Celebrating 10 Years of the Human Rights Action Centre

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Celebrating 10 years of the Human Rights Action Centre

1 Phil Collins LVO Goyne Adams The Mosse Charitable Stone Ashdown Trust Connect The Union Hugh Grant Settlement Strettons for Professionals in The Honourable Esther Nicholson Paddy Sutton THANK Communications Society of Gray’s Inn The Marquis of The Tarim Charitable The Co-operative Bank Gregori Chiarotti Normanby Trust YOU David Coplowe Mr Roger Gunning Richard O’Brien Thesaurus Computer The Cornwell Gilbert & Vahideh Hall Mr Dermot O’Leary Services Ltd Charitable Trust Jerry Hall Parkeray Limited Emma Thompson Ms Amanda Craig Mr Julian Hall and Claire G Paterson Wolfgang Tillmans Jo Craven Appeals Worldwide Paul Gillieron Acoustic UIA Insurance Ltd Pippa Davies Mr and Mrs Nabil Design UNISON John Demsey Hamadeh The Persula Foundation Terry Waite CBE Meghnad Desai Mrs Juliet Hambro Harold Pinter Robin Walden Daisy Donovan Josephine Hart Pre-Construct Joanna Weinberg Archaeology Ltd Margaret Drabble Kenneth Ibbett The Weinberg Mr & Mrs George Jade Jagger Professional Foundation Footballers’ Duffield Jason Bruges Studio Garfield Weston Thank you to all contributors Association The James Dyson Joffe Charitable Trust Foundation who have made the Human Foundation Sigrid Rausing Sir Elton John Weston-super-Mare Rights Action Centre possible Ms Karen Elton The Sigrid Rausing AI Group Camilla Johnson Hill Trust Ethicality Ltd Mrs Elizabeth S Terry Jones The Rayne Foundation The Eva Reckitt Trust Wilmshurst Anthony Karger Julian Richer 29th May 1961 BDO Stoy Hayward Nicholas Evans Guy & Annabel Mr Ulf Karlberg and Charitable Trust LLP Ridgeons Ltd – Wilson The Fire Brigades family Cambridge The A B Charitable Dr John D E Beynon Union Witherford, Watson Robert Key Annabel Rivkin Mann Architects Ltd Trust Anton and Lisa Bilton Barbara Follett Kingsley Napley G & H Roberts The A D Charitable Geoffrey Bindman The Follett Trust Trust Dr John Loakes Community Trust The Body Shop John Forgeham Adams Kara Taylor David & Mary Lodge Dame Anita Roddick Very special thanks Foundation Flora Fraser Soros and Mr Gordon London Criminal to Witherford Watson Addleshaw Goddard Bridge House Trust Roddick Iris & David Freeman Courts Solicitors’ Mann Architects and Basil Alkazzi The Bromley Trust Charitable Trust Association Gareth Ruddle Gregori Chiarotti Allsop & Co Architects, who Sir Henry and Lady Peter and Tania LSi Projects Limited Dr Mortimer & Theresa Amnesty International Brooke Freeman Sackler Foundation designed the Human David McAlpine Rights Action Centre Isle of Wight Group Mr Gellius Brouwer Sir David Frost Saffrey Champness John McCarthy and who have The Rt Hon The Lord and Mrs Juliet Paul Gambaccini Dr Mark and Mrs Jan generously sponsored Archer of Sandwell QC Hambro Paul McCartney The Robert Gavron Scott this 10th anniversary Ms Jennifer Arup Henrietta Burridge Charitable Trust William Seighart celebration. McDermott The Rt Hon Lord A S Byatt The J Paul Getty Jr John Simpson CBE Attenborough, Kt CBE David Mackie CAF America Charitable Trust Mr Dominic Slade Sir Alan Ayckbourn Alexandra Marks Clifford Chance Mary Gifford Slaughter and May David & Claudia The David and Paul Chilton Marco Goldschmied Frederick Barclay Mason Juliet Soskice Cluttons The Marco Foundation The Nancie Massey W F Southall Trust Goldschmied Dr David Cohen CBE Charitable Trust Tom Bartlett Foundation Melinda Stevens John S Cohen Ms Alisa Moore Bates, Wells & Mrs Christina Goodall Sting Braithwaite Foundation 2 Charitable Trust A HOME FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Over the last ten years the Human Rights estimated 150,000 people have visited Action Centre has enabled us to achieve the Human Rights Action Centre since phenomenal change. It has given Amnesty it opened. International UK a platform from which to inspire, educate, train, mobilise, raise The Human Rights Action Centre is vital awareness, generate media coverage, and for our training and education work. reach new audiences in the UK and around Many children and young people – the ‘Amnesty is all about the world. next generation of human rights activists – visit on school tours and for events like people taking action to During this period we secured landmark our annual Student Conference and Youth defend fundamental rights human rights achievements, such as the Awards ceremony. We also host regular and freedoms… it’s an historic, life-saving Arms Trade Treaty, and training and skills-share events for our grew dramatically as a global movement, activists and human rights defenders from organisation that enables rising from 3 million people in 2005 to overseas, including members of the Syrian people to make real changes 7.8 million today. Non-violence Movement. – to free political prisoners, From the Human Rights Action Centre Over the last ten years Amnesty and the change policies, and pressure we hold human rights-violating regimes, Human Rights Action Centre have had governments and multinationals to account some historic achievements – and with governments. That’s money and stand up for people at risk around the your help we can make the next decade well spent.’ world. But the building is much more than equally successful. Dame Anita Roddick an office. It is a human rights hub that in any given week might host live TV and radio interviews, talks by international activists, conferences and training sessions, art and photography exhibitions, plays, Kate Allen film screenings or book launches. An Director, Amnesty International UK 150,000 people have visited the centre to meet, learn and take action on human rights © Mark Sheratt/AI © Marie-Anne Ventoura 3 10 YEARS AT THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION CENTRE © Marie-Anne Ventoura Shone a light on human rights 2006 Mobilising people in the UK behind the Arms Trade 10 Treaty: Brazil’s AfroReggae with Hackney schoolchildren. Thanks to the Human Rights Action Centre’s facilities and equipment, Amnesty UK ensures widespread media coverage of human rights issues. We reach Secured the global Arms Trade Treaty almost 80 per cent of the UK population, raising awareness about torture, women’s rights, the death In the 1990s Amnesty started campaigning for penalty, and other human rights issues. robust laws to control the global arms trade and stop the flow of weapons fuelling atrocities. ‘Amnesty International [has] a better record than With the support of millions of people around the foreign media in keeping track of arrests, the world we finally achieved this in late 2014 imprisonment, torture and killings.’ Patrick Cockburn, when the historic, life-saving Arms Trade Treaty the Independent’s Middle East correspondent came into force. From the Human Rights Action Centre, we worked with local groups to reach 636 MPs out of a possible 650, urging them to push for a global treaty.

