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ANNUAL REPORT 2015 CONTENTS 3 Letter from the Board Chair 4 Mission and Theory of Change

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ANNUAL REPORT 2015 CONTENTS 3 Letter from the Board Chair 4 Mission and Theory of Change AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA ANNUAL REPORT 2015 CONTENTS 3 Letter from the Board Chair 4 Mission and Theory of Change Programmatic Activities 5 Individuals at Risk Death Penalty Security with Human Rights Police Accountability and Gun Violence Identity and Discrimination 12 Advocacy 15 Research 16 Financials Dear Friends, 2015 has been a year of highs and lows. As human rights defenders, we have celebrated as we watched marriage equality become the law of the land in both Ireland and the United States, as survivors of police torture in Chicago have been acknowledged and promised reparations, and as the State of Nebraska repealed the death penalty. We have also shared our sorrow and frustration as we saw refugees of war-torn countries turned away from much needed aid, read countless articles on innumerable mass shootings around the United States, and witnessed a continued pattern of people of color dying at the hands of police with little or no accountability. It is often hard to remember our successes in the face of As a life-long so many tragedies and failures of governments around the world to protect the human rights of defender of human their people and the people who turn to them for help. Gun violence; backlash against human rights, I stand with rights defenders and peaceful dissenters; discrimination based on race, religion, gender, you, and I thank you orientation, and nationality – these problems threaten the lives of people just like us all for all that you do. over the world. It is important, in the face of overwhelming adversity, to remember the impact that you are making as a member of AIUSA. Your voice, your letters, your phone calls, your signatures – these things can, and do, make a difference. Every year, based on your work, we see prisoners of conscience released, we pressure leaders to do what’s right, and we push our government to acknowledge and protect the human rights of all people. As a life-long defender of human rights, I stand with you, and I thank you for all that you do. Change may come slowly, but it does come, and the dedication of Amnesty International members worldwide has the power to help change the world. In solidarity, Ann Burroughs Board Chair ANNUAL REPORT 2015 3 OUR MISSION AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA is a 501(c)(3) human rights nonproft and the largest country section of Amnesty International, with nearly 250,000 members who work for human rights independently; through national online networks; and with high school, college, and community groups. With complete independence from government, corporate or ideological interests, Amnesty International is one of the world’s foremost defenders of human rights. With a presence in over 70 countries and the support of 7 million people throughout the world, Amnesty International is a global movement working tirelessly toward fair treatment for people everywhere. Amnesty International conducts its work with the hope of fulflling its vision of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other internationally recognized human rights standards. AIUSA addresses a wide range of human rights issues both domestically and abroad, including prisoners of conscience and other people at risk; the death penalty; national security and counter-terrorism; sexual and reproductive rights; refugee and migrant rights; torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; women’s rights; children’s rights; censorship and free speech; LGBT rights; arms transfers; and international justice. Amnesty International unites people from all over the world to fght for human rights using a signature three-pronged approach. ANNUAL REPORT 2015 4 INDIVIDUALS AT RISK PROTECTING INDIVIDUALS AT RISK As a teenager in Nigeria, Moses Akatugba was tortured into confessing that he stole three cell phones, and sentenced to death. In May 2015, after ten years on death row and a campaign by Amnesty International, Moses walked free. Moses’ case was one of 193 highlighted by the Individuals at Risk program that saw positive outcomes in 2015. Amnesty also helped protect Meenakshi Kumari and her sister from rape in India; helped pass an historic law in Chicago providing reparations for Darrell Cannon and other survivors of torture by police; and helped free 144 prisoners of conscience—people jailed for the peaceful expression of their beliefs or identity—including Arif and Leyla Yunus, human rights defenders in Azerbaijan; Danilo Maldonado Machado, an artist in Cuba; and Dr. Tun Aung, who helped protect minorities in Myanmar. Globally and in the U.S., Amnesty generates pressure on government offcials and other decision makers through a strategic mix of research, lobbying, media attention, coalition building, and grassroots activism—including the annual Write for Rights campaign, the Urgent Action Network, the Case Commitment Initiative, and Focus Case Campaigns. In 2015, participants generated over one million actions on cases from AIUSA. 2015’s Write for Rights broke records domestically and globally, with AIUSA generating over 300,000 actions on 12 focus cases, while Amnesty International as a whole recorded more than 3.7 million actions, including letters, petition signatures, postcards, and tweets. In 2016, Amnesty will continue to work on behalf of people at risk like Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia for his writings; Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, serving a 40-year sentence for a still birth under El Salvador’s abortion ban; and Leonard Peltier, jailed for over 40 years in the U.S. on the basis of an unfair trial. ANNUAL REPORT 2015 5 JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY THE DEATH PENALTY The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. It violates the rights to life and to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. Amnesty’s campaign to abolish the death penalty in the U.S. is conducted on a state-by-state basis through a network of dedicated State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinators (SDPACs). These volunteer leaders work with the help of AIUSA staff to lead local coalitions and mobilize Amnesty International members and other activists in their state to take action against the death penalty. In 2015, the Delaware SDPAC organized and implemented a Witness to Innocence tour with death row exoneree Nate Fields, engaging members in Delaware’s anti-death penalty campaign. In Nebraska, Amnesty members played a crucial role in the state legislature passing a bill to abolish the death penalty, even overturning the governor’s veto. AIUSA activists also rallied around the case of Kelly Gissendaner, who in September became the frst woman to be executed in Georgia in 70 years. In a signifcant success, the Missouri Supreme Court vacated the death sentence of Reggie Clemons after many years of advocacy by dedicated Amnesty activists. Other successes in 2015 include the stays of execution for Rodney Reed and Richard Glossip, and the moratorium on executions implemented by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. ANNUAL REPORT 2015 6 JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY SECURITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS AIUSA’s Security with Human Rights program campaigns to end human rights abuses committed in the name of national security, ensure accountability for them, and demand they be replaced by measures that effectively ensure both security and human rights. Our work areas include torture and Guantanamo, U.S. drone and other air strikes, and surveillance. In 2015, Amnesty’s Stop Torture campaign focused on ensuring accountability for torture committed in the name of national security and closing the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Over the course of 2015, 24 prisoners at Guantanamo were released, including Shaker Aamer, who was featured in global Amnesty campaigning. In its frst vote on U.S. torture in several years, Congress voted to strengthen the ban on torture and ensure it applies to the CIA. This is one of Amnesty’s biggest wins against torture in the last eight years. Amnesty supporters sent more than 44,000 emails to senators and made phone calls to senators in key states. In its ongoing work on the use of drones by the U.S. government, AIUSA provided analysis that was cited in the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, and two dozen other outlets in the aftermath of President Obama’s April acknowledgement and apology for the killing of American and Italian hostages in a U.S. drone strike. Amnesty International expressed concern that accountability must extend to non-Western families who have lost loved ones to unlawful drone strikes. Taking on the issue of mass surveillance, AIUSA joined a lawsuit brought by the ACLU (Wikimedia v. Clapper) challenging NSA surveillance and arguing that it undermines our ability to document and campaign against human rights abuses. Senior Obama administration offcial James R. Clapper responded to a letter from the AIUSA Board of Directors, providing explicit assurance that the U.S. will take steps to ensure that its surveillance data does not end up in the hands of foreign governments that would use it to repress human rights activists. In order to support activists and communities at risk of unlawful surveillance, AIUSA has begun conducting education and empowerment work at the local level. ANNUAL REPORT 2015 7 JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY CASE STUDY: Shaker Aamer I promise all of you good people – those whose names I know, and those whose names I do not know – that my heart and spirit feel your thoughts and justice.
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