Campaigns

Campaign to Stop Torture

  Amnesty International and other organizations have been campaigning 
against torture for almost 40 years. Torture is still a daily reality. 
Torture is used by more than two-thirds the world's governments. Amnesty 
International believes that we can and must confront torture and eradicate it.

The Campaign to Stop Torture is a global campaign running simultaneously in 
more than 60 countries and mobilizing AI's one million members to:

-Demand that torturers always be stopped and brought to justice - either in 
 their own countries or in others. 
-Support torture survivors and organizations that work with survivors of torture. 
 Urging the US to pass a full appropriation for the Torture Victims Relief Act.
-Confront violence against women that constitutes torture. Work to end the torture 
 of children. Work to end the torture of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered 
 people.
-Urge the UN World Conference on Racism to take concrete steps against torture.
-Work side-by-side with grassroots organizations to combat torture in 21 targeted 
 countries including the United States.

For more detailed information, visit the AI page here.




Death Penalty

  Each year since 1976, two more nations have added their names to the list 
of countries that have abolished the death penalty. A majority of the world's 
nations have now put an end to capital punishment in law or practice.
  The United Nations Human Rights Commission has adopted a resolution calling 
for all nations that continue to execute to restrict the number of offenses 
for which the death penalty may be imposed and to suspend executions with a 
view toward abolishing the death penalty.
  While the world has moved away from the death penalty, recognizing that there 
is no worthwhile social goal that requires a government to commit state-
sanctioned murder, the United States of America continues to accelerate the 
pace of executions. The US executes an average of six people each month and, 
as of January 1999, over 3,500 men and women were on death row. The death 
penalty was reinstated in 1976, yet 75% of executions have occurred since 1990.

For more detailed information, visit the AI page here.




Urgent Actions

  The Urgent Action Network (UAN) is an Amnesty International program designed 
to provide a quick, effective response to situations of urgency involving prisoners, 
detainees and other threatened individuals. There are Urgent Action Networks in 78 
countries where there are established Amnesty International organizations. In the 
United States, thousands of individual AI members, student groups, community chapters 
and other organizations make up its Urgent Action Network. 
  A.I.'s Urgent Action Network consists of a streamlined procedure for finding and 
responding to urgent information about threatened individuals and quickly getting it 
to a pool of concerned people who agree to be 'on call' to send immediate letters, 
faxes, telegrams, and aerograms to government authorities regarding cases of torture, 
capital punishment, extrajudicial execution, ill-treatment, "disappearance," untreated 
health problems, death threats, denial of legal counsel, unacknowledged detention, 
forced repatriation, harassment, and arbitrary arrest. 
  An Urgent Action includes specific details about the prisoner as well as background 
information regarding relevant patterns of human rights violations in the country, 
recommended actions, addresses of responsible governmental authorities and general 
guidelines to use when composing appeals. 

For more detailed information or to take action on the most current Urgent Action,
visit the AI page here.




Women's Rights 

The Women’s Human Rights Program focuses on promoting women’s human rights within 
Amnesty's mandate. It seeks to stop the particular violations of civil and political 
rights that women and girls experience.

Specific goals of the Women’s Network include:
-Bringing about the release of women arrested solely for peaceful activism or for peacefully 
 exercising the basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by men or arrested solely because of their 
 links with men whom the government or opposition forces seek to question..
-Ending gender-specific forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment including 
 rape by government agents, forms of sexual coercion including excessive strip and body 
 searches and threats of rape..
-Safeguarding women’s rights in areas where armed conflict is occurring, including stopping 
 the use of rape as a weapon of war.
-Preventing human rights abuses against women who are members of ethnic communities targeted 
 for abuse. .
-Stopping violations against women refugees and asylum-seekers.
-Bringing about the release of lesbians detained solely for their sexual orientation
-Achieving U.S. ratification of the United Nations Women’s Convention

For more detailed information, visit the AI page here.




LGBT Rights

 Around the world, the human rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people 
are violated daily. Not only are people beaten, imprisoned and killed by their own 
governments for engaging in homosexual acts, but those suspected of being lesbian, gay, 
bisexual or transgender (LGBT) are routinely the victims of harassment, discrimination and 
violence. Many of those who speak up for lesbian and gay rights regardless of their sexual 
identity are themselves persecuted with impunity. 

The goals of Outfront include:
-Combating human rights violations against LGBT persons around the world. 
-Increasing public awareness of international human rights abuses based on sexual identity. 
-Promoting international policies, both inside Amnesty International and in the wider human 
 rights community, to protect people who face abuses because of their sexual identity. 
-Strengthening links between activists within Amnesty International, other human rights groups, 
 and the LGBT community. 

For more detailed information, visit the AI page here.




Just Earth

 Amnesty International and the Sierra Club have come together in a one-of-its-kind collaboration 
"Defending Those Who Give the Earth a Voice." We believe the human rights and environmental 
challenge of the next decade will be to defend the people who defend the environment to fight
for the rights of citizens worldwide who risk their lives by speaking out to protect our planet. 
The convergence of the nation's two largest grassroots movements brings a combined strength of 
one million members to this campaign. One million people to speak out against the suffering of 
environmental defenders. One million people fighting to stop environmental devastation. One 
million people to demand that governments and corporations uphold international human rights and 
environmental standards. Join with us and other environmental and human rights groups in your 
communities and start creating the coalitions that will make a difference.

 For more detailed information, visit the AI page here.