Amnesty International's Global Campaign For Human Dignity

Last week on Friday i had the rare opportunity to interview two members of Staff from Amnesty International(.i.e Jennifer Sullivan and Natasha )- London international secretariat office.The meeting was quite fruitful as they detailed me the increased focus and interest of AI on African Human Rights Issues especially in the African Continent .The two representatives were specifically in Kenya to give added gusto to the "Obama 100 Days Change Campaign" which aimed at petitioning President Obama to:

• Close Guantanamo ,Abu Ghraib and other illegal detention centers and also to end illegal detention
• Ban torture and ill treatment as defined under international law
• Appoint an independent commision to investigate abuses commited under the guiseof "war on terror"

Fliers were passed around in Kenya, there were radio interviews and a free sms campaign whereby Kenyans were encouraged(and still are encouraged) to send a text message with the words "CHANGE " to the number 8830 no matter their mmobile service provider i.e saafricom, Zain,Orange mobile or YU.

I was helped to know that actually the Amnesy innternational counter terror campaign was commenced in 2001 and that they have been sending emails, letters etc of solidarity to some f the Guantanamo detainees most of whom have not been accorded the Right to a fair trial but were arrested merely based on suspicion,tortured, abused ...etc.For example Abdel Malik Abdel Wahab was a Yemeni National in his early Twenties who was allegedly sold by Pakistani Officials to US authorities and hads suffered immensely in the course of his stay at Guantanamo!

Amnesty international intends to increase its presrnce in Africa and so far they have opened a Facebook Group for Africa's online community, they are also in partnership with African bloggers with intent to not only build an online presence but educate the masses on the need to uphold and protect fundamental human Rights and Duties.AI is global movement with over 2.2 million members in more than 150 Countries.

AI's campaign on Human Dignity particurlarly aims at voicing and marshalling concern and action against gross violation of human dignity endure by millions of people worldwide living in extreme poverty. Often poverty is a precipice for blatant abuse of human Rights: To find out more on this campaign please visit: http://webamnesty.org/pages/poverty-index-eng

Perhaps what was most impressive for me was to learn that AI will soon have a fully operational office in Kenya which for the moment will be funded and suported by international partners .This keen watchdog will add voice and complement the activities of existing Human Rights Organization's in Kenya .