AIAU was represented at the Amnesty Denmark meeting for local groups and associations the 5th of November 2011.
The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas, discuss the structure of Amnesty in Denmark and to hear news from the Danish committee.
Here are some of the most important points from the meeting (we cannot guarantee for accuracy).
ICM 2011
The ICM stands for International Council Meeting and is the highest organ in Amnesty International. It takes place every second year and all countries with an Amnesty section are represented. This year they discussed 4 main topics:
- Finance: they decided that there should be a bigger transfer from bigger sections to small ones
- Governance: new ideas for AI’s democracy
- Organization: a stronger focus on helping local groups from different countries to work together
- Human rights strategy: The ISP (Integrated Strategy Plan) is in function until 2016, but they discussed some suggestions for future focus; climate change, access to medicine and children’s rights
Read more about the ICM here.
Results from earlier campaigns
AIAU members collecting signatures for the Roma campaign.
In general it is hard to measure results from AI campaigns – they will often be indirect and long-term.
However, there are some good results: Amnesty Denmark has helped a lot of vulnerable asylum seekers to get new verdicts, for example by providing documentation from doctors.
As a result of the Nicaragua campaign there were big demonstrations in Nicaragua and the abortion-movement seems to be stronger now. Internationally Amnesty got 262.156 signatures, 35.000 in Denmark. The results of the Roma- and Saudi Arabia campaign are not yet available.
Amnesty Denmark has also pressured Lundbeck (a Danish medicine company) to make sure not to sell medicine to buyers who are using it for the execution of death penalties, as has been the case in the USA.
Future campaigns
Unlike the last years, Amnesty Denmark is only going to run three campaigns in 2012 – the purpose is to have some more time for each campaign.
The three campaigns will be:
- Work for a FN weapon treaty: to stop trade with weapons to countries where it will lead to human rights violations
- The Arab spring: the campaign is to promote human rights in the period of transition to a more democratic rule in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries where crises are taking place, e.g. Syria and Yemen
- “Skriv for liv” in December
Good ideas
One of the repeated ideas was cooperation with other associations/groups, for example as a part of the “verdens bedste nyheder”-campaign (read more here). Some of the other groups have had great experience with that – both advertising for their own group and at the same time participating in a campaign with a good cause. In line with this was the idea of participating in large arrangements such as festivals, concerts, cultural events and so on. Some groups have also cooperated with a cinema, getting admission to use it for showing a movie about human rights.
A more specific advice is to make a folder with help from AI in Denmark. They have something called Aktiv-service where you can order some folders with a text about out group and about a specific campaign or Amnesty in general.
Another thing to pay attention to is Amnesty’s lifeline. The concept is to make signature petitions using mobiles – you get a SMS with a short text about a case of human rights violations, and you sign by answering it. Sign up now here!
In general we had a very good meeting and people were very happy to see us there. Unfortunately we are still the only university-based group – most of the other volunteers are 50+ and have been a part of Amnesty for many years. Hopefully there’ll soon be other university groups in Amnesty, but AIAU can still gain a lot from participating in the local group meetings.
AIAU 