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Fall / Winter 2011 FALL / WINTER 2011 4 5 – 7 8 10 12 14 18 23 AI NEWS AI’S 50 YEARS THE EXECUTION THE HEART OF CRISIS RESPONSE DEMAND DIGNITY 2011: THE YEAR PERSPECTIVES 2012 Annual OF HUMAN OF TROY DAVIS: AN ACTIVIST AND PREVENTION CAMPAIGN IN REVIEW DREAMer Luisa General Meeting | RIGHTS A turning point Honoring former Bahrain: Doctors The curse of Faces of Freedom | Argueta AIUSA announces LEADERSHIP for the death AIUSA Executive under fire black gold AI advances new executive Hans Zimmer penalty abolition Director Larry Cox human rights on director anthem | movement 17 Capitol Hill SECURITY WITH British MP Rory Stewart HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN A grim anniversary 2011 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Amnesty International USA LETTER FROM THE BOARD CHAIR http://shop.amnestyusa.org 5 Penn Plaza New York, NY 10001 Tel: 212-807-8400 THE MAN IN ADDREss CHANGES: Attn: AIUSA Member Services THE BLUE SHIRT [email protected] Those of you who do not know Larry Cox well, or EDitOR: have only seen him once or twice on TV, or at an Jungwon Kim Annual General Meeting (AGM), or at a regional conference, may not realize that our recently PLAN YOUR DAYS WITH CONVICTION with our 2012 CREatiVE DIRECtiON: departed executive director virtually always wore Wall Calendar and Weekly Planner. $13.99 and $12.95. Opto Design a medium-blue, long-sleeve shirt with, weather WEAR YOUR SUPPORT FOR FAIR TRADE. These Ton Fai cotton scarves are made by women and occasion permitting, the sleeves rolled up. SHARE THE JOY AND SEND hope with our box-set artisans on the Thai-Burmese border. $16 and up. COpy EDitOR: I do not know how long this has been Larry’s holiday cards. Set of 10 cards and envelopes. $12.99. Bronwyn Becker habit, but he was wearing a blue shirt when I met him at the 1981 AGM, where he delivered EDitORiaL ASSOCIATE: Sumit Galhotra a rousing speech about capital punishment; at that time, he was the director of AIUSA’s anti-death penalty unit. I had been attracted to Amnesty International after returning EXECUTIVE EDITOR: from a university stint in Poland, because AI seemed to me to be the THE VESSEL OF LIGHT CANDLE is a testimony to the Gwen Fitzgerald right organization at the right time. Recall that this was the historic light we can shine on human rights. Each is made by a woman refugee from Burma who is now resettled in the U.S. $25.00 moment when the trade union Solidarity (Solidarnosc) emerged in THANKS TO: Poland, and its activists’ peaceful opposition to their own government Adotei Akwei landed a fair number of them in prison. Sanjeev Beri However, I wasn’t so sure the death penalty was a human rights Larry Cox concern equivalent to freeing prisoners of conscience or working HONOR THE RIGHTS AND DIGNITY of the world’s Rocio Diaz against torture—that is, until I heard the man in the blue shirt talk indigenous people with Dana Gluckstein’s historic Jason Disterhoft portrait book, Dignity. Matching notecards also available. $39.95. about it at that AGM. His was the most compelling speech about Helen Garrett human rights I have ever heard. Curt Goering Jasmine Heiss It may seem sad to you that one of Larry’s last acts as executive Zeke Johnson director of AIUSA was to stand with other Amnesty activists at a Anthony LaTorella Georgia prison during the final hours before the execution of Troy Tanuka Loha Davis, on September 21. The execution—and the minutes, hours, Christoph Koettl days and years leading up to it—were terrible for Davis, his family and Laura Moye the people across the globe who spoke out against his death sentence. Michael O’Reilly It goes without saying that Larry deplored the state-sponsored Tom Parker killing of Davis. Yet he also noted that, gruesome as it was, the Karen Scott worldwide outcry it provoked may well change the debate on capital Vivian Shibata punishment in the United States. At Troy Davis’ funeral a week Bryna Subherwal later, Larry’s final message about the death penalty spoke to me as powerfully as the one I’d heard 30 years earlier, and we are fortunate that Larry will remain a part of the human rights movement. Go well, COVER: A Bahraini woman taking Larry. We wish you all the very best. part in an anti-government demon- stration in Manama in late February, less than two weeks after govern- ment forces launched an armed CAROLE NAGENGAST attack on unarmed protestors. CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS CREDIT: © JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty AMNESTY InternatiONAL USA SPECIAL OFFER TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS: 30% OFF ANY T-SHIRT and free shipping with any order of $25 or more when you visit our online store! Just plug in the offer code: HLDY2O11. You can now order on the phone: 212-633-4217. FALL / WINTER 2011 3 AI NEWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY AIUSA FAREWELL ANNOUNCES TO A FRIEND AIUSA MOURneD The PassinG OF A. WhiTney EllswORTH, the founding publisher of the LEADERSHIP New York Review of Books and former AIUSA board chair, who helped see the organization through a period of major growth. Ellsworth TRANSITION died of pancreatic cancer in June at his home in Salisbury, Conn. He was 75 years old. “Whitney Ellsworth played a big role in the growth of Amnesty International in the United States,” said Josh Rubenstein, AIUSA’s Northeast regional director, who worked with Ellsworth for more than three decades. “It was only in the mid-1970s that AIUSA started to become a genuinely national organization, with tens of thousands of people joining our ranks, all of them eager to support human rights at home and abroad. Whitney was a key figure in mobilizing the necessary RISE UP FOR RIGHTS © M resources to bring people to Amnesty.” One IC of Ellsworth’s lasting contributions to AIUSA K H was the creation of its direct mail program, aggarty IN DENVER which helped AIUSA become the largest country section in the AI movement. 2011. I AIUSA’s 2012 Annual General Meeting Ellsworth was first drawn to AIUSA when he sought to raise money to support political llustration WheTheR YOU ARE LOOKinG to heighten ABOVE: Human rights defenders Magodonga dissidents imprisoned by the junta in Greece. Mahlangu (center back) and Jenni Williams (second your involvement in Amnesty International, from right) of Women of Zimbabwe Arise join AIUSA He joined the board of AIUSA in 1972, serv- converse with renowned activists or expand activists at the 2011 AGM. ing as its chair and then its treasurer, and BY your knowledge of international human AFTER A COMPRehensiVE naTIOnal seaRCH later served on AI’s International Executive M IC rights through plenary sessions and speaker anniversary and deliver insight from the FOR A new EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AIUSA’s Committee. He attended seven AI Interna- K H panels, AIUSA’s 2012 Annual General front lines of the human rights movement. Board of Directors welcomed veteran human tional Council Meetings, served on various aggarty Meeting (AGM) promises to be a deeply Building on the success of last year’s rights lawyer Suzanne Nossel to lead the planning groups, and represented AI on mis- rewarding experience. The conference will gathering, organizers for the 2012 AGM are organization beginning Jan. 2, 2012. sions to Romania, the Philippines, Morocco, BASED be held March 30 – April 1 at the Marriott guided by the mission of inspiring activists Nossel’s expertise as a human rights Egypt, Thailand and Turkey. hotel in Denver. and deepening their connection to the AI advocate, coupled with her experience Throughout his high-level involvement in ONPHOTOGRAPH “The people of Denver and the state movement. Panel discussions featuring in government and management, will be AIUSA, he remained an active letter-writer as of Colorado are historically very socially human rights defenders and experts, invaluable assets to AIUSA as it seeks to a member of AIUSA Group 26 in New York conscious,” said Larrry Haines, an AGM sessions on media work and organizing, and strengthen the U.S. human rights movement. City. He told Amnesty International magazine BY planning committee member from the the Ideas Fair will provide opportunities to Most recently, Nossel served as Deputy in 2009, “By attaching a human face to suf- J region. “The AGM presents a great examine the underpinnings of human rights Assistant Secretary of State for International fering, you can get various people, with varied erry S opportunity to energize the community work. The resolutions process will also Organizations, where she played a leading backgrounds and interests, to work hard on chatzberg with Amnesty’s message of human offer attendees the opportunity to influence role in initiating U.N. Human Rights behalf of human rights. Working for a particu- rights and inspire a new wave of activism AIUSA policy and be heard by AIUSA staff Council resolutions on Iran, Syria, Libya, lar individual seems to be the binding glue that in Colorado.” and committees. Cote d’Ivoire, freedom of association and has kept our group together for many years.” . Emily Murphy, a New York City-based AIUSA has secured discounts with the freedom of expression. AI will forever be grateful for his service to AIUSA volunteer who helped organize the Denver Marriott and with a number of air- Nossel has also worked as COO for Human the organization and his contributions to the 2011 AGM, said the event has kept her lines to ensure an affordable and comfort- Rights Watch, deputy to the ambassador fight for human rights. —Sumit Galhotra motivated to continue her activism. “The able experience for participants.
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