Arab Spring is a warning to despots, says Amnesty chief

Salil Shetty talks to MARY FITZGERALD , Foreign Affairs Correspondent, about a ‘bad year for dictators’

Salil Shetty talks to MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, about a 'bad year for dictators'

THE SO-CALLED Arab Spring has served as a warning to despots across the world, and has galvanised human-rights activists beyond the Middle East, Amnesty International’s secretary general has said on a visit to Dublin.

"It's been a really bad year for dictators," Salil Shetty told The Irish Times.

“People who are fighting for rights across the world have felt inspired and emboldened by what has happened. It’s that message that change can happen from the people. Ordinary people coming together can make extraordinary things happen.”

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Shetty believes the toppling of autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has had an impact beyond the region.

“I think many, including the Chinese, are feeling the ripple effect. It’s not going to change overnight but I think most dictators and autocrats, including the Saudis, the Iranians etc, will think twice now,” he says.

“In Saudi Arabia, for example, they are starting to announce reforms. Yes, it’s piecemeal, but I don’t think they would have done that if this hadn’t happened.”

Amnesty International has called for an inquiry into the manner of Muammar Gadafy’s death to establish if it constituted a war crime.

“We have been very concerned . . . It has brought an unfortunate kind of distaste to what would otherwise have been a very important victory,” says Shetty.

“I think it is quite difficult for [Libya’s interim authorities] to wash their hands of it and say that it wasn’t us, because that’s going back to the old style of working.”

He stresses the need for accountability for all that unfolded during Libya’s eight-month war to ensure there is no impunity – “truth, justice, accountability and reparations – that’s the sequence” – and acknowledges the challenges ahead are immense.

“The problem we have in Libya, unlike say Tunisia and Egypt, is that there have been no institutions, no independent media, no civil society, no independent judiciary – all those things have to be constructed from scratch.”

In Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, Islamist movements have gained ground as the new order takes shape, prompting fresh debate over the role of Islam in political life.

“I think we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about this issue – there is a tendency to do that. I suspect that there will be moderate Islamists . . . when they are in power [the ideology] becomes moderated,” Shetty says.

“For us the question is what’s going to happen with the constitutions? Will there be a Bill of rights? Will they respect the rights of minorities and women? Those are all things we will be pushing for.”

Amnesty has urged all political parties in Egypt and Tunisia to sign up to a human-rights manifesto, and plans to do the same in Libya.

Ennahda, the Islamist party that won Tunisia’s first free elections last week, declined to sign up to the manifesto before the ballot.

“They had various issues with it. On the death penalty, for example, they had some uncertainties, and they have a particular way of wanting to deal with impunity.”

The issue raises the old chestnut of whether human rights can be considered universal.

“Of course there are going to be interpretations and adaptations and it has to be contextualised, but to suggest that the values themselves are relative becomes very tricky,” says Shetty.

“Frankly, I have never bought this argument that Islam and human rights are incompatible. What was the call on the street [in the Middle East] this year? It was about dignity, freedom, respect – all of this is to do with human rights, even if you don’t use that term.”

Turning to Ireland, Shetty praises its record as a “progressive champion of human rights” but says this longstanding commitment should not fall victim to the economic crisis.

“I know there are big challenges domestically right now and that is having a serious impact, but we are pushing hard to say that it is at a moment like this, when the State has to make very critical choices for resource allocation, that human rights presents you with a very useful frame, a way in which you can make these decisions which will make sure there is equity, accountability, and that the rights of the vulnerable are protected.”

In recent years, Amnesty’s Irish section has broadened its focus to campaign on issues as wide-ranging as mental health and clerical child abuse. This has led some to question whether it has moved too far from its raison d’etre.

“I think it’s a fair criticism – where do you draw the line? That’s a very difficult question to answer,” says Shetty. “In the Irish context, you have to do things which resonate here. You can’t say that you are only working on the Middle East when your own house is burning. Managerially, the question haunts me every day – how do you keep that balance between depth and breadth?”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International.

“I think not many other organisations can talk about having more than three million members after all that time. We are the pre-eminent human-rights movement internationally and I would say one reason Amnesty has remained relevant is that we have constantly adapted.”

He says Amnesty has done this by listening to the people whose rights have been violated.

“Our work started with prisoners, but then the prisoners were being tortured or being put on death row, so we focused on that too. When dictators started disappearing people instead of putting them in prison, we began working on the issue of disappearances. One thing leads to another.”

Shetty, who was appointed head of Amnesty after seven years as director of the UN Millennium Campaign, is the first Indian to lead the human-rights group.

He believes Amnesty needs to increase its footprint in the developing world. “The work we started on economic and social rights, and the question of poverty, has become more and more important as our membership in the global south has grown,” he says.