Amnesty International (AI), established in 1961, espouses a vision of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Therefore, AI’s vision is very similar to the vision specified in the US Declaration of Independence – notwithstanding the fact that both are and have always been works in progress.
AI is a non-partisan and non-ideological organization. That does not mean that it doesn’t take strong stands. Rather, it means that, in targeting its criticisms and its actions against governments, organizations or other groups of individuals, it does not take into account whether those entities are labeled as communists, socialists, democracies, dictatorships, Republicans, Democrats, or even the United States of America. Instead, the only criterion it uses is the extent to which those entities repress the human rights of individuals.
It is most concerned with human rights abuses perpetrated by national governments, especially torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial executions, for which it has specific programs of prevention.
AI is not afraid to speak truth to power. While the Bush administration was in power they were not afraid to criticize them for their abuses of power – as when they asked for our help in protesting the abuse and torture of U.S. prisoners, as I described in
this post:
Now they are asking us to demand from Congress that they hold the Bush administration accountable for their many human rights abuses, through a full investigation. Here is the e-mail that I received from Amnesty International earlier today:
Dear XXX
Our chance to learn from, fix and never repeat the policies that brought us torture, illegal detention, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib is passing us by.
President Obama has already issued orders to close Guantanamo Bay and end torture. Though the orders are a major step in the right direction, they don't tell us how the world's most powerful democracy chose to renounce human rights and the rule of law.
Right now, conventional wisdom in Washington says that Obama's executive orders to close Guantanamo and end torture are good enough, that the public doesn't have the appetite for an investigation into how we became a nation that tortures. They think you and I don't really care enough, that we're only interested in moving forward.
What they don't know is how scared we are at the thought of repeating the horrors of the last eight years. We all want to move on, but you and I know that moving on means making sure we learn from our mistakes.
That's why we're asking you to add your name today to our letter to Congress demanding a full investigation. We need to show Washington that the public wants our nation to take responsibility for past mistakes and that we do have the stomach for a full investigation.
While the Obama administration is still in transition, world leaders are watching and wondering whether the United States will take responsibility and investigate what really happened. Some nations, like Iran, are jockeying their position, telling the world that the new Obama administration is weak for agreeing to bilateral talks. Getting to the bottom of how we became torturers and holding criminals accountable will demonstrate the exact opposite.
Our cause for accountability is being championed by a handful of brave Senators and Representatives. Last week, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) spoke about the damage done to our system of government and the need for accountability: ". . .because it was so sophisticated and because a lot of it was under the radar, it's all the more important an object lesson for voters, for citizens, for other countries that it be publicly aired what was done, why it was done, what it means for democracy."
As you read this, we’re working directly with this group of champions and will ask them to take your comments, and read them aloud on the floor of the Senate and House. These comments on the floor of both houses, together with thousands of signatures onto our letter, can change the conventional wisdom in Washington. But this will only happen if enough of us act.
We have only a short window of opportunity to fully uncover how the horrors of the past eight years happened. Let's show them that the public does have the stomach, even when the politicians do not.
Sincerely,
Njambi Good
Director, Counter Terror with Justice Campaign
P.S. If you have any questions about how an independent investigation might work, why we're making this one of our key asks during Obama's 100 days, or anything else related to accountability,
submit your question to our online chat which will happen Friday February 13th, at 1pm EST. And stay tuned: next week we're organizing a national call-in week to demand accountability. We'll ask you to call your member of Congress, and we're working on a new tool that will make it super easy.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If we don’t get to the bottom of this and hold the Bush administration responsible for their grave human rights abuses and war crimes, we will be setting a precedent and sending a message to future presidential administrations that there will be no price to pay for crimes such as these. If we do that, we can expect that this will happen again.
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