2005 Amnesty Media Awards: Host John Simpson with Jon Snow at 4 the 2005 ceremony. Worked to end the death penalty Reduced violence Ending capital punishment is one of our key aims. against women In the decade since the Human Rights Action Centre Our six-year Stop Violence opened its doors, 20 countries and six US states Against Women campaign have abolished the death penalty. ensured UK ratification of the European Convention ‘I owe my life to Against Trafficking and Amnesty… Now I am won the right for all dedicating that life to women living in the UK © Marie-Anne Ventoura campaigning against to access support and 2008 Stop Violence the death penalty and shelter if they leave a Against Women raising awareness violent partner. about human rights.’ ‘When we first raised these issues nobody had heard Hafez Ibrahim, released of the ‘no recourse’ rule and how it trapped women after four years under © AI in violent situations. Now you go to any part of the sentence of death in country and people will have heard of it and that’s Yemen partly due to Amnesty’ Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters

2007 Survivors’ stories: Sunny Jacobs, sentenced to death in the USA and later exonerated, speaks at the Human Rights Action Centre.

Patrick Stewart backs our campaign. © Carlos Reyes-Manzo/Andes Press Agency © Carlos Reyes-Manzo/Andes Press © Jake Gavin 5 Supported our global activists Broke through We are part of an international movement and work censorship particularly closely with Amnesty activists in the Ahead of Burma’s global south. We’ve helped Amnesty Kenya tackle long-awaited elections, forced evictions and make human rights a reality for Amnesty delivered people in informal settlements. And they’ve helped radios to communities us educate people in the UK about the meaning to give them access to of human rights for the people of Africa’s rapidly independent media. expanding cities. We have also held conferences for We also lobbied © Reuben Steains Syrian activists using the facilities of the Human 2010 Breaking the silence: neighbouring countries Radios paid for by Amnesty Rights Action Centre. to build pressure supporters helped break for human rights through the wall of censorship reform. Over the next imposed by Burma’s military two years scores of government. political prisoners were released, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 2009 Demand Dignity: Kenyan activists take part in the anti- poverty Demand Dignity campaign, which launched in 2009.

