Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 16:07:29 -0700 From: Meg Satterthwaite AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, USA BREAKING THE SILENCE: A Campaign to Protect the Human Rights of Gay Men and Lesbians Worldwide Introduction When Amnesty International launched "Breaking the Silence" in February 1994, governments' inhuman treatment of gay men and lesbians gained new prominence on the international human rights agenda. Leaders of gay rights groups have enthusiastically welcomed our grassroots action campaign. Media nationwide are reporting what we are doing and why we are doing it. The facts about the abuses suffered worldwide appear in Amnesty's groundbreaking campaign report. "Because Amnesty International has approached the subject so unshrinkingly," wrote a columnist in New York City's Village Voice, "I've rarely read a document at once as affirming and as frightening as this. Get it and educate yourself." Amnesty USA is educating and mobilizing our volunteer membership of 325,000 in this country. Dedicated Amnesty activists, in turn, are educating and mobilizing broad sectors in the United States and abroad to work with gay and lesbian groups toward one goal: universal respect for the basic human rights of people threatened solely because of their sexual orientation. I. Breaking the Silence: Deadly Practices Demanding Protest * Brazilian police have been implicated in the abduction of a local politician who had publicly announced his bisexuality. The man's headless body, bearing extensive marks of torture, was found in a garbage dump two days after his abduction. * Iranian authorities executed a well-known surgeon and community leader after charging him with sodomy. Under government auspices, another man convicted of homosexuality was stoned to death. * Greek officials sentenced a magazine editor to five months' imprisonment because she questioned in print why so many men want to correspond with lesbians. Greek newspapers periodically report cases of police torturing homosexuals. * Colombian gunmen linked to government agencies routinely kill gay men as part of "social cleansing" operations. In no region of today's world can lesbians and gay men exercise their basic human rights without fear of severe abuse. Arbitrary arrest, torture, and political murder take place with horrifying frequency. Waves of killing have begun when government authorities joined with private interests to eliminate "troublesome" people. A person's sexual orientation, or perceived sexual orientation, may be the only criterion for summary execution. Governments throughout the world torture people in their custody to suppress "undesirable" views and to intimidate particular communities. In many countries, government agents target homosexual activists for grossly cruel and degrading treatment. Lesbians and gay men who survive torture may face additional traumas as they find themselves denied legal and health services available to other people victimized by state terror. In countries including the United Kingdom, Romania, the United States, and Turkey, Amnesty has compiled evidence of government agents targeting homosexuals. Amnesty's research has identified national laws throughout the world that permit unjust imprisonment of homosexuals. Because sexual orientation is an integral part of a person's identity, these laws assault people's everyday lives with the threat of detention. Some legislation proscribes homosexual acts between consenting adults; other laws punish people for advocating homosexual rights. Mexican police arrested two gay activists who are well known for their AIDS prevention work in Mexico City. Police beat the men, then turned them over to prison inmates for further abuse. Chinese authorities have subjected homosexuals in recent years to police harassment, detention, and "re-education" through labor camp regimens. As more gay activists assert their basic rights in many regions of the world, governments are stepping up operations to silence them. International advocacy for gay and lesbian leaders, and for the people they represent, is needed today more than ever before. Amnesty International is delivering the message to governments around the globe: Human dignity is not a negotiable commodity. II. Breaking the Silence: Amnesty's Worldwide Campaign Amnesty International's current campaign will run through summer 1994 and establish a foundation for ongoing activism on gay human rights issues. Our objectives are: 1. Saving the lives of lesbians and gay men at risk of severe human rights abuses. 2. Fully integrating into the international human rights agenda abuses committed against people solely because of their sexual orientation. Our immediate campaign goals are: 1. Educating the general public, government officials, and influential leaders of strategically chosen constituencies about the urgency of protesting abuses against homosexuals. 2. Building strong coalitions with activist organizations in the United States and abroad to increase the impact of current actions and to ensure effective long-term work. 3. Mobilizing Amnesty's members and supporters to pressure governments for changes that will secure greater human rights protections for lesbians and gay men. This campaign was initiated by Amnesty USA's grassroots membership. Our volunteer members voted overwhelmingly to mount a major campaign on behalf of lesbians and gay men worldwide, and our volunteer leadership has spearheaded campaign planning and implementation. The framework of cohesive strategies we have developed facilitates well-coordinated actions by both individuals and groups. Strategies to meet our campaign goals follow. 1. Educating the public and targeted constituencies: * Community Projects. Amnesty USA student volunteers organized on some 200 campuses across the United States and local Amnesty chapters in over 50 communities nationwide have committed themselves to at least six months of intensive campaign work on gay human rights during 1994. These groups have been provided with in-depth background data, as well as the most up-to-date information on human rights situations worldwide affecting gay men and lesbians. Other resources provided to our groups include: * Instructions for organizing letter-writing campaigns against abusive governments * The "Guide to Outreach," which details many recommended approaches to local outreach * An extensive question and answer presentation on difficult campaign issues * Glossary of relevant terms and concepts * List of available videos and other informational material * Recommended reading list * Petitions for collecting signatures to send to government officials * List of speakers willing to give public presentations * Sample letter-to-the-editor * Ad slicks for placement in local newspapers * Campaign button and T-shirt order forms Group members have been thoroughly trained in organizing and conducting community outreach events. They will host public educational programs ranging from informal discussion groups to major human rights symposiums. Local media contacts developed by these experienced Amnesty groups will be utilized to initiate feature stories on campaign developments. Widespread placement of letters-to-the-editor and a pro bono ad publicizing campaign actions are also scheduled for the coming months. * National Press Projects. National media from coast to coast featured the launch of our campaign in February. Amnesty held press conferences simultaneously in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, which scores of foreign as well as U.S. correspondents attended. The Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle were among print media reporting on our work. CNN and numerous public radio stations broadcast our data and campaign goals. Amnesty's national and regional staff will continue throughout the campaign to press media representatives for coverage of particular human rights abuses and the broader context of those abuses affecting lesbians and gay men. * Report Distribution and Briefings. Amnesty USA will continue to distribute copies of its campaign report, Breaking the Silence, to public officials, influential decision-makers, popular public figures, and libraries. Bookstores, particularly those with large gay and lesbian constituencies, will be encouraged to carry the 54-page, illustrated report. Our volunteer and staff experts will visit targeted individuals and institutions to discuss the report and to enlist active support in protecting homosexuals' basic human rights. 2. Coalition Building: * Local Outreach. Amnesty has provided our campus and community chapters with state-by-state lists of gay and lesbian groups. Amnesty members will meet with representatives of these groups, share concerns and ideas, and plan ongoing projects to protect the human rights of gays and lesbians worldwide. We expect that many of our chapters will join with gay groups to organize public programs or mass actions such as write-a-thons or petition-signing appeals. * National Outreach. Amnesty's experienced campaigners will contact national gay and lesbian organizations, seeking ways to disseminate our campaign actions through the communications networks of these organizations. We will also seek the assistance of gay groups in honing particular action strategies and in identifying new opportunities for action. When lesbians, gay men, and their supporters gather in New York City this June for several major events, including "Stonewall 25," Amnesty will utilize the forums offered to us for profiling international human rights concerns. We will spread the word about critical needs for action, and we will recruit new activists. * International Outreach. Amnesty USA has sent our report Breaking the Silence, along with a research questionnaire, to all national sections of the worldwide Amnesty movement. We have translated this material to facilitate campaigning by our Spanish-speaking colleagues. Many Amnesty sections are already using the report as a basis for action programs in their own countries. In addition, Amnesty USA campus and community chapters are contacting gay and lesbian groups abroad. We have requested that groups abroad use our research questionnaire to report information on local or regional abuses against homosexuals. The questionnaires will be forwarded to Amnesty's research center in London, where research teams will analyze and follow up on the data provided. We anticipate significant expansion of our information sources and base of grassroots action through this effort. Highly encouraging indicators of international response to our campaign have recently come from United Nations delegates and non-governmental organizations represented at the U.N. Many have asked for multiple copies of Breaking the Silence to take back to their homelands. Dozens of copies have been taken to countries including the Philippines, Poland, Romania, and Thailand. 3. Generating Action: * Prisoner Casework. Student and community Amnesty chapters are combining efforts to flood government authorities with appeals on behalf of gay men and lesbians who have been denied basic human rights. The first wave of action was directed to Romanian authorities responsible for the jailing and torture of two gay men. Other letters will urge Romanian officials to repeal a law criminalizing homosexual acts. Amnesty volunteers also circulated widely a petition calling for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned gay Romanians. We collected more than 1,000 signatures and presented them to officials at the Romanian Embassy in conjunction with a rally in Washington D.C. in late April. We are happy to report that the two men highlighted have been released. Actions highlighting prisoner cases and patterns of abuse in other countries will be determined as events develop during the course of the campaign. * Congressional Activity. Representatives Gerry Studds and Barney Frank are assisting us in securing Congressional action to protect homosexuals worldwide. Members of Congress also participated in the press conference in Washington D.C. which launched this "Breaking the Silence" campaign. * Speakers Tour. This June, Amnesty will sponsor a speakers tour highlighting gay men and lesbian human rights issues. The tour will begin in Chicago at Amnesty's Annual General Meeting, which is attended by thousands of human rights activists, and will stop a major cities throughout the U.S. and will end in New York City at "Stonewall 25." One of the primary speakers will be the Brazilian Professor of Anthropology, Luiz Mott, who has researched and documented murders of gay men and lesbians in Brazil. Professor Mott is also President of Grupo Gay da Bahia, Brazil. * Community Action Events. Amnesty volunteers throughout the United States will host a range of educational and entertainment events at which audiences will be asked to write a letter, sign a petition, or mail a postcard directed to government authorities. Discussion groups, lectures, film screenings, candlelight vigils, street fairs, and art exhibitions will serve as forums for generating public action. * Combined Action Projects. Outreach by Amnesty volunteers to local gay and lesbian groups will culminate in jointly planned actions such as mass letter-writing, rallies, and other well-publicized projects. We will staff Amnesty booths at gay pride celebrations and include these concerns in our annual write-a-thons. By translating our mutual concerns for human rights protection into action, we hope to strengthen and energize each other for work in coming years. * U.S. Legislation. Amnest International USA has developed a long-term strategy to work on U.S. sodomy laws, which will provide background information and resource materials to Amnesty activists in the five targetted states. This will be the beginning of a long-term action lasting beyond this "Breaking the Silence" campaign. Our primary strategy is to integrate this work into the rest of AI's legislative work. Amnesty USA's volunteer membership brings to this campaign people of diverse ages and ethnic origins, a wide variety of experiences and interests, and differing sexual orientations. The current campaign will help integrate gay human rights issues fully into all of Amnesty's work. Future campaigns to halt abuses in particular countries and to protect individual groups such as indigenous peoples will include components addressing gay issues. Amnesty will strive for consistently effective action on behalf of lesbians and gay men as long as these people remain at risk anywhere in the world. III. Amnesty's Unique Capacity for Breaking the Silence * Amnesty's Mandate. Amnesty International, a worldwide volunteer organization, is independent of all governments and political ideologies. We work to: * Secure the unconditional release of prisoners of conscience--that is, men, women, and children detained anywhere solely for their beliefs or ethnic origins, provided they have neither used nor advocated violence. * Ensure fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners. * End all use of torture, political killing, the death penalty, and "disappearance." We also work to prevent the return of refugees to countries where they are likely to become victims of the abuses described above. Amnesty International has formal relations with the United Nations Economic and Social Council; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the Council of Europe; the Organization of American States; and the Organization of African Unity. Amnesty has been honored with awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize. The United States Section of Amnesty International, the largest of the movement's more than 50 national organizations, is a corporation with tax-exempt status as a charitable organization under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. * Amnesty's Track Record. Amnesty International is the only human rights organization with a worldwide volunteer membership committed to action campaigns. Amnesty is uniquely positioned to reach a broad cross-section of people, because our activists go into schools and community centers, city streets and rural meetings, shopping malls and Congressional offices. Amnesty members are trained to disseminate human rights information and to recruit new activists. They create a groundswell of public pressure for the end of human rights abuses. The U.S. Section of Amnesty International has been fighting for over a decade to strengthen Amnesty's defense of gay and lesbian human rights. As a whole, AI has always opposed the torture and execution and disappearance of gay men and lesbians. In 1979, Amnesty's International Council, the movement's highest decision-making body, affirmed that those imprisoned for advocating equality