Amnesty meets Northern

Amnesty International  is a nongovernmental organization based in London that focuses international human rights for all people, not just western or white people. Founded in 1961 by a lawyer named Peter Benenson, the amount of members has grown to over seven million global members and has tackled issues such as torture, the death penalty, as well as issues that have yet to been addressed, such as reproductive and sexual rights and the welcoming of refugees in any fashion.

 As you, the reader, probably guessed, the scope of their mission driven goals goes beyond a sentence or two in a poorly worded blog post. Amnesty International is truly a great organization and one that I can say that I am glad that I joined the small but mighty group here at Northern. Welcoming new recruits and returning members with pizza, the first meeting served much like syllabus week, where really what Amnesty International is, what they are doing, and how exactly Ohio Northern's subset plugs into the larger picture is explained. Beyond this, multiple trips for the purpose of protesting and lobbying provide the student organization with actual work and real life impact.

Derrick Jamison, death row exoneree, and Abraham Bonowitz, Ohioans to Stop Executions Representative, speak at the presentation (Northern Review photo/Holly Dyer)

Focusing on what the organization does locally and here on campus can be aptly described as involved. The photograph to the right is taken from a talk put on by Amnesty International featuring exonerated death row inmate Derrick Jamison. After being wrongfully imprisoned for twenty years, the talk urged both the youth and societal institutions to reexamine previously held notions of the death penalty and to consider alternatives, such as life without parole. Beyond that, there are planned assemblies where some human rights atrocity is publicized and a dialogue is opened up. This is incredibly important for two reasons, the foremost of which being in most of the world, these issues are either covered up, actively ignored, or forgotten, and the latter of which being the recipient of these talks are future powerful professionals. The people that these are impacting are not yesterday's corporate giants, but tomorrow's clean up crew.

Further reading of Northern's Amnesty International branch can be found here: x