EMAN BARE
News Writer

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Amnesty International, Alex Neve, the secretary general of the Canadian branch, visited the University of Saskatchewan March 2.

His talk focused on the progress Amnesty has made over the years and his personal involvement with the organization.

Drawing from his longtime involvement with the group, Neve shared the successes of Amnesty over the past 50 years and how it became one of the most powerful human justice organizations in the world. Neve became secretary general in January 2000 and has been an active member since the mid-1980s, working both with the national and international sectors.

In 1961, Peter Benenson — the founder of Amnesty — was reading a London newspaper on a park bench and came across a piece that angered him.

“Two Portuguese university students were serving jail time for toasting to freedom in a public area,” said Neve.

“This angered [Benenson] not only for its unfairness, but because of the lack of attention it was receiving. He found this article on the 30th page of the newspaper and it was written about very briefly.”

Benenson used his anger to start one of the most well-known global human justice organizations in the world. He wrote a piece for the Observer and told readers, “If these feelings of disgust could be united into common action, something effective could be done.”

His intention was to start a yearlong letter writing campaign to dictators in order to raise awareness of human justice violations across the globe. He wanted everyone to know that they could contribute to change by making their voices heard through letters.

“Many people thought that Benenson’s idea of letter writing was useless and ineffective and even called him a lunatic,” said Neve. No one, not even Benenson, knew how large a movement his idea would spark.

Benenson’s idea appealed to millions and his plan began to spread. Now, half a century later, Amnesty has over 300 million members and has come to the aid of the citizens of countries facing horrific genocides, such as Rwanda and Sudan. In 1977, the organization was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for its work to stop torture.

Although Amnesty International has had a significant impact on the struggle for human justice, Neve said that there is still a long road ahead.

“How could we possibly celebrate an anniversary that is about rejoicing with all that has gone terribly wrong with protecting human rights these past five decades?” he asked.

Neve called Canada’s treatment of First Nation’s people “one of Canada’s greatest shames,” and urged students to make respect of Indigenous rights an important issue.

Although Canada does carry a reputation of being a “peace-keeping nation,” this country has been the cause of human rights violations. Maher Arar, a Canadian-Syrian citizen who was held for two weeks in solitary confinement in the United States without charge, is an example of Canada’s failure to protect the human rights of its citizens.

But as Amnesty steps into the future, the organization’s achievements give them the motivation to continue fighting for human rights across the globe.