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Letters needed to encourage AI to get involved!In light of the TV exposure on Donahue/Stossel and the print media's new found awareness of the US War on Drugs this is the perfect opportunity to bombard Amnesty-USA and International with letters. If Time magazine, August 5, 2002, can have a quote on page 8 by Evo Morales, Bolivian Presidential candidate," The drug war is just a US excuse to control our countries", surely this human rights group can become relevent. We need an immediate press release from AI linking human rights abuses with the War on Drugs. All you good people can offer your expertise to AI to bring,the US Board of Directors & Executive Director, up to snuff on its reality. Some key AI issues - extrajudicial executions, displacement of communities, labor unionists as targets, torture, US prisons, women in prison, uses of instruments of torture against non-violent drug offenders, juveniles, etc. If you are an AI member, tout that also. Secretary General Irene Khan Dr Bill Schulz, Executive Director |
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Passed April 21, 2002 in Seattle Washington at the AI-USA Convention B4: THE WAGING OF A WAR ON ILLEGAL DRUGS, KNOWN AS THE WAR ON DRUGS, AND ITS EFFECT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITYResolution passed overwhelmingly. WHEREAS Amnesty International contributes to the observance throughout the world of human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and WHEREAS the declaration of war on the issue of illegal drugs has created a burgeoning domestic prison population and increased numbers of displaced persons in Latin America. The US government's increase in military aid and training to governments, including but not limited to Colombia, has contributed to the manufacturing, marketing and exportation of types of weapons and devices used in torture. It has justified interference in targeted economies with concurrent degradation of the environment and an overall diminution of human rights in those countries and the USA; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Amnesty International immediately recognize the correlation between this war and human rights abuses within and outside the U.S.A. BE IT FURTHER resolved that at the next ICM,* the AIUSA delegation ask the ICM to call for research to be done to identify AI's position on the war on drugs because of its resultant human rights violations. * Amnesty International's governing committee |