CONTACT: Amanda Simon, 212.633.4162, [email protected]
(WASHINGTON, DC) —Amnesty International USA activists and membership organizing staff are in Ferguson, Missouri this weekend to show solidarity with the rights of peaceful protestors and to demand rights-respecting, accountable policing.
“The police shooting death of Michael Brown and the protests that followed in Ferguson sparked an intense and long-overdue national conversation on race, policing and justice,” said Steven W. Hawkins, Amnesty International USA Executive Director. “This weekend is a moment for people around the country – and around the world – to join the Ferguson community in raising these issues, along with concerns about the impact of police militarization on the human right to peacefully assemble.”
As one of the world’s largest grassroots organizations, Amnesty International has a long and tested history of monitoring and investigating police conduct, not just in foreign countries, but right here at home in the United States. Amnesty International USA has, in the past, conducted research missions on everything from prison abuses to immigration to violence against Native American and Alaska Native women.
“Amnesty International USA will continue to hold police accountable for acting in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Hawkins. “We must come together to take action to defend universal human rights here at home.”
Following Michael Brown’s death, Amnesty International USA called on Attorney General Eric Holder to create a national commission to examine police tactics nationwide, including the use of excessive or unnecessary force, the militarization of local police and adherence to the United States’ human rights obligations in policing protests. The organization is also asking the Justice Department to collect and publish nationwide statistics on police shootings.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million members in over 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
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