The Amnesty International has responded to its members' open letter dated 29 April regarding a cancelled event featuring Robert Amsterdam in Malaysia.

To the members and supporters of Amnesty International Thailand and Malaysia                                                                 

Re: Letter of 29 April 2009, “Calling for an Investigation into the Intervention of the work of Amnesty International (AI) Malaysia by Members of the AI Asia-Pacific team”

Thank you for your letter regarding the cancellation of the 23 April 2011 event featuring Mr. Robert Amsterdam.  I understand that the decision to cancel the event, especially taken less than two days before it was due to occur, caused not only confusion but consternation as well.  I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. 

I have looked into the circumstances surrounding this event and I am comfortable and confident that cancelling the event was the right decision, and that Amnesty International should stand by this position.  Amnesty International cannot appear as partisan in any political scenario, and this is especially true in situations of conflict and deep political division.  Regardless of the good work that Mr. Amsterdam may be doing in many situations, his position as a paid advocate for Mr. Thaksin has clearly associated him with one side of Thailand’s highly polarized political crisis.  We became concerned that there was a likelihood that the proposed event would jeopardise the hard-won perceptions of the fairness and accuracy of our work in the region.  Therefore we chose to allow the meeting to proceed without direct involvement from Amnesty International.

I would also like to emphasize that Amnesty International did not deny Mr. Amsterdam’s right to freedom of expression.

Amnesty International declined an opportunity for him to express his political views on a platform co-sponsored by Amnesty International.  We take great pains to ensure that Amnesty International’s statements, and statements by any one of our many partners around the world who may share a platform with us, conform to our basic principles and our overall strategy in support of human rights.  Therefore, it is not uncommon for us to avoid appearing at events or sharing platforms on specific issues or with particular actors around the world.  We have no interest in denying Mr. Amsterdam the right to air his positions in the public arena, and in fact, he has repeatedly and forcefully done so before and after the event scheduled by AI Malaysia.

Lastly, there are also some important procedural lessons to be learned from this situation, chief among them the importance of consultation and sharing information better within the Amnesty movement.  In this instance, unfortunately, both the International Secretariat and AI Thailand only learned of this event purely by chance less than two days before it was scheduled to take place.  In particular, the International Secretariat specialist on Thailand was not involved or consulted in setting up this event.

I hope that this clarifies the situation for you, and I would like to thank you again for raising your concerns.  Indeed it is only through such diligence and self-examination that our movement can move forward.

Best regards,
Colm Ó Cuanacháin
Senior Director of Campaigns
Amnesty International - International Secretariat