May 30, 2019, activists visit Amnesty International HQ in London to remind AI of their promise to “campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all”, in this case the human rights of WikiLeaks founder, journalist and publisher Julian Assange. In response, Amnesty locked the door.
October 10, 2019
2nd Open Letter to Kumi Naidoo,
Secretary General of Amnesty International
Dear Mr. Naidoo,
On April 5th, we hand delivered and publicly shared an open letter to AI’s London headquarters in the hope you and Amnesty would show your active support to what is clearly one of the most blatant and disgraceful human rights violations taking place only a few miles away from your doorstep.
Although Amnesty did make a couple of very short public statements on the issue since, the comments regrettably echo all your previous ones and ultimately fail Amnesty’s core promise to act and “campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all”.
It also puts into perspective your new strategic plan for 2016–2019 with the following goals :
“Taking injustice personally”, “Shift the way human rights are fought for…engaging where we can and confronting where we must”, “Confront and Expose states, corporations and institutions that violate rights…”
And of course :
“Act quickly and effectively to support prisoners of conscience and people facing injustice”
And while Amnesty is still refusing to help protect Mr. Assange in any quick and effective way, and keeps insisting ‘Mr. Assange is not a prisoner of conscience”, this extraordinary publisher and human rights defender, from whose work also Amnesty has greatly profited, is literally dying, in your own backyard.
Suggestion : To verify Mr. Assange’s health situation please exit your office, walk to Farringdon station, jump on the Thameslink, get off 10 stops later at Plumstead station. Then walk another 15 minutes to Belmarsh Prison and make further inquiries.
To show how serious Mr. Assange’s situation is, here are a couple of words by Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on torture in his report of May 31, 2019, after visiting Assange in Belmarsh Prison accompanied by two health experts :
“In the course of the past nine years, Mr. Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.”
He concluded:
“In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law,” Melzer said,“The collective persecution of Julian Assange must end here and now!”
It is clear, Mr. Naidoo, that Julian Assange’s situation (or Chelsea Mannings’ for that matter, amongst others), is not some random collusion of circumstances.
It is — to stay within Amnesty’s own vernacular — a conscious act. A deliberate joint effort, to warn those- who dare to expose the powerful of their crimes- that they will be hunted down and publicly crucified. Their lives will cease to exist. Their friends and families harassed and their reputations ruined. They will be humiliated, spied on, bankrupted, jailed, tortured and blown to bits.
Julian Assange has become an international symbol in the fight against this relentless and state-sponsored witch-hunt and one would think that Amnesty in particular would be outraged by the way Mr. Assange is being treated. That its’ leaders would understand what his extradition could mean to the safety of all journalists, publishers and whistleblowers, to the freedom of the press and our right to information.
After all it wasn’t long ago, at a time when Mr. Assange’s face was on the cover of every major news outlet around the globe, that Amnesty decided to celebrate his work with a major award for exposing hundreds of extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya. Presumably, a conscious contribution to the world on his part.
But while Julian Assange was treated like a hero by Amnesty then, today, you barely dare to mention his name. Why ?
Could it be that institutions like yourself, which some would call ‘the elites of the ethically certified’, are themselves an intrinsic part of the problem ? That because of your financial dependence on popular opinion, you can not bring yourselves to stand up for what is obviously right because it might be unpopular and cost you some votes ? And that to justify this moral failure, you have to resort to absurd statements like ‘not a prisoner of conscience’, adding yet another layer of distraction to the truth ?
Honestly Mr. Naidoo, would you say your organisation, which is there to support people facing injustice, is really helping to bring justice to all those victims of torture and war, by passively watching how the founder of WikiLeaks, which has revealed more war crimes than any other news outlet in the world, is slowly being assassinated ? Or is it possible perhaps, that your actions are gravely harming your own cause ? That by adding yet another bogus argument to the cesspool of myths and lies, you are actually supporting the criminals and murderers and not the victims ?
Isn’t it interesting, that with the slew of large, international NGO’s daily latching onto us in the streets promising to fight for every possible issue under the sun- in return for a monthly fee- it is again the average citizen and not the paid ‘professional’ who has to stand up for even the most basic of rights.
Surely, if there ever was a moment for human rights organisations to put our money where their mouth is, we can think of no better opportunity.
What more is there to say.
On October 11th, it will be 6 months since Julian Assange has been illegally dragged out of the Embassy. This after having already spent almost 7 years locked up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London as a political refugee. All this has taken place at walking distance from your own office.
It is therefore incomprehensible that Amnesty, in view of the historic importance of the case and after all the evidence available, does not find the need or courage to show real solidarity with someone who has done so much to advance its own cause.
We have no doubt that a continued failure to act according to your own promises and principles will not only go down in history as an epic mistake, but will leave many of your members to reconsider their support for Amnesty in the future.
For indeed they might be wondering : if you are ‘accountable now’, to whom exactly are you accountable ?
We sincerely hope that as head of Amnesty, you can appreciate Mr. Assange’s case within a global context. That Julian Assange is indeed a prisoner of conscience and a prime example of what the human spirit, despite being surrounded by fear, silence and cruelty, is capable of.
May you find yourself in the same spirit. Let us only hope it will find you in time.
Yours sincerely,
Concerned Citizens
Open letter to Kumi Naidoo April 4th, 2019.
www.nachdenkseiten.de/upload/pdf/190405-Open-Letter-to-Kumi Naidoo.pdf
UK must refuse extradition of Julian Assange to the United States
Julian Assange must not be extradited to the USA
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/04/julian-assange-must-not-be-extradited-to-the-usa/
Amnesty, taking injustice personally
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/01/amnesty-goals-2016-2019/
Amnesty secretary-general Kumi Naidoo calls out Australia’s Human Rights record
Julian Assange ‘subjected to every kind of torment’ in Belmarsh prison as he awaits extradition
OHCHR | UN expert says “collective persecution” of Julian Assange must end now
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24665&LangID=E
Spanish security company spied on Julian Assange in London for the United States
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/09/25/inenglis/1569384196_652151.html
Amnesty announces Media Awards 2009 winners
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/amnesty-announces-media-awards-2009-winners
Amnesty, Accountable Now
https://www.amnesty.org/en/about-us/how-were-run/ingo-charter/