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mnesty International (AI) is an international NGO that doesn’t need much of an introduction. Present in over 140 countries worldwide, its reputation and work precede it as one of the largest movements focused on the defence of human rights.
Through detailed research and determined campaigning, AI helps fight abuses of human rights worldwide, by bringing torturers to justice, changing oppressive laws, and freeing people jailed just for voicing their opinion.
Chat with Ângela Ferreira João
How does one defend human rights?
When it comes to organisations whose work is welfarism - immediate response, crisis respondents, first responders - it’s simple to understand what they do: they are giving people vaccines, food, clothes, shelter, providing them with goods and services they need at that moment for free. It’s quite simple to understand how we are contributing: the money I give an organisation with that kind of work will go toward a specific good or service that this organisation is going to give a specific human in need.
The way a person contributes to AI's work is different and not so linear. As our work is based mainly on actions like pressure upon governments, investigation, arrraignment, information, it can be harder to understand how we use the donations that reach us to help people.
I’ll try to clarify this: every single AI campaign, local or global, has in its source: investigation. We staff teams of investigators. We actually have a “lab to collect evidence”, and so that is always the first step: our team goes to the field to investigate. This investigation can have a lot of different outputs: images, videos, testimonies, documents, we can even use satellite images now because we have that technology - this is particularly useful considering how hard it can sometimes be to get into some territories and countries.
I’ll try to clarify this: every single AI campaign, local or global, has in its source: investigation. We staff teams of investigators. We actually have a “lab to collect evidence”, and so that is always the first step: our team goes to the field to investigate. This investigation can have a lot of different outputs: images, videos, testimonies, documents, we can even use satellite images now because we have that technology - this is particularly useful considering how hard it can sometimes be to get into some territories and countries.
After collecting the evidence, we expose it in a report which then gets published.
From this base, all of the other work that AI develops can start:
- creating online petitions which we ask people to sign;
- mobilisation of people;
- the constant request for meetings with governments and embassies to get them to listen to try and change something;
- changing laws, which is something we want but is evidently very difficult.
To avoid such violations of human rights and dignity as the ones still perpetrated worldwide, the most important thing we can do to scale the efforts is to the change laws that allow these violations to still happen.
There must be a legal adaptation that protects people. If we want to protect human rights all over the world, the legislative framework of each country needs to be coherent with assuring this protection by penalising actions that go against it and depenalising whatever constitutes the free expression.
Global or local: how does a worldwide organisation act on a local capacity?
AI works with both global and local campaigns. We try to have one identity that is coherent everywhere in the world. It’s important that we keep working as a global movement/organisation - we communicate every day among different chapters about what is happening in the world, what are the most important campaigns we are promoting, which reports have come out recently, events that have been reported.
We have a few campaigns that are global and every single official AI chapter works on them. For example, we had a very big campaign recently called “brave” which was working towards assuring the right for a human rights defensor to manifest/express themselves freely and safely. We had another one focusing on the safety of refugees who were running away/displaced from their countries due to wars. These are international projects that need global mobilisation.
We have a few campaigns that are global and every single official AI chapter works on them. For example, we had a very big campaign recently called “brave” which was working towards assuring the right for a human rights defensor to manifest/express themselves freely and safely. We had another one focusing on the safety of refugees who were running away/displaced from their countries due to wars. These are international projects that need global mobilisation.
The crisis in Ukraine is something we are working on both locally and globally. For example, the money that has been donated to AI in Portugal are being allocated to help Ukrainian citizens who are in Portugal and some who are not. AI is working towards guaranteeing that some of the funds collected are allocated to helping people who have stayed behind in Ukraine.
That being said, as an organisation who is present in Portugal, for example, we have to be attentive to what is going on locally and work on campaigns that have local impact. For example, last year one of AI's most talked about campaigns was a Portuguese one following Câmara Municipal de Lisboa’s spread of personal information to Russia.
We're working on an investigation about the living conditions inside prisons. We’re evidently paying very close attention to what is happening in the Russian Federation’s Embassy for evident reasons. We’re promoting a public petition directed at our Russian Federation’s Embassy to ensure the freedom and safety of the people who have been imprisoned for publicly and peacefully manifesting their opposition to the war in Ukraine. The simple fact that you cannot say or write the word “War” regarding the crisis in Ukraine inside Russia without being arrested is very problematic and something we cannot abide by.
What can we do in times when the world is in crisis and so many people need our help?
In times of crisis, when we all feel the need to help and to step up, it is even more important to trust the organisations that have experience, know-how and knowledge. It makes sense to select which ones to help and what works and what we believe in, following our criteria, but individual or small group actions, even the most well intentioned of initiatives, can backfire and end up hurting the cause instead of helping a crisis as is intended.
Individually, I know that I am not able to get anything inside Ukrainian borders - but I know that Amnesty International can cross those borders and deliver goods and do important work in a legal and safe way, in collaboration with local entities and other international organised efforts. Without the knowledge necessary to navigate the reality of a crisis, we can even be committing illegal acts without our knowledge. That’s why I always ask people to trust the entities that are working in the field. They have the knowledge, the sensitivity, the experience and know-how to actually make a difference in ways that are going to be very useful. It’s time to trust.