6 © Christian Thompson/AI © Burma Issues Freed hundreds of political prisoners Held companies to account Standing up for those whose rights are abused or denied Amnesty holds companies to account for their is at the core of our work. Our support, campaigning actions. From the Human Rights Action Centre, and solidarity messages make a huge difference to we campaign on behalf of thousands of victims of people like Hakamada Iwao, who was the world’s oil spills in the Niger Delta. In early 2015 UK legal longest-serving death row prisoner, torture survivor action forced Shell to make a £55m out-of-court Miriam López and Meriam Ibrahim, who faced compensation settlement. Our painstaking research execution for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. also empowered an indigenous community in eastern India to protect its traditional way of life, which was threatened by mining multinational Vedanta. India’s

2012 Clear call: Local artist Pure Evil helped publicise our campaign to hold Dow Chemical

Meriam Ibrahim © AP Hakamada Iwao to account for the toxic gas leak in Bhopal. © Sergey Yagelo © Sergey © Reuben Steains

2011 Keeping hope alive: Launch of the annual Write Ihar Tsikhanyuk for Rights campaign.

‘When I feel left with no hope to fight, I’ll get a letter and it inspires me. The light of hope appears again, and my confidence in myself and my ability to change things returns. I thank everyone for their support and solidarity letters.’ Ihar Tsikhanyuk, LGBTI activist, Belarus

© Emerson Povey/AI 7 Stood up for women in Afghanistan Inspired the next generation We have kept the spotlight on the plight of women We inspire the next generation of human rights activists, in Afghanistan, ensuring they are supported, working with teachers and students to develop a range protected and involved in making decisions that of educational resources and activities. affect their lives. In late 2014 this resulted in the publication of an EU-wide action plan for ‘I have been thrilled to protecting Afghanistan’s human rights defenders. see shy students come out of their shells and 2013 At a meeting at grow enormously in the Human Rights Action confidence thanks to their Centre International involvement in Amnesty.’ Development Minister Sue Bingham, Henley Justine Greening announced continued College

from the UK. Below: © Marie-Anne Ventoura Amnesty activists with 2014 Our annual Youth Awards are just one way we encourage Baroness Warsi. young people’s enthusiasm for human rights.

‘Organisations such as Amnesty are doing outstanding work to ensure that the voices of Afghan women will never again be pushed into the background.’ Baroness Warsi, former Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office © AI

8 © Marie-Anne Ventoura BUILDING

A GLOBAL © Reuben Steains MOVEMENT

Amnesty has always aimed to be a truly global movement. Our secretary general Salil Shetty explains how we are making it happen.

Amnesty’s push to build a truly global We have already implemented the first

people’s movement for human rights is phase of this transition. Most of our Africa © AI about making us fit for the 21st century. programme has moved from London In contrast to when we were founded to Dakar, Nairobi and Johannesburg. in 1961, there are now effective human Our East Asia work is now run from rights organisations and movements in Hong Kong, while Latin America work many parts of the world. The spread is about to move to Mexico and we are of mobile phones, internet and media, in the process of establishing a South reinforced by the growth of democracy, East Asia office in Bangkok. We are has also empowered people. currently exploring the possibilities for more regional offices in the Middle And just as the human rights landscape is East, North Africa and the Americas. shifting, so is the global power balance. The increasing influence of economies We have also established significant such as Brazil, India and South Africa presences in India and Brazil, and similar is redefining the geopolitical balance work in Nigeria is about to start. of power in unpredictable ways. As importantly, we are starting to Human rights activists must be able to build our strategies and approaches in challenge governments in these countries a more ground-up manner—working on their human rights policies. To support directly with those whose rights are this, Amnesty will dramatically build being violated, and combining this with membership and create a large, diverse international solidarity and leverage. movement of activists across the globe. These shifts take a lot of time and effort, 7. 8 m A key first step has been for Amnesty’s but for a global human rights organisation supporters worldwide International Secretariat to move from in the 21st century they are necessary. a single centre to a more distributed system with organisational hubs in key regional capitals worldwide.

