Words are not enough
Posted: 18 December 2006
CHAD: Alex Neve interviewing leaders from village of Loubitigui, attacked on November 8, now displaced at Habile. November, 2006
© AI
“No exceptions: human rights for all,” – as 2006 draws to a close, the rallying cry of our current campaign speaks so well to what we have faced this past year, both the ups and the downs. Because this year we have had glaring reminders of how often the exceptions prevail when it comes to human rights protection. But also we have seen the powerful potential for activism to overcome those exceptions and reaffirm the universality of human rights. These final few weeks have been particularly breathless on both fronts.
I spent the latter half of November in Africa with an Amnesty research team in eastern Chad. I certainly found myself thinking about human rights exceptions at every turn as we traveled through isolated, forgotten villages in the region, villages that stand destroyed and deserted now after a wave of terrifying attacks in the past several weeks. Because in eastern Chad as of late, human rights matter except if you are a woman, at risk of rape; except if you are a member of any of the specific ethnic groups who have been targeted in the attacks; except if your village has been razed in the fighting; except if this is the part of the world you call home.
It was grim and despairing work, all the more disheartening, as what we were documenting was a spreading, growing human rights crisis, spilling over the border from neighbouring Darfur and now taking root in Chad. People felt targeted from the Sudanese side of the border; abandoned by their government on their own side of the border; and utterly neglected and forgotten by the world beyond.
I have come back to Canada filled with the sorrow and fear that so many people shared with us, but also with the hopes and expectations that were entrusted to us. I recall the ringing plea of one village leader, urging again and again that “words are not enough.” He stressed that they hear words just about everywhere – in the village, the canton, the district, in the capital, off at the UN – and from just about everyone – the politicians, the soldiers, the aid workers. Many words he said, but words are not enough. He is of course right, and that is precisely where Amnesty will make a difference. We will demand more than hollow words. We will continue to press for effective action to bring the crisis in Darfur to an end, to halt its ugly advance into Chad and other countries, and restore meaningful human rights protection for all the people in this beleaguered region.
In the days following my return from Chad there were three powerful reminders that through our activism we do move beyond words and can and do make a real difference. First, former prisoner of conscience Rabiya Kadeer, the courageous, vivacious Uyghur woman from China’s eastern Xinjiang district, made her first trip to Canada since her early release from prison in China last year. At a number of events in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal she was unrelenting with her captivating and contagious insistence that we must absolutely continue to speak out in the face of injustice.
Rabiya has every reason in the world to remain silent. The Chinese government has proven to be a harsh and formiable foe to individuals like her, who dare to defend the rights of the Uyghur people. She herself has already endured so much; and many of her family members remain in China, easy targets for punishment and retaliation. But silence is the last thing on her mind. And she celebrated the loud voice of Amnesty International, a voice she very much credits with having helped secure her release from imprisonment, 18 months before her unjust prison term was to expire. Our voices will continue to join with hers in pressing for an end to the persecution of the Uyghurs, and for real human rights change, human rights for all, throughout China.
The day after being buoyed by Rabiya’s eloquent resolve, we witnessed the remarkable next steps in our continuing work on the cases of four Canadian citizens who were imprisoned and tortured in Syria and Egypt: Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin. It began with a phone call from Maher’s wife, Monia Mazigh in early October 2002, worried that her husband had “disappeared” in immigration custody in New York City. Ever since, Amnesty International members have been unceasing in their efforts to ensure that the fundamental rights of these men are not sacrificed in the name of security. Working with other organizations, the men’s lawyers, and of course inspired and guided by the men themselves and their families, we have campaigned for them to be protected from torture, released from prison, and provided with answers and accountability for what they have endured.
And what we have achieved, together, is enormous! A full public inquiry into Maher’s case issued two major reports this fall, vindicating him, documenting what went so terribly wrong, and laying out the blueprint for legal, policy and institutional reform that is needed to bolster human rights protection in Canada’s counter-terrorism practices. And as the year ends, the government has announced a second inquiry, headed by a former Supreme Court of Canada judge, to look into the three other cases. None of this would have been possible if Canadians had remained silent about what had happened to these men. Amnesty’s voice has been at the very centre of this campaign for justice.
In the middle of these busy final weeks - the tragic irony that Augusto Pinochet had died in Chile, on International Human Rights Day, December 10th, of all dates. Death is never a cause for celebration, but Pinochet’s death certainly brought forth a flood of emotions, in Chile and around the world. The end of his life ended a brutal chapter of Chile’s history, but certainly cannot and will not be the end of the bigger book being written, that tells an important emerging story about the triumph of justice over impunity.
I was a law student in the UK in 1991 and Pinochet, having only recently stepped down from the presidency, arrived on an arms-buying junket. I worked alongside Chilean ex-patriate groups and UK human rights activists to push the UK government to live up to its international obligations and arrest Pinochet on charges of torture. Instead, he received red carpet treatment everywhere he went. Then I was back in the UK in 1998 the day that the world learned that Pinochet had been arrested on a Spanish torture charges warrant while convalescing from back surgery in a London hospital. I still remember sitting on the top of a double-decker bus, reading and re-reading that headline in disbelief. And now, 8 years later, he has died. And while he was never tried and convicted, his place in history has indelibly been inscribed as the human rights criminal he truly was. And, alongside his terrible legacy of “disappearances,” killings and torture stands a legacy of groundbreaking court decisions affirming that torturers must face justice. Amnesty International has been there, from the beginning – documenting the abuses; to the end – demanding justice. A lucha, my friends, that very much continues!
Freedom for Rabiya Kadeer, the pursuit of justice in Chile, and the great strides towards accountability for Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin do not, by any measure, erase or balance the worsening tragedy in Darfur and Chad. But they do remind us what is possible, and of our own passionate power as a determined human rights movement.
There have been other great achievements this past year as well, a product of that same passion and determination. In March, after several years of hiding out in Nigeria, former Liberian president Charles Taylor was finally apprehended and will soon come before an international court to answer for the massive human rights violations he unleashed in Liberia and Sierra Leone throughout the 1990s. Earlier this month, the UN launched a process that may finally see an international level arms trade treaty put in place. And Amnesty Canada made important and well-received submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada in June in the immigration security certificate appeals; and August to the Ipperwash Inquiry examining the 1995 police killing of Dudley George. The Court’s decision and the inquiry report are both expected early next year.
Without a doubt there is still so much need for Amnesty’s passion and determination.
- Our crucial work continues to end violence and discrimination against Indigenous women in Canada, the importance of which was painfully brought home when Pauline and Herb Muskego joined us for a press conference in Ottawa marking the second anniversary of the release of our Stolen Sisters report. Their daughter Daleen Bosse, has been missing since May 2004.
- We have to pick up the pieces from the galling Canada-led decision at the UN General Assembly this fall not to adopt the carefully-negotiated Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a vitally needed and long overdue human rights document that the UN’s new Human Rights Council had approved in June.
- We will be in court in February, alongside other concerned organizations challenging the Canada/US refugee deal that bars entry to Canada for thousands of refugees and forces them to make claims in the United States instead, where many will suffer serious human rights violations.
- And of course, along with the tragedy in Darfur & Chad, dire human rights situations in Colombia, Zimbabwe, Israel/Lebanon/Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere so very much still need our insistent, unflagging attention.
No exceptions: human rights for all. Those words are a powerful and very necessary reminder of the importance of the global human rights struggle. As I was reminded in Chad, the words themselves are not enough. It is the action that matters and makes a real difference in the end. Thank you for all you have done to support Amnesty International’s action this year. We look forward to joining our voices with yours in the year to come.