The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Courtesy of Cliff Katz Students spent spring break in Arizona working with the humanitarian group No More Deaths on immigration issues.

"This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others."

This quotation by activist Elie Wiesel exemplifies the mission statement of Amnesty International. In the words of the president of the Colby chapter, Amelia Swinton '10, the role of the group is "to spread awareness of human rights abuses, and to promote equality for all." Swinton, who was involved with the group while in high school, finds Amnesty to be an "accessible forum to pursue human rights activism."

"Our biggest event this year was the Jamnensty conference which supported a humanitarian aid organization called No More Deaths," Swinton said. Swinton, along with three fellow Amnesty members, traveled to Arizona during her spring break to work firsthand with No More Deaths. No More Deaths is an organization in Arizona which focuses on humanitarian issues of border crossing and patrol. Amnesty has also had the opportunity to bring several speakers to campus. Most recently, the group spoke with Malik Rahim, who founded a relief organization dedicated to Katrina relief in New Orleans.

Although Swinton does not feel that student awareness of human rights issues is high on campus, estimating about 40 percent of the student body to be sufficiently informed, she is optimistic about student potential. "A lot of what Amnesty's job is, is to get people talking about issues of human rights and let people know that there are enormous violations occurring worldwide," Swinton said. Apathy is "a problem, but I don't see it as something to complain about because Amnesty has a role in fixing it." Amnesty will be undertaking an awareness campaign focused on the death penalty next fall, and Swinton hopes that the group will host a concentrated series of events similar to the recently celebrated Pride and Earth weeks. "A lot of people question Amnesty's tactics as ineffective," Swinton said. According to Swinton the group is "criticized for taking symbolic actions that don't mean anything. But the fact of the matter is that they [these actions] do have an effect. A grassroots approach to larger global projects [is] effective and every year prisoners of conscience that Amnesty has been working to release are let free."

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