About Amnesty International
Amnesty International was founded in 1961 to campaign for the release of “prisoners of conscience” – people imprisoned solely for their political or religious beliefs. It is now a worldwide and highly respected organisation working to ensure that every person may enjoy all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty is an impartial, non-commercial and democratic organisation which relies on the work and dedication of its members and supporters. Together we take action to:
- stop violence against women
- defend the rights and dignity of those trapped in poverty
- abolish the death penalty
- oppose torture and combat terror with justice
- free prisoners of conscience
- protect the rights of refugees and migrants
- regulate the global arms trade
Many of the people it has campaigned for state that Amnesty’s activities were instrumental in their release or in improving their situations and in giving them hope. In 1977 Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its work for human rights.
Read more about Amnesty here.
About Our Group
Our group was set up in February 2002 as an English language group. Many of our members are native speakers of English, but many have chosen this group because they want to make use of their knowledge of English in their work for Amnesty. Group 1312 is a truly international group. Our members come from all walks of life, and all age groups; some have lived in Berlin for many years, others are passing through. What unites us is our determination to make a difference in the cause of human rights – and to have fun doing so!
Like all Amnesty groups, and as one of more than 50 Amnesty groups in the Berlin-Brandenburg area, we play a vital role in the movement. We work on case files and focus on particular regions. We do fundraising, help to coordinate local activities such as demonstrations, and aim to increase public awareness of human rights issues.
Group Flyer: General information about our group and how to support us.
Our Work
Our work is currently focused on cases and the general human rights situation in West Africa and Egypt.
WEST AFRICA
We try to observe general developments in the individual countries of
the region and we lend our support to those people in the West Africa region whose human rights are threatened or abused. Along with writing letters of appeal we carry out actions aimed at making the people of Berlin more aware of the human rights situation in West African countries. We have recently sent a batch of letters to various authorities in Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo and others calling on them to react to the World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October by appealing to their governments to reinstate the moratorium on executions and to commute all existing death sentences. In the past we were involved with the case of Amina Lawal who was released in September 2003.
EGYPT
For general information, please see the Amnesty International website.
We previously worked on Cambodia for several years.
CAMBODIA
Our Cambodia sub-group concentrated mainly on two subjects: the overwhelming problem of forced evictions and the ongoing case of the wrongly convicted prisoners Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun.
Forced Evictions in Cambodia – a gross violation of human rights
Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun