Candidates' Forum - Questions and Answers Page 3
This page last updated: March 2, 2005
Question
The Reform Slate supports a resolution about AI's Mission that contains
a lot of new AI jargon - what are these "CAPs" and "GIGs"
and what do they have to do with our work to release prisoners of conscience?
Answer:
What is a GIG?
There are eight Global Impact Goals in Amnesty International’s
(“AI”) new operational plan. These Global Impact Goals, or
“GIGs,” will drive all research and action at the International
Secretariat (“IS”), which is the research headquarters of
AI. The eight GIGs in the operational plan are:
- Reform and strengthen the justice sector
- Abolish the death penalty
- Protect the rights of human rights defenders
- Resist abuses in the "War on Terror"
- Uphold the rights of refugees and migrants
- Promote economic, social and cultural rights of marginalized communities
- Campaign to stop violence against women
- Close the taps the fuel abuses in armed conflict
How will the GIG's impact AI's work?
The organization is still in the initial stages of implementing the new operational plan. Therefore, we do not yet fully know the impact of this approach, and particularly the GIGs on the long-standing work with which Amnesty is associated, namely, the freeing of Prisoners of Conscience (“POC's”). Moreover, the IS has not fully explained and defined the GIG's. However, we have three major concerns with the way GIG 3, “Protect the rights of human rights defenders,” is presently understood. Our concerns are:
- The change in terminology to human rights defender could signal the abandonment of the concept of POC's.
- The change to focusing on theme campaigns could signal the abandonment of long-term work on behalf of POC's.
- The shift to work on “emblematic” prisoners, who represent systemic abuses, as part of theme campaigns could mean the abandonment of our traditional approach, which seeks to help individual victims as an end in and of itself.
Abandoning Prisoners of Conscience
GIG 3 above omits the term "Prisoner of Conscience."
Peter Benenson, one of the founders of Amnesty International, coined
this term in the article he wrote for a London newspaper, The Observer,
28 May 1961, entitled "The Forgotten Prisoner. " Benenson
wrote:
“We have set up an office in London to collect information about the names, numbers and conditions of what we have decided to call "Prisoners of Conscience," and we define them as thus: "any person who is physically restrained (by imprisonment or otherwise) from expressing (in any form of words or symbols) any opinion which he honestly holds and which does not advocate or condone personal violence.
The omission of the phrase “prisoners of conscience” threatens more than just a change in terminology—it signals the abandonment of POC's, and thus, the erosion of the founding principle of the organization. This is happening at a time when the kind of individual-based work began by Benenson over 40 years ago is still relevant and urgently needed in the world today.
To be sure, GIG 3 does allow some continuing work on behalf of individual victims of human rights abuses. Working for prisoners is one of the best ways to promote human rights around the world. This type of work allows AI to help empower people on the ground already addressing human rights violations of all sorts, including violations of economic, social and cultural rights. By empowering those already on the ground in a particular country, AI avoids a paternalistic approach to human rights advocacy, and this we believe is more effective and more respectful to different cultures around the world.
However, limiting our prisoner work to only “human rights defenders” would represent a step backward for AI. It would mean, in many cases, abandoning or not taking up the cases of those imprisoned for their identity rather than their actions. For example, those imprisoned merely because of their sexual identity, religion, or minority status will not necessarily qualify as “human rights defenders.”
Long-Term Work on Behalf of Individual Victims of Human Rights Abuses
AI groups around the world adopt Prisoners of Conscience. This means
a prisoner's case is worked on continually until that prisoner is freed.
In AI language, this is called long-term casework or what we refer to
as adopting "Action Files.”
Currently there is a waiting list of groups who want to adopt an “Action
File.” As a result, when Irene Kahn, AI’s Secretary General,
speaks of “exit strategies” for some existing “Action
Files” and of taking up fewer cases for long-term focus in the
future, we believe there is great cause for alarm. It seems the
IS has decided that most of AI’s future work will take place within
the context of time-specific projects, be they Country Action
Programs, global campaign projects or thematic projects. These changes
in the way AI campaigns are in direct opposition to the activity that
defines AI’s heart and soul—long-term adoption of prisoner
of conscience “Action Files.”
Emblematic Prisoners as Part of Theme Campaigns
Some POC’s may be included in a theme campaign. However, that such
a remedy signals a turn away from AI's Nobel Prize-winning method. AI's
genius is mobilizing individuals to fight for individual victims.
“The technique of publicising the personal stories of a number of prisoners of contrasting politics is a new one. It has been adopted to avoid the fate of previous amnesty campaigns, which so often have become more concerned with publicising the political views of the imprisoned than with humanitarian purposes.” From "The Forgotten Prisoner" by Peter Benenson, 28 May 1961
We favor addressing appropriate human rights violations (e.g. death penalty, torture, disappearances, etc.) through theme campaigns. However, we are concerned that theme campaigns, even those that use "emblematic prisoners," fail to establish the personal linkage that has kept AI thriving and effective for over forty years. This personal linkage has inspired AI members to take up work on behalf of prisoners of conscience, and to continue this work for years on end. By reducing this individual-based work to an incidental part of our operations, we not only abandon our foundation but risk losing our effectiveness.
From Here
We intend to work for reforms at the international level to ensure that
AI does not turn away from its traditional work on behalf of prisoners
of conscience.
This statement is based on the current situation in AI.
We hope that the six members of last year's Reform slate, who were all
elected to the Board, will be successful in calling for the IS to be
more forthcoming in its answers to questions concerning the direction
of the organization’s work. The lack of clear responses thus
far only heightens our urgency and resolve.
This is one reason why we sponsored a resolution at every regional conference this year dealing with, among other things, GIG 3. The GIG 3 portion of the resolution passed at all five regional conferences. Hopefully we will also secure sufficient support at the Annual General Meeting in April in Austin, TX. This will bolster our effort, first, to get clear answers from the IS, and second, to ensure that work on prisoners of conscience will be a top priority, until there are no more prisoners of conscience.
Question
What are the 19 CAP (Country Action Programs) countries?
Answer:
The following chart shows the regional spread of CAPs. In addition to these countries we are planning CAP-like projects for the European Union and North Africa. CAP work at the IS will be limited to the GIGs to ensure coherence and proper support.
| Africa | Americas | Asia Pacific | Europe & Central Asia | Middle East & North Africa |
| DRC (Congo) | Colombia | China | The Balkans | Iraq |
| Nigeria | United States | India | Russia | Israel/OT |
| Sudan | Brazil | Indonesia | Turkey | |
| Zimbabwe | Mexico | Afghanistan |
Read previous week's questions ->
Acronyms explained:
IEC = International Executive Committee [in essence, the "International
Board"]
UDHR = Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General
Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948 [forms the basis of our work]
CEDAW = Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women
FSA = Full Spectrum Approach [to our human rights work]
ICM = International Council Meeting [held every 2 years to make decisions
for our movement]
ISP = Integrated Strategic Plan
NGO = Non-Governmental Organization [not just an AI acronym]