Volunteering is very important, immediate aid and welfarism as well, but it is not enough because it rarely fixes the institutionalised problems people are facing. Now is the time to trust the people who are trained in this, who have dedicated their lives to this work, who have experience and know-how in investigating and reporting facts — these are the people we need to be active and the ones that need our help right now to do their jobs in a way that is going to serve a positive purpose.
What happens when Coverflexers make a donation to Amnesty international through the app?
First of all, I would really like to recognise that Coverflex has really made a difference in our funding by opening up a new channel that has reached a lot of companies, many individuals and has brought a considerable amount of help. These small actions really make a difference to us. Sometimes we think it’s just a small donation and it’s nothing special, but I can tell you that it is special and meaningful.
How are the funds collected by Amnesty International in Portugal specifically to help Ukrainians affected by the current crisis applied in practical terms?
With regards to what is happening right now in Ukraine, Amnesty International’s work has been to prove that there are war crimes being committed and take this to the International Criminal Court, so that the people perpetrating these crimes are found accountable and criminalised.
In this conflict, we want many things, namely for this conflict to end, and for innocent civilians to be safe and protected (and we know for a fact that there are many innocent people dying in this conflict, and that it is a war crime). We are finding more and more evidence that there have been situations and clear attacks that constitute very serious violations of human rights and the law — we’re talking about the intentional bombing of hospitals and schools, the not yet confirmed reports of sexual assault by Russian soldiers of civilian women fleeing the conflict, among others. These are all war crimes because they are happening in the context of a war. So, in a very practical sense, we need to gather the necessary funds to give our people the conditions they need to find evidence of these situations and report it to the world and the highest authorities in order to enact some action and to try to mobilise ways to protect the people exposed to these violations.
In a general sense, we first understand what are the needs in a specific project/campaign/situation. For example, we are in constant contact with our Ukrainian colleagues, which loosely fall into two different categories: those who are active in the field, who have stayed behind in Kiev and other cities and who are doing investigative work, and those who have fled the country and are safe somewhere else. There's a constant contact with the people in the fields which have direct contact with what is happening there, what the most immediate needs are, which are the Ukrainian NGOs we can trust.
We also help Ukrainians who have fled Ukraine and are now living in Portugal, and they usually contact us because they need help with legal issues (things like “How can I extend my visa? How can I be considered an asylum seeker?”). This work of legal support and orientation is something we are used to doing and it is relatively easy for us because we have the right professionals for this in house and we also understand the system, processes and how things work, and can be helpful in guiding people who are trying to navigate something complex and alien to them in a language they don’t understand, in a reality that is completely new to them.
For the Ukraine crisis, we are also giving immediate aid to people who are just arriving in Portugal — the kind of assistance that is not part of our core activities, but that we are providing to those who arrive fleeing from the violence in Ukraine. For this kind of work we have opened an emergency fund to answer needs.
For the Ukraine crisis, we are also giving immediate aid to people who are just arriving in Portugal — the kind of assistance that is not part of our core activities, but that we are providing to those who arrive fleeing from the violence in Ukraine. For this kind of work we have opened an emergency fund to answer needs.
Moments of crisis are important because people mobilise and really want to take action — and we feel the weight of that responsibility. For example, in what comes to the funds we have gained through Coverflex and your partners’ donations, we have to be sure they are put to good use. We know that people are donating because they are affected by something that is happening in the world right now, that this has at some point or another kept them up at night, that it has messed with the sense of security and safety they are so used to feeling — and so it is our responsibility, as Amnesty International, to be extra careful with the way we allocate these funds. So we are making sure that the money that we have raised is effectively used in the best possible way, to serve the common good and to help the Ukrainian people.
This is only the beginning. It’s strange to say this, but it’s true. Even if the war ends in the very near future, the problems that will arise from the conflict that has already happened are only just starting to show and to have an impact on these people’s lives and many others throughout the world. For starters, we are facing another refugee crisis because we already have four million people fleeing Ukraine and losing everything they had, their lives, their sense of security, their homes, their work, their friends, their families…. There is a lot of work to be done.
Supporting Amnesty International and getting involved
We depend entirely, 100%, on individual/citizen contributions so we can keep doing our work in an independent, ethical and fair way. This is evidently very tricky, because we have to work with what people are willing and able to give us. We have many different support models: people can give a one-off donation or they can become Amnesty International supporters and give a specific amount every month in a simple way, through an automatic bank transfer and with the selected amount starting at a minimum of €8, and they can even become a member of AI, where they pay an annual fee but are also considered as part of the organisation and can participate and vote in decisions, among other privileges of those who want to get further involved. People who are regular contributors/supporters have to believe that we will find the best possible way of allocating their funds, in this model where they aren’t funding one specific campaign or cause.
People have to put their trust in organisations such as AI when they are donating money, knowing that we can be using it to benefit one of many different cases/causes/violations. In a generic way, they are financing the work of defending and promoting human rights all over the world.
People can also support the organisation by signing petitions. Everything is interconnected at an NGO: we can’t have work being developed in defending and promoting human rights without funds, but we can’t work on fundraising efforts without having the results to justify it. One thing is not more important than the other because both have to feed off of each other.
