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Our Equity Journey

What we have accomplished

Since 2021, we have invested significant resources into transforming our organization. We are pleased to share that, as of June 2025, we have completed all targets set our Equity Roadmap back in 2022. Our work to build a firm anti-racist foundation continues and will remain a priority for our movement. Our new 2025-2030 Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression strategy will guide our work moving forward.

Step 1 (2021-2022)

  • ✔ Transparency: to share findings of our reviews with our staff while being mindful to protect the identity of all involved.

    We launched an extensive workplace review and shared the main findings with Board, staff, membership (townhall), our international movement and local media. Key findings were shared on our public website.

  • ✔ Restorative Circles: to offer thoughtful spaces for all staff to process the reviews, acknowledge, repair – and jointly build and lead. 

    We organized restorative spaces for staff following the launch of the workplace review results for processing and healing.

  • ✔ Public accountability: Share our equity journey on our website to hold ourselves accountable, regularly track our progress, and encourage similar practice across our sector.

    Completed.

  • ✔ Former staff outreach: make space for former staff who had a harmful experience at our section.

    We invited former staff to come forward with past experiences at AICES and provided options to guarantee anonymity. Leadership listened to several former staff, their recommendations helped shape our way forward.

Step 2 (2022-2024)

  • ✔ Development of Organizational-Wide Core Values.

    Our new organizational values are embedded in 2022-2030 Strategic Plan: Decolonization, Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression, Allyship & Alignment, Intersectionality & Nuance, Transparency & Accountability, Boldness & Innovation.

  • ✔ Anti-Racism Employee Code of Conduct.

    Launched ARAO Code of Conduct Policy.

  • ✔ Enhance basic ARAO competency and encourage individual accountability to learning.

    Launched ARAO onboarding guide for all new employees. ARAO goals included in all staff performance appraisals.

  • ✔ Build common anti-racist and equity-based language.

    Resource guide launched to all employees with ARAO Guide. National Truth and Reconciliation resource guide developed for all staff.

  • ✔ Overhaul of internal Complaints and Harassment Policy and Conflict Resolution Policy.

    Full policy review completed, with an intersectional lens. 20 new policies and trainings rolled out.

  • ✔ Development of Community and respectful communication guidelines.

    Launched new organizational code of conduct.

  • ✔ Develop an organization-wide five-year equity strategy and policy.

    Five-year (2025-2030) ARAO strategy finalized.

  • ✔ Development of Conflict-of-Interest and Conflict Resolution Policies.

    Completed.

Step 3 (2023-2023)

  • ✔ Organization-wide trainings on new policies.

    Bi-annual, mandatory all-staff discrimination, harassment trainings and anti-Black racism trainings.

  • ✔ Review human rights programs, campaigns, fundraising, communications and vendor policies with our anti-racism, anti-oppression and equity values.

    Our Human rights work: ARAO principles applied for all research & campaigns. Decolonial training completed for all campaigners.

    Our Fundraising: Regular ARAO and philanthropy trainings. Fundraising team members trained and equipped to address white-saviorism patterns with our supporters.

    Our Communications: ARAO principles applied in email marketing and all external communications. Website aligned with Ontario Accessibility Act. Voices of rights holders centered in all public communications.

    Our Technology: ITS systems review to increase transparency and data equity.

    Our People: Overhauled our Human Resources policies, performance appraisal and onboarding practices. Bi-annual all staff trainings. ARAO resource guide created and incorporated in onboarding process. Redesign of recruitment process, with highly positive reviews from candidates. ARAO goals included and reviewed for all staff and management in annual performance appraisals.

  • ✔ Revision of Management job descriptions to include obligations to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

    We updated management job descriptions. Harassment and Discrimination policy revised and updated. Leadership trainings completed.

  • ✔ Review of all benefits and pay equity.

    All-staff survey on benefits completed March 2023. Pay equity for unionized staff completed in 2024.

Step 4 (2023-2025)

  • ✔ Regular update of human resource processes from an equity-informed lens.

