Showing posts with label amnesty international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amnesty international. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The state of the world's human rights



Amnesty International has just released the 2012 report The State of the World's Human Rights.

A watershed year for activism

"2011 was a truly tumultuous year. Millions of people took to the streets to demand freedom, justice and dignity – some of them securing memorable victories.
Successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt early in the year ignited protests across the region and then the world, stretching from Moscow, London and Athens in Europe, to  Dakar and Kampala in Africa, to New York, La Paz and Cuernavaca in the Americas, to Phnom Penh and Tokyo in Asia.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the pent up grievances and demands of a rising generation exploded onto the streets, sweeping aside or threatening the survival of autocratic regimes that had ruled with iron fists for decades and had seemed invincible.
Inspired by these events, people elsewhere in Africa also risked reprisals by protesting against their desperate social and economic conditions and expressing their desire for political freedoms.
In Europe and Central Asia, as well as the Asia-Pacific region, people repeatedly challenged injustice and violations of their rights. In some cases, governments responded by stepping up already stifling levels of repression. The autocratic regimes in several of the successor states to the Soviet Union, for example, strengthened their grip on power by crushing protests, arresting opposition leaders and silencing dissenting voices.
The demand for human rights also resounded across the Americas – on the streets, in national courts, and in the Inter-American system. The calls for justice from individuals, civil society organizations and Indigenous Peoples gained strength, frequently bringing people into direct confrontation with powerful economic and political interests.
At the heart of many of these conflicts were economic development policies that left many, particularly those living in poverty and marginalized communities, at increased risk of abuse. Many forms of discrimination also continued to engender a sense of injustice that sparked and were reflected in protests around the globe.
All these events and trends are reflected in the Amnesty International Report 2012, which documents the state of human rights in 155 countries and territories in 2011 – the year that Amnesty International celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The report highlights the endemic failure of leadership at a local and international level to protect human rights. It shows that the response of the international community to human rights crises was often marked by fear, prevarication, opportunism and hypocrisy. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the Middle East and North Africa, with markedly different responses to government crackdowns on mass protests across the region.
The failure in leadership was also apparent as governments continued to exploit legitimate concerns over security or high crime rates to justify or to ignore abuses by their own security forces, and failed to hold business corporations to account for their impact on human rights.
As Amnesty International moves into its sixth decade, this report bears witness not only to the plight of those living in the shadow of human rights violations, but also to those who are inspired to take action, often at great personal risk, to secure human rights and dignity for all."

--Amnesty International

Related Exhibition - "People Get Ready" The Struggle For Human Rights"
Monroe Gallery of Photography
July 6 - September 23, 2012

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America

Amnesty International Logo


Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America
Date: Tue 28 June 2011

Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, is a visual testament to lynching as a form of social violence in the United States of America from 1880 to the 1960s. The photographs, postcards and memorabilia featured in the exhibition are shown in the UK for the first time. The images collectively reveal how deeply ingrained racist ideologies had become, to the extent that by the early 1900s, lynching was transformed into a major participatory form of entertainment and through photography into a space of commercial exchange and celebration.

Taken at various lynching events, the images of Without Sanctuary were not confined to any one period, place, or race and depict, in graphic detail, victims from a variety of backgrounds and characteristics: white, black, young, old, men, women, Jews and gentiles. However, most of the Americans lynched were African Americans: as many as 4,000 black men and women.

These photographs uncover a horrific American visual legacy, one that has often been left hidden, but which collector James Allen uncovered: ‘I believe the photographer was more than a perceptive spectator at lynchings. The photographic art played as significant a role in the ritual as torture or souvenir grabbing - a sort of two-dimensional biblical swine, a receptacle for a collective sinful self. Even dead, the victims were without sanctuary.’

Without Sanctuary serves as a stark reminder that freedom comes with a solemn responsibility on all citizens to treat others with dignity, respect and fairness. The exhibition bears witness to the victims, and to those whose individual and collective efforts helped end lynching, and serves as a reminder that there are still vulnerable populations today who need sanctuary from intimidation and oppression. Lynching is a distortion of human and civil rights, and so represents an assault on civilisation itself.

The Panel Includes:

Mark Sealy is the director of Autograph ABP and joint CEO of Rivington Place. He has a special interest in photography and its relationship to social change, identity politics and human rights. In his role as director of Autograph ABP he has initiated the production of well over 40 publications, produced exhibitions worldwide and commissioned photographers globally. He is a PhD candidate at Durham University, where his research focuses on photography and cultural violence.

Candace Allen is a screenwriter and political activist. She received her BA from Harvard University before attending the New York University School of Film and Television. She became the first African-American female member of the Directors Guild of America. In addition to writing screenplays, she has worked as assistant director since the 1970s. In 2004 she published her first novel, a fictionalized biography of jazz musician Valaida Snow.

Brett St. Louis is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests crystallise around: the conceptual and practical status of race.

Event Type: Panel discussion

Event venue: Human Rights Action Centre
Time: 7pm

Contact: 020 7729 9200
Email: info@autograph-abp.co.uk

Website: http://www.autograph-abp.co.uk/
Price: £5.00
Online tickets: http://amnestypaneldiscussion.eventbrite.com/