would be considered for adoption as Prisoners-of-Conscience. In 1982, AI condemned the forcible "medical" treatment carried out on people in detention against their will for the purpose of altering their sexual orientation. In 1991, the International Council made explicit at its meeting in Japan that Amnesty will fight for the release of women and men imprisoned because they are homosexuals, because they have advocated homosexual equality, or because of they have engaged in homosexual relations with another consenting adult in private. The Council's decision thus followed over a decade of work on behalf of people persecuted for their homosexuality. In the early 1990s, a dozen Amnesty USA volunteers and staff members formed a task force to promote protections for lesbians and gay men. Within three years, this core group had organized a solid network of some 1,000 members to work on policy and program issues affecting homosexuals' human rights. Members of the network remain available in all regions of the United States to help guide and service Amnesty's campus groups, community chapters, professional networks, and all other Amnesty activists. At our membership training workshops, network volunteers consistently draw large turnouts for briefings on current abuses against homosexuals and advice on actions to protect gay men and lesbians. In large part because of the work done by this volunteer network, Amnesty has been a leader in activating discussion of these issues among other human rights organizations. We have also successfully urged legal, academic, labor, and other professional groups to address gay human rights issues. Amnesty remains determined to strengthen the action coalitions we have developed with these groups. Amnesty's track record of successful prisoner work spans over three decades. We have campaigned on behalf of tens of thousands of individual prisoners, and we have been able to close the vast majority of our prisoner files. Besides the freed Romanians, we can also report that, following our appeals last summer for the release of two gay Mexican activists, the men gained freedom. We received word early this year that Turkish authorities had released two gay rights proponents. Amnesty had vigorously protested the arbitrary detention of these prisoners. Well over half of our Urgent Action appeals, launched on behalf of people in immediate and life-threatening danger, result in positive change for the prisoners. Amnesty's legislative initiatives to protect homosexuals' human rights have already yielded progress in Latvia. The Minister of Justice there informed us in February that a legislative amendment now mandates release of people imprisoned for their homosexuality. Shortly after Amnesty sent a mission to the United Kingdom's Isle of Man, the territory's Parliament acted on our recommendation to restore rights to homosexuals. IV. Evaluation Amnesty International's work to protect the basic rights of lesbians and gay men will be conducted simultaneously on international, national, and local levels. In consultation with Amnesty USA and other national sections, the movement's International Secretariat in London will evaluate both the overall effectiveness of Amnesty's campaign and the impact of particular strategies. Criteria for determining the success of our work include: evidence that human rights abuses against homosexuals have ceased, changes in the official practices and policies of governments that violate homosexuals' rights, release from imprisonment and other relief for gay and lesbian individuals, and expansion of the human rights constituency working to restore the basic rights of gay people. Amnesty USA's staff and volunteer leadership will evaluate the impact of U.S. organizations and institutions participating in our campaigns, as well as the quality f work done by each sector of our movement. We will carefully track U.S. domestic and foreign policies affecting gay men and lesbians, U.S. Government moves to strengthen protections for homosexuals, media reports on Amnesty's campaign initiatives, and the responses of communities and targeted constituencies to Amnesty's calls for action. We will evaluate individually the specific objectives established for our work. In evaluating our movement's performance, we will regularly seek assistance from gay men and lesbian groups and from gay rights leaders around the country and around the world. Conclusion Human dignity is a principle transcending particular societies' customs and traditions. Amnesty International is dedicated to ensuring that governments respect the dignity of all people, no matter who they are or what their beliefs may be. Respect for human dignity invariably translates into human rights protection. Governments throughout the world have marginalized gay men and lesbians, denying them their most fundamental rights and subjecting them to the full force of state terror. "Breaking the Silence," Amnesty's current campaign, will put governments on notice: We have the facts about your human rights violations, and we will hold you accountable for your actions. During more than thirty years of international campaigning, Amnesty has proved that public pressure by our activists can save lives and nourish human dignity. TO JOIN Amnesty International, send a membership donation of $25 or more to: AIUSA, 322 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10003 TO JOIN AI Members for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (AI members only), send $10 (check to AIUSA) to: AIMLGC, P.O. Box 8293, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-8293.