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 AGM Panels The AGM will present several thematic panels that dynamically address the opportunities and challenges faced by the human rights movement in the promotion of social justice through globalization and ways that human rights standards and strategies can be used to counter economic globalization. Panels will also explore core AI human rights concerns and issues relating to resolutions presented at regional conferences. SATURDAY, 20 April: Panels Part I 2:00 - 3:30pm Federal Room, lower level Defending Human Rights, the Environment and Peoples' Rights in the Age of Corporate Globalization Globalization is perhaps the most defining feature of our time. Corporate globalization has changed the face and nature of human rights violations, and has further crystallized the close links between human rights, the environment, and indigenous peoples' rights. One major concern of advocacy groups and social justice activists is that human rights, environmental protection, and respect for affected local peoples' rights will be compromised in the quest for corporate profits. The panel will highlight the challenges of protecting human rights and the environment, and the important role of courageous individual defenders in holding governments and corporations accountable in the context of corporate globalization. Panelists:
2:00 - 3:30pm South Room, 3rd level Global Perspectives on Death Penalty Abolition In the past decade, more than three countries a year have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Over half of the world's nations have put an end to capital punishment in law or practice. It was excluded from the mandate of the International Criminal Court. What strategies and tactics will it take to move the US to abolition in the post-9/11 environment and to be most effective at bringing about global abolition? Talk with noted world change agents at this interactive panel presentation. Parallel to the AGM focus, this panel of scholar-activists will highlight the globalization of death penalty abolition and successful contemporary movements. Members will examine how U.S. abolitionists can work in unison with counterparts abroad, using lessons learned from the multidimensional anti-apartheid movement and others. Join other members in challenging yourselves to specific movement goal-setting and realization of one of AIUSA's two top priorities. How do we act nationally as we think and work globally with other Amnesty International members around the world to bring an end to executions everywhere? Invited Panelists:
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm The international community has established a number of mechanisms to enforce international law, from the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to the "mixed" tribunals in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, to the soon to be established International Criminal Court. In addition to these international mechanisms, investigations have been opened in more than a dozen countries against leaders and prominent members of past and present administrations of various foreign countries. All of these developments suggest that there are fewer safe havens for human rights abusers and, even more importantly, that a global response to the challenge of impunity is becoming more and more viable.
Panelists:
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm At the 2001 International Council Meeting, AI's decision-making body, the organization undertook a historic mandate debate between a "new core concept" and "full spectrum approach". At the center of this debate is the issue of ESC rights or economic, social, and cultural rights. Historically, AI focused its campaigning work on a subset of civil and political rights within the human rights framework outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the subsequent treaties developed to operationalize the rights identified in the UDHR. In 1991, the mandate was adapted to include educational or promotional work on social and economic rights. The organization has increasingly responded both to pressures from Southern world movements and to the economic realities associated with globalization. As a result, AI has committed to adopting a more rigorous commitment to ESC rights. This panel is designed to answer fundamental questions that AI members and globalization activists alike will have as Amnesty enters a new era of addressing ESC rights. First, it will explore the origins and content of ESC rights, examine how ESC rights can address the impact of economic globalization, overview the global movement for ESC rights, and look at some models of sucessful ESC campaigns. Second, it will look at Amnesty International's position on ESC rights and the opportunities and challenges associated with moving forward in this area. It will overview Amnesty's mandate history and the recent ICM decision, analyze some of the challenges facing AI as we begin to implement the ICM decision, and examine specifically the postion of the US section on ESC rights. Finally the panel will introduce new educational materials prepared on ESC rights, that can be used to fulfill our commitment to education on ALL human rights standards, as well as be used to build our own capacity to take action on behalf of economic and social rights. Panelists:
Moderator:
While globalization has led to economic expansion here and around the world, it has also brought violations involving both attacks on physical integrity and also denial of economic rights. Globalization, accompanied as it is by national debt and by cancellation of budgetary allocations to the social safety net (health, education, housing, environment, working conditions), has inevitably brought with it hardships the brunt of which are borne by the poor and among those mainly by women and children. As our AGM focuses on the social justice component essential to advancement of human rights in the context of globalization, this panel will address the effects of globalization on human rights of women in several parts of the world. The panel will make links between work by grassroots women's organizations around the world to alleviate abuses related to women's economic rights issues such as poverty suffered by women in the globalized workplace, in the agricultural sector and in the informal underground economy. Panelists:
