such as economic or political initiatives, can supersede human rights. “Human rights get pitted against so many other issues, whether it’s regional considerations, bilateral relationships, economic considerations or security considerations,” she said. “Those are the pre-eminent issues in the minds of so many policymakers.” And many of those interests, especially economic ones, come to Washington or other countries armed with high-dollar lobbying operations. “You have to be very tenacious in your fight to get a fair hearing for these issues and to press the point that human rights can’t be traded away,” Nossel said.“Doing so very often is not just wrong as a moral matter, but in the long term can also be an impediment to realizing what other objectives are at stake.” Nossel concedes that human rights will never be America’s sole consideration in dealing with countries that don’t place an emphasis on protecting fundamental individual freedoms. “I don’t think we are naïve enough to think that human rights are always, or ever going to be, the only consideration that governs a diplomatic relationship or a policymaking process,” she said.“But I also think the notion that these are one-for-one tradeoffs, and by defending human rights the U.S. would be compromising other interests, is rarely the case. “If you stick to universal human rights principles and are firm in defending them, there is a way to do it that, in the end, isn’t pitted against other types of diplomatic interests and comes across as principled and as a matter of national values,” Nossel added. Nossel called Amnesty International’s reporting on human rights abuses around the globe “essential.” “Part of it is simply putting the facts in front of
policymakers to try to force a response,” she explained. Syria is a case in point. The organization in September issued a scathing report condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for torturing and killing women and children connected to the rebel groups fighting his government. The organization employs skilled — and obviously intrepid — investigators to go to the frontlines of horrific war zones. It’s the kind of firsthand insight that gets the attention of world leaders and can alter their decisions to sit on the sidelines of brutal conflicts. “We are focused on digging out the facts,” Nossel said. “A situation like Syria has been very treacherous for journalists and very few reporters have been able to get in and document the scale and intensity of the brutality. “We have emergency researchers who are trained to go in and investigate and interview witnesses and put together evidence on the ground under the most difficult circumstances, and we’ve continued to do that throughout this crisis,” Nossel said. “This report is the latest evidence we’ve collected over the last months and weeks to document these persistent and devastating attacks on civilians, the terrorizing of civilians, sweeping up women and children who have nothing to do with it.” She said she hoped the report would gain a place at the table at United Nations meetings and beyond. “This is a grinding crisis that has worn on for 19 months while the diplomatic community has been at loggerheads and paralyzed,” she lamented. “It’s our hope that in continuing to bring these facts to life when heads of state meet in New York, they can’t turn a blind eye … that they are forced to face up to these heartbreaking and horrific facts.”
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In the Maldives — a seemingly idyllic vacation paradise in the Indian Ocean — Amnesty International has been doggedly documenting police brutality against those who have peacefully protested the government after the abrupt power transfer of former President Mohamed Nasheed to current President Mohammed Waheed Hassan. Nasheed won the presidency in 2008 after defeating the country’s autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom but resigned in 2012, saying he was pushed out by a military coup. More recently, in early October, Nasheed was arrested for failing to appear before court on previous charges, though supporters of the longtime opposition leader, who’s been imprisoned multiple times, say the charges are politically motivated. Amnesty’s reporting on the situation garnered the attention of the State Department, whose spokeswoman addressed it at an Oct. 9 news conference. “We’ve seen the reports byAmnesty International about allegations of police brutality. We would take any kinds of allegations of police abuse very seriously,”Victoria Nuland said. Maldivian officials have denied the charges in the Amnesty report, despite the documentation. Nossel says that kind of government pushback is routine. “We get it all the time,” she said. “It’s not a surprise that governments are not happy that we’re out there reporting on human rights violations they are responsible for. It’s not a surprise that they will rebut and criticize our work and try to undermine us. “We stand by our work,” Nossel added. “It’s all based on firsthand documentation. We are very careful about making judgments about what constitutes a violation.” Official reports are one thing, but Amnesty also has a long tradition of grassroots correspondence
from its members to prisoners of conscience and the governments that incarcerate them. Nossel said social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook certainly help spread the word about Amnesty’s mission around the world. The organization now has half a million Twitter followers and the number continues to grow. “It gives us this incredible reach and speed, and it’s also a way of making the work new and fresh to a generation that is not all that accustomed to letter writing,” she said. But letters — those paper, handwritten pieces of correspondence sealed in an envelope and mailed the old-fashioned way — maintain a special relevance. “What I’ve learned over my time here is that letters still really matter,” Nossel said.“When I meet [persecuted dissidents and others], they really talk about it. There are people younger than me who have been imprisoned and they receive these letters and talk about what it means. “I’ve come to realize there may not be a substitute for something tangible in your hand that creates that human connection,” she said. While letters may be especially poignant, Nossel said Amnesty will continue to use every tool at its disposal to raise awareness of injustice around the globe. “At the heart of Amnesty International is really a grassroots movement,” she said. “It’s really about the constituency for human rights in this country. It’s about all of the people who take the time to write letters, send emails, attend vigils, tweet, sign petitions and get others to do the same. “It’s about raising a voice for human rights that gets heard in Washington and other capitals around the world.”
Michael Coleman is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
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November 2012
The Washington Diplomat Page 7