in part to bring comfort, but mainly to expose regimes practising such
repression to international public opinion. More recently it has broadened
both its range of concerns and its strategies, and has built a large and complex
organization world-wide.
Amnesty’s concerns now cover opposition to the death penalty, all forms of
torture, the use of landmines in warfare and the general problems of refugee
women and children. It even campaigns against female genital mutilation as a
private rather than state practice. Similarly some of its definitions have
widened, so that, for example, people imprisoned for homosexuality are
now considered as political prisoners.
The original techniques of letter writing and petitions by individual
members still continue, but Amnesty’s international reputation has been
established largely through its research activities. Where possible, teams of
experts visit countries and write reports on the behaviour of the state. These
reports have always been subject to scrupulous standards of verifiability and
accuracy, and are widely recognized as reliable evidence. They have, for
example, been relied on by courts dealing with political asylum cases, and in
such cases are often regarded as more reliable than analyses by governments. In
an attempt to keep itself strictly outside politics, traditionally, Amnesty has not
lobbied national governments, but increasingly it lobbies and is taken seriously
by international organizations such as theUnited Nations (UN), the Council
of Europe and theEuropean Union.This independence means that it has to
rely for funding on its very large international membership and general
charitable collection, a reliance which has helped it build a large network
world-wide. The respect in which Amnesty is held internationally was
symbolized by it being awarded the Nobel Peace prize as early as 1977. An
example of this respect was the British Law Lords allowing it to act asamicus
curiae(literally, ‘a friend of the court’) during hearings related to the attempted
extradition to Spain of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet in 1999.
Anarchism
Anarchism is a political theory based on two propositions: that society does not
need government, and that no government is legitimate unless truly, and in
detail, consented to by the individuals governed. Its history is long and
confused, and the other political attitudes held by anarchists have ranged from
far right to far left in the political spectrum. The common denominator of
anarchists is an alienation from the existing structures of government and
society.
The earliest serious anarchist thinkers were 19th-century writers such as
Proudhon (1809–65) and the French theoreticians ofsyndicalism, who
began to develop ideas about founding a society without government. How-
Anarchism