Amnesty International Human Rights

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Amnesty International in Defense of the Rights of All Human Beings The Name, the background, and the Mission of the Organization There are many non-governmental organizations around the world that are fighting on behalf of human rights; however, one non-governmental organization that has singled itself out to deal with human rights issues is Amnesty International. The reason I have chosen this organization is because its operations and activities are found in many, if not in all countries of the world. Founded in 1961 by the British lawyer Peter Benenson in London, the organization has grown to over 7 million volunteers who take injustice personally. (Amnesty International, n.d). Undoubtedly, there have been many problems …show more content…

The fundamental reasons for such Amnesty International assistance come down to the fact that where civil war and unrest prevails, that is where apparently, human rights abuses are heavily perpetuated. For instance, In West Africa, Amnesty International provided assistance in ascertaining human rights abuses in countries such as Ivory Coast when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to relinquish power to the democratically elected candidate, which led to civil war in the country. According to (Doyle, 2011) it was Amnesty International that exposed the war crime inflicted on innocent civilian by both warring factions. As a result of the exposure, France intervened in what would have been a total anarchy in the country’s history. Libya is another country where the presence of Amnesty International was massively felt when the late Muammar al-Gaddafi killed and tortured his citizens and foreigners as well. (RefWorld, 2009). The organization has been very active in the Congo Democratic Republic, where women and children were raped and used as child soldiers. Through the campaign of Amnesty International, the leader of the armed group in the Congo Democratic Republic, Thomas Lubanga was brought to justice by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2012 for using children as child soldiers. (Amnesty International, …show more content…

As important and powerful as Amnesty International, the organization is confronted with enormous challenges and one of such apparent challenges the organization is confronted with is that of financial resources. Because the organization is non-governmental, all its financial resources come from freewill donations, and therefore, the organization is always faced with insufficient funds to implement its work to the maximum. Secondly, due to the nature of the work of Amnesty International, some of its volunteer staffs or workers come under intense threats of armed militia who oppose the work of the organization. Moreover, some hostile governments target some of Amnesty International workers and they even detained and tortured them for speaking against their practices. This is a massive challenge for the organization. The recent detention and expulsion of Amnesty International staff in Morocco attest to the challenges confronting this noble organization. (Amnesty International,

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