Moderator:
8:30 am
- 10:00 am Desired outcome: Position AI as an organization playing a mediating role in the contentious debate over corporate social responsibility in a globalizing world. We know that there will be various disagreements among the panelists, but we would like AI to serve as an organization which remains focused on promoting human rights and is open to many strategies to do so. Invited Panelists:
Moderator:
8:30 am - 10:00 am The HIV/AIDS pandemic provides all too many links with the arena of human rights: all over the world, people are killed, tortured, imprisoned, discriminated against and denied access to education, housing, and even medication or life-saving treatment because of their real - or perceived - HIV status. AI has, in recent history, been attentive to the landscape of human rights and HIV: we have documented and reported on abuses committed in prisons (where HIV+ prisoners have been subjected to discriminatory stun belt use, isolated against their will, and denied basic medical care); and we have reported on government crackdowns on NGOs that focus on HIV advocacy and police roundups of attendees at HIV-related conferences. But the violations don't stop there - HIV/AIDS related abuses are also connected to gender inequality, rape (including in marriage and in armed conflict), and discriminatory laws and societal attitudes that render certain groups at risk for transmission as well as human rights abuses. So now we enter a different era in our organization's work. The 2001
ICM addressed the need for AI as a global movement to respond in a bolder
way to the myriad of abuses facing people because of the pandemic. AI
has charted a course to strengthen our focus on issues related to discrimination
as well as on economic, social and cultural rights. This panel will address
some of the key concerns AI and other organizations hold in terms of HIV/AIDS
and human rights, including issues related to power, gender and women's
experience, racism and immigration, poverty, advocacy within the UN, the
right to health and potential areas of intervention for our own organization.
HIV/AIDS provides a bridge across these issues, as well as many other
foundational AI concerns. We need to take this moment to educate ourselves
about how this health crisis, even with its tragic consequences, provides
fertile ground for creative and effective global human rights advocacy.
8:30 am - 10:00 am What do honor killings of women in Pakistan and Jordon, imprisonment
and torture of gay men in Egypt, hate violence against Muslims worldwide
and racial profiling in the US have in common?
What happens when human rights abuses become so widespread that they seem to encompass even the ordinary citizen? This panel will open a dialogue on human rights violations in Russia in anticipation of Amnesty International's Russia Country Campaign beginning this Fall. Over 10 years ago, a new country emerged and today there is still a great potential for positive change. But the institutional legacy of this region has left the everyday citizen without protection and without belief in the pursuit of justice. The panel will show examples of how the most vulnerable groups in society experience a systematic deprivation of their rights. Issues covered in the workshop will include the use of torture, racism and the harassment of ethnic groups, anti-semitism, violence against women, the death penalty, and the conflict in the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya. The discussion will also touch on the seeds of change for the future: community-level human rights organizations that need international attention and support. Panelists:
Moderator:
8:30 am - 10:00 am The events of September 11 were met with shock and terror around the world. Many Amnesty volunteers and our staff colleagues in New York and Washington were very personally impacted by the tragedy of this day. The events and its aftermath have been an extremely complex, if not unprecedented tragedy for Amnesty to process and put into context. This panel provides an opportunity to reflect on Amnesty International's work in response to events leading up to and following the wake of the horrible tragedies in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The panel will take a close look at extremism--both anti-Western extremism such as contributed to September 11, and anti-Muslim extremism as it has resurged in the West since the attacks. It will examine the civil liberties and human rights impacts of anti-terrorism activities here in the U.S., including the massive in communicado detentions in Guantanamo and the Military Tribunal order. Panelists from the AIUSA Crisis Response team will discuss its role in developing and coordinating strategy and actions, messages and public statements, approaches to US government, and campaigning and membership actions. They will report on AI's recent visit to the Hudson County Correctional Center and Passaic County Jail, where many post "9.11" detainees are housed, to investigate concerns of possible selective enforcement of immigration laws, the detention process, access to assistance and support, deportation and asylum concerns, and conditions of confinement. The panel will also be a forum for the Amnesty community to reflect on how our activist roles have been impacted and will change in the course of the international developments post 9.11. Panelists:
Moderator:
Please note that panels this year will be presented on both Saturday and Sunday, so plan your return flights accordingly.
Check this site for updates on panel topics and speakers. |
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