Photo by: Nate Knife
Human rights is a hot-button issue on almost every college campus, and the University of Denver is no exception. Next month, the DU chapter of Amnesty International is planning a week of events on topics such as torture of prisoner and treatment of prisoners of conscience.
The group will kick-off the awareness campaign on Nov. 11 with the documentary “Guantanamo” as part of Amenity International’s anti-torture campaign. The group also hopes to screen other films dealing with human rights. The group is considering hosting a concert in the spring.arter.
The local chapter was formed in 2005 with five active members, according to Rabah Kamal, one of the chapter’s three co-presidents this year. This year, the chapter’s 20 active members and has already organized a candlelight vigil for the democratic protesters in Myanmar.
“It’s amazing how many people are interested this year,” said Kamal. “We have a huge turnout for all our meetings.”
“It’s great because it’s one of our short-term goals to have a lot of enthusiastic members,” said Abbas Jaffer, one of the other co-president.
“Statistics show that most of Amnesty International’s most active members are in high school. We want to make that true for college as well.”
Anandi Ramaswami, and the third co-president, is also optimistic about the coming year.
“I’m really happy with the turnout,” said Ramaswami of the attendance at the meetings. “When you compare seeing five people show up last year and sometimes 30 people show up this year…it’s really great seeing people so dedicated.”
The current presidents came to Amnesty for a number of different reasons, but they share a common goal of ending human rights abuses and humanitarian crises the world over.
“I actually had no previous experience with Amnesty International before this summer,” said Jaffer. “Then I interned at their Washington D.C. policy office, and I got really fired up about it.”
“I was involved in high school and wanted to continue during college,” said Ramaswami. “I was a member last year, and this year I’m happy to be co-president with Abbas and Rabah.”
“I was the president of my high school chapter for a year,” said Kamal. “I didn’t have much time for it last year, but it was still very important to me. When they offered me a leadership position, I took it.”
Developing a strong membership is one of the chapter’s goals.
“I think it’s important to remember that Amnesty International started as a movement, not an organization,” said Jaffer. “That makes it hard for us to keep members. They participate once and then feel like it’s time to move on.”
“This year’s a lot better than it was, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” said Kamal. “One of our goals is to create a sense of community within the DU chapter that will have people wanting to come back again and again.”
“I don’t feel that knowledgeable about all the issues,” said Ramaswami. “What I love about Amnesty is that it gives you a starting point. You can learn what’s going on through the service. It lets you care and make a difference without having to be an expert on the subject.”
“I like the way it unites different ideologies,” said Jaffer. “We’ve got members from all over campus, from organizations you really wouldn’t expect. Some of the people who show up at the meeting really surprise me just by being there, but we welcome them just the same.
“For me, a lot of my eventual goals in life relate to human rights,” said Kamal. “At our age, it’s difficult to know what we can offer to such difficult issues. Amnesty International is a call to realize what it is that you can offer, and it gives you a chance to develop that for later in life.”
Amnesty International meets every Monday night at 7 p.m. in Jazzman’s and all are welcome to attend.
