Power to the People (Re-Inventing Amnesty)

“I feel uneasy at the idea of a movement. I see every insight degenerating into dogma, and fresh thoughts freezing into lifeless party lines. Those who set out nobly to be their brother’s keeper sometimes end up becoming his jailer. Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new slavery and every truth becomes a lie.” - I. F. Stone

When Peter Benenson founded Amnesty International in 1961 the liberal class was undergoing a transformation, from a group that pushed forward social progress and held back the privileged classes, to one that succumbed to opportunism and finally to fear. At 50 years old Amnesty has become the old man of liberal movements, one of the last great defences against the worst excesses of power. In the last two decades the pillars of the Irish liberal class - the press, universities, labour movement – have collapsed as effective counterweights to the corporate Irish state.  

An organisation such as Amnesty cannot expect to stand still and remain relevant when power and influence are moving from governments to federal institutions and corporations.  Amnesty must examine and implement new ways of influencing change in a world where decisions are driven by a desire to accumulate wealth, often at the expense of human rights and human life. A recent harrowing example of this is banks decision to bet on world food supplies, which has directly let to food riots and starvation in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to name but a few. We can write letters to target individuals, but the amounts of money to be made gambling on food supplies of the poor is worth too much for unregulated banking elite to cease trading. That is not to say letter writing has become redundant, not at all, but that as the way governments and companies subvert and disempower individuals change, our response repertoire must change too.

As corporations and governments retreat away from their populace, submerging themselves in hi-tech security apparatus, internet surveillance and bureaucracy, Amnesty must move towards those people and engage with them on the frontline. This can be achieved by ‘Active Participation’, an empowering and enabling process through which rights holders participate in and influence the processes and decisions which affect their lives in order to gain recognition and attainment of their Human Rights.

Amnesty Ireland was one of the first sections
to use Active Participation in a campaign

Amnesty Ireland has been one of the first AI sections to use this concept in its recent Mental Health campaign. October 2008 AI established an ‘experts by experience’ group. The members have been at the forefront of the mental health movement in Ireland, having founded support organizations, advocated for change and supported peers. Amnesty worked with this group and together, the goals of the campaign were devised and strategic objectives listed. In addition to work with the experts by experience group, AI Ireland also consulted with over 130 people who have been affected by mental health difficulties, refining the campaign objectives. Instead of telling rights holders what rights they were entitled too and unilaterally demanding change for them, we brought them in and worked with them to achieve common goals.

The success of the Mental Health campaign shows the power active participation with rights holders can have. If we do not actively participate with those without power, those who suffer discrimination and abuse, those who struggle for justice, we are in danger of parroting the manufactured myths that serve the interests of the privileged. That is why at AI@50 we must not be afraid to embrace change within the movement and continue to push forward human rights and the empowerment of rights holders.