Amnesty International: A Non-Governmental Organization Which Campaigns for Internationally Recognized Human Rights
Amnesty International or AI is a worldwide, non-governmental organization, which campaigns for internationally recognized human rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards (Amnesty International 2005). In particular, AI campaigns to free all prisoners of conscience, ensure fair and prompt trials of political prisoners, abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel treatment of prisons, end political killings and forced disappearances, oppose all kinds of human rights abuses and increase awareness of human rights abuses all over the world (Wikipedia 2005). In the pursuit of its goals, AI sends research teams to investigate claims of human rights abuses, publicizes its findings and mobilizes its members to lobby against the abuses by writing to the government officials concerned, protests, demonstrates, organizes fund-raisers, educates the public about the offense and, often, all of these. Working primarily on the local level, Ai notifies each of its more than 7,000 local groups and more than 1 million members, including 300,000 in the US alone, in 150 countries. These members write protest letters to the concerned government officials. Ai observers a neutrali
The work of AI relates to the ideas and ideals of Machiavelli on how a prince or ruler should govern his people and maintain his power. Machiavelli writes that a ruler should be feared more than loved, but not hated (1992) and should not worry about the infamy of cruelty in his efforts at keeping his people united and loyal to him. He teaches that showing too much mercy often allows disorders to continue and breed killings, which lead to the suffering of the entire population. He also stresses that the good ruler does not have to be trustworthy: rulers of mighty accomplishments are not always worthy of trust but manipulate his people through guile and often surpass those who are loyal to their subjects. His view of the ideal ruler is one who reacts to the situation in such a way as to gain or keep power, which means he should employ the most self-serving methods to accomplish this end. AI is devoted to the mission of promoting the respect for individual human rights all over world by governments. If Machiavelli were living today and applied his thoughts on the work of AI, he might or might not approve or oppose it entirely. His position will depend on which course of action will best serve his self-interests if he were a ruler. But whatever his choice, it will be guided by the primacy of self-interest, which in his opinion, is "so far removed from how one lives," whereby he must choose the alternative that will avoid his ruin and preserve his ends. His pragmatism will lead him to avoid showing goodness in all things because there are many people and conditions in this world that are not good. He will choose to be or not to be good according to the demands of the situation or the moment and how his preservation or self-interest will be served by his choice. The reader should recognize the intrinsic disagreement between the mission and objectives of AI and Machiavellian principles. AI is non-government, does not follow or pursue any ideology or culture but is completely devoted to the promotion of human rights all over the world according to the International Declaration of Human Rights and other standards agreed on by nations' governments. There is no one government or person behind it. Machiavelli's principles, on the other hand, aim at gaining and maintaining power out of lust. It is the jungle rule during war rather than at times of peace or under the rule of law. Machiavelli would have been disturbed by criticisms of selection bias and by the tendency to over-repor
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Approximate Word count = 1689
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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