To All Living Things

Amnesty International
by Kathy Gay

s stated at the very beginning of VegSource's Mission Statement, we believe there's a lot more to vegetarianism that what you put in your mouth. It is a more compassionate lifestyle whose effects can ripple through other areas of your life. It is about being kinder to animals. It is about being kinder to other human beings. It is about seeing how we are all connected and that we are all in this together.

In my first article, I wrote of how I came to be a vegetarian -- by way of my work in human rights. My involvement in human rights began nearly ten years ago when I became a member of Amnesty International. I began writing letters to governments about specific cases outlined in Amnesty's newsletters. Soon after that, I signed up for the Freedom Writer's Network, and wrote more letters.

Then, nearly seven years ago, I joined with other interested Amnesty members and formed a new local group in San Francisco. We "adopted" a prisoner of conscience, a young man imprisoned in Greece for refusing to serve in the military due to his religious beliefs. I became the coordinator for our group's efforts on his behalf and did this until his release from prison two-and-a-half years later. Since then I have lead our group's efforts on campaigns focusing on Peru, Indigenous People and, most recently, China. And I have been a member of our group's on-going Children's Campaign since we formed it nearly six years ago. I also served for three-and-a-half years as the liaison between the Research Department at the International Secretariat in London and all local groups in the United States who had adopted Greek prisoners of conscience.

VegSource & Human Rights: We can make a difference, too.

Although there will undoubtedly be exceptions, I anticipate that I will devote much of my space in this magazine to the subject of human rights. I hope to be able to educate you, the reader, about human rights issues and also provide you with an opportunity to participate if you wish (and I hope you will). I will bring to you real-live cases (or, in Amnesty-speak, "actions") from Amnesty International and ask for your help by sending a letter. The actions I will present here will, I hope, be of interest to those of you visiting this site. They will most likely involve children or families, or perhaps activists in the field of rights for indigenous people. I will provide you with specific information about each one and also include a sample letter for you to send or use as a model if you wish to write your own letter. By doing this, I hope you will see that we truly are all connected and what happens to one of us touches us all.

Before I present our first action, a little about Amnesty International...

What is Amnesty International?

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by a British lawyer named Peter Benenson after he had read in the newspaper about two Portuguese students being sentenced to seven years in prison. Their "crime"? Raising their glasses in a toast to freedom. Benenson began to think of ways to persuade the Portuguese government -- and other oppressive governments -- to release such victims of injustice. His idea was to bombard the authorities with letters of protest.

Along with several other activists, Benenson organized a one-year campaign to draw public attention to the fate of political prisoners. That campaign received tremendous public support and became the driving force behind Amnesty International. What began as a short-term publicity effort evolved into a worldwide movement of people acting on the conviction that governments must not deny individuals their basic human rights. In 1977, the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to promote global observance of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Today Amnesty has more than 1,100,000 members in over 170 countries and territories. It seeks the release of people detained because of their beliefs, color, sex, ethnic origin, language or religious creed, provided they have neither used nor advocated violence. These are termed prisoners of conscience. It works for fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners and works on behalf of such people detained without charge or trial. It opposes the death penalty and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners without reservation. In addition, Amnesty opposes abuses by opposition groups, such as hostage-taking, torture and killings of prisoners, and other deliberate and arbitrary killings.

To read about the first "action for human rights" being presented here at VegSource, click here.

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Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.