    Rolled out updated process including the introduction of SMARTIE goals and building ARAO/Equity reflections in all roles across the organization. ARAO onboarding guide and orientation session for all incoming staff. Cloud-based recruitment program launched for consistent and equitable approach to recruitment including training, tools, and resources to support hiring managers.

  • ✔ Racial equity and intersectionality embedded across all programmatic areas.

    We hired Black-led and Indigenous-led firms to lead community consultations on our review our Racial Justice and Indigenous Peoples work. We created and successfully onboarded a new Racial Justice role and revamped the Indigenous rights role. All human rights work has been informed and reviewed from intersectional lens.

  • ✔ Anti-racist and feminist indicators, metrics and targets for Monitoring and Evaluation.

    Intersectional indicators developed for our human rights impact.

  • ✔ Roll-out of our Organizational Change Strategy and staff restructure to align operational structure with our Vision and Values.

    We launched and completed an organizational review and change strategy. Completed a job evaluation process to align leadership competencies.

Board of Directors Statement 2022

The Board of Amnesty International Canada (English-Speaking) acknowledges that systemic racism, anti-Black racism, discrimination, and oppressive practices have been operating within our organization. We recognize the pain and harm unduly caused to current and former staff.

We thank racialized staff who, over the years, have come forward with their personal stories and recommendations to move the organization towards a more equitable movement. As we acknowledged in our April 9, 2021, statement, these issues are not new. Much work has been done since, and much more remains to be done to challenge oppression, dismantle the inequitable systems and structures that are entrenched within our organization, and to build racial equity and create a truly inclusive community. The path forward to being an anti-racist organization requires an intentional, purpose- and data-driven approach to bring real change.

We remain resolute and committed to aligning our practices with our mission, to do the hard work, to be accountable and to hold ourselves to the same standards of equity and justice we demand of others.

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Amnesty supporters in a march waving an Amnesty International flag
Amnesty supporters posing in front of an Amnesty International banner

Our Position

For several years, past and present staff—particularly racialized staff—at our section of Amnesty International have shared that they have experienced or witnessed racism and other forms of oppression in the workplace.

We deeply regret that these issues were not adequately addressed in the past.

This is unacceptable in our movement. The Board and management take full responsibility for our collective failure to hold ourselves accountable and acknowledge the harm that these practices have and continue to cause to current and former staff.

In 2021, the new leadership of Amnesty International Canada commissioned extensive participatory organizational equity reviews to determine the prevalence of systemic racism, oppression, and white supremacy within our organization. The findings and recommendations from the review, outlined below, informed the creation of an organizational Equity Roadmap, to guide our collective path forward.

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Prevalence of systemic racism and other forms of oppression within AICES’ workplace.

Our Process

In 2022, the extensive, independent organizational reviews we commissioned identified several, long-standing inequities and root causes which exacerbate systemic racism, including the following:

  • Ineffective, conflict-avoidant management
  • Lack of team cohesion and siloed structure
  • Lack of clarity regarding roles and structure
  • Culture of blame in the workplace
  • Intergenerational and interracial conflict
  • Inadequate onboarding, training, and accountability mechanisms
  • Faulty complaints reporting and investigation mechanisms
The Workplace Review highlighted a series of past experiences from staff, including:

Racist conduct and microaggressions reported by radicalized staff

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Poor communication or approach to EDI-related efforts, leading to lack of trust and frustration among staff

Perception that some team members perpetuate a simplistic view of discrimination and racialization

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System inefficiencies leading to unequal access to internal policies and procedures

EDI-related training space experienced by some as inadequate or harmful

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A sense of fear and reluctance among employees that hinders productive, open discussions of EDI issues

The Workplace Review highlighted a series of past experiences from staff, including:

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Restore Trust

• Acknowledge past harms, practice transparency, and work to restore trust.
• Prioritize a culture that renounces blame and focuses on empathy, improvement, and life-long learning.

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Improve Recruitment, Support, and Development of Staff

• Review, revise, and roll out improved policies.
• Continue improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of racialized employees through data-driven efforts.
• Clarify expectations, duties, and responsibilities for various roles.
• Establish, articulate, and execute clear organizational strategies and objectives.
• Establish clear strategies and policies for equity, diversity and inclusion and anti-racism and anti-oppression initiatives and clarify new benefits for racialized staff.