9 THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Your support for our key campaigns is © Marie-Anne Ventoura crucial for the future of human rights. Defending human rights in the UK The Human Rights Act makes it easier for all of us in the UK to claim the basic rights we have as human beings and to challenge public authorities if they violate them. Right now, this vital protection is at risk.

Challenging draconian abortion laws El Salvador has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Abortion is banned © Massimo Sestini/Eyevine even if the mother’s life is in danger, with Protecting refugees harsh prison sentences for anyone accused of terminating a pregnancy. Women who and migrants have suffered miscarriages have been charged People are dying in the effort to escape with aggravated homicide, which carries war, persecution and poverty by crossing a sentence of up to 50 years in prison. the Mediterranean. In just one incident this year, more than a thousand women, Working with local organisations, we men and children drowned: the equivalent are campaigning for the immediate and of five passenger planes full of people. unconditional release of all women and girls who have been imprisoned for having an To prevent this, we are urging abortion or a miscarriage. It’s part of our EU governments to put human global My Body My Rights campaign. lives first and mount an adequate search and rescue effort. 10 Standing up for civilians in Syria Amnesty is a core member of the 130-strong #withSyria coalition, whose campaigning led directly to the UN Security Council adopting several resolutions on Syria. We are working hard to persuade the UK to accept vulnerable Syrian refugees and to train Syrian human rights defenders and non-violent activists to help them develop an independent civil society. Supporting human rights defenders © AP Coal mining is one of India’s biggest environmental and human rights challenges. Our research has shown how indigenous communities in coal mining states can lose their homes and livelihoods to expanding coal mines.

To support local people campaigning for their rights, we provide training and digital alert systems (helping expose illegal

Ending forced © John Moore evictions in Kenya Stopping torture We’ve helped thousands of Torture is illegal in the Philippines. In people in Nairobi’s informal reality, it remains rife, used particularly settlements to secure better access by those employed to enforce the law. to water, police protection and compensation for forced eviction. Systematic beatings, electric shocks, However, evictions continue. waterboarding, asphyxiation, punches, kicks and degrading treatment are just some of the We raise awareness of housing rights, methods used to extract ‘confessions’ or extort help people take cases to court money from prisoners, or simply to punish them.

© Kinoti Imanyara/AI and work with the government to ensure that Kenya’s legal system As part of our global campaign to Stop protects some of the country’s Torture, Amnesty’s researchers are collecting most vulnerable citizens. evidence to hold the state to account. 11 HOW YOU CAN HELP

Thanks to you, Amnesty has achieved a lot over the last ten years. But in a world where people’s rights JOIN THE are routinely abused, denied and neglected, we are CIRCLE OF CONSCIENCE still vitally needed. As the largest voluntary human Over 50 years of campaigning we have learned rights organisation, present in over 150 countries, that lasting change takes time. It took 20 years to only Amnesty has the expertise and capacity to create secure a global treaty to control the international global change. arms trade, but we did it. We don’t give up – and we’d like you to be there with us. As we push to build a truly worldwide movement, there are many ways you can help. The Circle of Conscience is a special group of Amnesty supporters committed to giving an £50,000 could help Amnesty establish a regional annual donation for three years. As a member office in Bangkok to support local activists bravely you’ll be with like-minded individuals dedicated campaigning on issues like torture, the death penalty to protecting the world’s most vulnerable people and slavery. from human rights abuses.

£28,000 could provide legal assistance to victims For more information and to join go to of illegal evictions in Kenya, ensuring they receive www.amnesty.org.uk/thecircle compensation and can rehouse their families.

£10,000 could help our crisis team respond ‘For many years I have been a to critical human rights violations such as the passionate supporter of Amnesty situation in Syria, documenting the abuses, holding International’s struggle for human perpetrators to account, supporting activists on the rights and justice throughout the ground and building international pressure to provide world. I hope you will join me sanctuary for the millions of vulnerable refugees. so we can work together to transform the lives of people who are struggling for their rights and freedoms.’ Bianca Jagger, Circle of Conscience patron

Contact James Winkworth Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre, Email [email protected] 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. Tel 020 7033 1500 12 Tel 020 7033 1661 www.amnesty.org.uk