackle and therefore their approaches have become more fractured and less effective. The Economist also suggests that Amnesty International has been seen to be pandering to popular causes; latching onto current anti-American sentiment and various anti-Capitalist movements, rather than maintaining its own individual focus as outlined in its mission.