Enhance Accountability

• Improve the complaints and investigations processes and ensure adherence.
• Continue revamping training to ensure complaints are consistently triaged.
• Provide regular updates on Equity roadmap progress.

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Improve Collaboration

• Encourage a culture of collaboration between teams.

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Collect Robust Data

• Engage in comprehensive data collection related to complaints to determine trends and proactively identify areas of improvement.

Provide Relevant and Consistent Education and Training

• Conduct clear and regular training on the policies, as well as on harassment and discrimination generally.

As we undertook these critical reviews, we also began to initiate steps towards transformation to build a solid anti-racist and anti-oppressive foundation to our work. Here are some of them:

  • A woman smiling holding up a sign that reads "A Women's Place is in the Revolution"
  • Amnesty staff holding up posters and signsfor human and gender rights

CRITICAL INTROSPECTION

In May 2021 we commissioned an extensive, independent workplace review to diagnose internal challenges and inform the creation of an organizational Equity Roadmap to guide our work forward.

In September 2021 we retained an equity firm to evaluate our organization’s equity policies, and conduct tailored anti-racism training sessions for Management, Staff and the Board.

EQUITY-INFORMED LEADERSHIP

In September 2020, our Board appointed Secretary General, Ketty Nivyabandi, as the first Black woman to lead the section. With the support of the Board she has driven a renewed vision for the section rooted in equity and feminist leadership practices.

In May 2021, the Board and Secretary General recruited Frida Kruijt as interim Executive Director in May 2021, with anti-racism and anti-oppression (ARAO) and change management expertise to implement immediate steps towards organizational change.

In 2021, we proactively invited Board candidacies from diverse communities resulting in 6 out of 10 Board directors identifying as either Indigenous or racialized.

In September 2021 we launched a series of organization-wide trainings for all staff, Management, Senior Leadership and Board members to build common language and understanding of racism and oppression.

PEOPLE-CENTRED SUPPORT & POLICIES

In April 2021 we introduced a series of equity-informed supports for staff:

  • Paid Racism Leave (10 working days per year for all staff who self-identify as racialized)
  • Racialized Staff Support Fund to provide racialized staff the flexibility to access mental health services of their choice
  • Access to racialized mental health practitioners
  • Increased mental health coverage for all employees
In July 2021 we recruited an equity-informed Interim HR Manager to lead the revision and creation of new equitable processes including inclusive hiring, onboarding, offboarding, performance management, leave-taking, policy development, complaint mechanisms, and compliance.

In November 2021 we created an Equity, People and Culture Director position to support our transformative vision for an equitable organization.

BUILDING CAPACITY, RESILIENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

In 2021 we focused on building robust equity capacity across our teams by:

  • Completing collective and mandatory ARAO training series for all staff, management and the Board
  • Incorporating ARAO across leadership and staff performance evaluation
  • Holding regular team-building and strategic retreats to increase team cohesion and ARAO competencies.

DATA INFORMED EQUITY

To better measure, track and monitor equity in our workplace we:

  • Commissioned an equity assessment of our membership base
  • Began to collect staff demographics data reflecting the 30 year diversity history of the organization, to better address current gaps
  • Conducted an audience/donor research analysis to build a more inclusive donor base, with the support of an Equity in Philanthropy firm.

One experience of racism and harm is one too many for Amnesty and the values we uphold around the world. Today, more than ever, we must come together to create a world in which human rights can be enjoyed by all. For this work to be effective and authentic, we must start within, at the heart of our movement and align practice with purpose. I hope you will join us as we work to actively dismantle the residues of white supremacy, racism, and colonialism and inequity within our organization and soar together to more just heights. Thank you for supporting us on this critical journey.

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Ketty Nivyabandi

Secretary General Amnesty International Canada (English-Speaking)

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  • Ketty Nivyabandi

WE COMMIT TO KEEPING YOU UPDATED ON OUR PROGRESS.

Amnesty International Canada (English-Speaking)

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