1st Peace as a Global Language Conference Proceedings & Supplement

Making a difference:
English-speaking Amnesty International groups in Japan

by Chris Pitts


What is Amnesty International (AI), and who are its members? Perceptions vary. Some have claimed that AI is:

"...an arm of communist propaganda..."
- State Premier, Queensland, Australia 1981
"...completely maintained by imperialist security services..."
- Izvestiya, USSR, 1980
"...frustrated old women and young people..."
- Attorney General, Kenya, 1977

No doubt, these views are biased. But then, so are these:

"Your efforts saved my life."
- prisoner of conscience, South Korea
"Your kindness and ongoing support saved me from the executioner."
- acquitted death row prisoner, USA
"Without your support, I would not have survived the prison brutality."
-journalist, Kenya
"Words cannot explain the intense morale Amnesty International members have given me."
- prisoner of conscience, Turkey (1)


Now over fourty years old, Amnesty International (AI) has more than one million members worldwide - truly a global organisation of people working on behalf of other people.
AI's mandate is based on the ideal that everyone should enjoy the rights and freedoms laid out in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are things that most of us take for granted, like the right to association, to travel, and to freedom of expression and religion(2).
Amnesty's origins make an inspiring story, because AI was started by one person, a British lawyer called Peter Benenson:

"On 28 May 1961 I wrote an article in The Observer newspaper which gave birth to Amnesty International. It began with these words: 'Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government ... The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust could be united into common action, something effective could be done.'
"Forty years on, Amnesty International has secured many victories. Its files are full of letters from former prisoners of conscience or torture victims thanking the organisation for making a difference. Torture is now banned by international agreement. Every year more countries reject the death penalty. The world will soon have an International Criminal Court that will be able to ensure that those accused of the worst crimes in the world will face justice. The Court's very existence will deter some crimes.
"But the challenges are still great. Torture is banned, but in two-thirds of the world's countries it is still being committed in secret. Too many governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murder, or "disappearance" to be carried out by their officials with impunity.
"Those who today still feel a sense of impotence can do something: they can support Amnesty International. They can help it to stand up for freedom and justice. (3)

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Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of AI's work is that most of it is done by individuals with no more resources than paper, pen and postage stamps. The full-time staff of AI's International Secretariat researches cases and disseminates the information on "prisoners of conscience" (people who are in detention because of their beliefs, but who have not used or advocated violence) or other human rights violations, but the pressure on governments, prison authorities and public opinion is exerted by the membership, mostly acting as concerned individuals writing letters. Unlike individuals acting alone, though, the collective impact of AI can be enormous. Furthermore, the effect on the morale of prisoners who know that people on the outside not only know of their plight but are organising in their support, is inexpressible.

Amnesty International in Japan


In most of the world, especially in northern Europe, the UK, the USA and Canada, Amnesty International has good name recognition, even among school pupils. Here in Japan, however, the organisation and what it does seem much less widely known.
Further, despite a persistent need to pressure the Japanese government to observe international agreements that it has signed, membership of AI Japan is declining, from a peak of over 9,000 members in 1995 to fewer than 7,000 today. Examples of persistent and institutional human rights violations in Japan include application of the death penalty(4), ill-treatment of suspects held in police custody or immigration detention facilities(5), and the treatment of women being trafficked from overseas. [Rather than seeing this as a human rights concern, the law treats such women as illegal immigrants or criminals – they are often placed under arrest and deported, rather than treated as victims of oganised crime gangs(6).]
Traditionally, AI has a rule that members do not work on cases in the country in which they live, so Japanese people wishing to campaign on these and similar issues would perhaps be drawn to other organisations rather than AI. However, at their last international conference, AI decided that this "own country" rule should be relaxed. Perhaps the most likely way that AI Japan will grow in the near future is by campaigning on one or more of these areas of domestic human rights violations (7).

Group 78 - the English-speaking group in Tokyo


Against the trend of falling membership in Japan, however, the Tokyo-based English-speaking local group, Group 78, (and its equivalent in Kansai, Group 95), is growing.
Group 78 now organises more than 60 people from 17 countries, including Japan, and is active in fund-raising and publicity for AI in general, as well as regular letter-writing and other activities in connection with cases in four specific countries: Brazil (abduction and disappearance); Laos (prisoner of conscience); Kenya (prison conditions in general); and China (Tibetan prisoners of conscience).
All members receive by post a monthly newsletter which describes some of the latest cases and includes model letters. Some members participate in AI's Urgent Action network, responding quickly with letters, faxes and e-mail to protest illegal detentions, torture, and imminent executions.
In addition, Group 78 organises a stall at the international school festivals in Tokyo to sell AI goods, collect signatures in support of our campaigns, and recruit new members. We organise monthly screenings of relevant movies. This year, for the first time, we are planning to have a table at the JALT "Waves of the Future" conference in Shizuoka, where we will try to recruit more activists to make waves on human rights issues.
Finally, we hope to collaborate with the Global Issues Special Interest Group of JALT and other educators to produce materials about human rights and related issues for text books and education packs.
If you would like to join us, at any level of commitment, please get in touch by connecting to our web site at www.geocities.com/aigroup78.
Or, if you have any questions or comments about Group 78, contact the author at cpitts *at* gol *dot* com.

References and further reading


(1) Amnesty International. (1991). Amnesty International Handbook. London: Amnesty International Publications.

(2) For the full text of the UDHR, see www.amnestyusa.org/udhr.html.

(3) Peter Benenson, speaking on Amnesty International's 40th Anniversary. For a fuller account of the birth of AI, see www.amnestyusa.org/about/founder.html.

(4) Shikei Haishi Kokusai Jouyaku no Hinan wo Motomeru Fooramu90. (n.d.) Hidden Death Penalty in Japan. Online: www.jca.apc.org/stop-shikei/epamph/dpinjapan_e.html. (6 Jan. 2003).

(5) Amnesty International. (1991). Japan - The Death Penalty and the Need for More Safeguards against Ill-Treatment of Detainees. London: Amnesty International.

(6) Human Rights Watch. (Sep. 2000). "Thousands of Thai Women Trafficked to Japan". Online: www.hrw.org/press/2000/09/japan0921.htm. (6 Jan. 2003).

(7) The U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices to the U.S. Congress provide a comprehensive overview of individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the latest report on Japan, see www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eap/8319.htm.


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