No Sustainable Peace Without Human Rights

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International *

4 December 2001

While bombings continue in Afghanistan, violence surges in the Middle East and emergency legislations are being rushed through Parliaments, the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize will be celebrated in Oslo between 6 and 10 December 2001, in this atmosphere of global turmoil.

As the Nobel Committee brings together previous laureates to discuss possible solutions for the 21st century's conflicts, Amnesty International -- as the 1977 Laureate -- will be at the forefront of the debate. Amnesty International will be calling on member states of the United Nations to uphold international protection for human rights, and not allow the human rights provisions upon which their nations have been built to be eroded.

Colm O'Cuanachain, Chair of Amnesty International, will be in Oslo to focus the debate on human rights and the need to strike a balance between security and human rights. Meanwhile, Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, will be on the borders of Pakistan talking to victims of that country's long-standing conflict and will mark Human Rights Day there (10 December).

Selected highlights:

Mr O'Cuanachain will be delivering a lecture entitled: Peace and human rights: the unbreakable bond at the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium. (Amnesty International is only one of nine Laureates to be delivering lectures at this Symposium).

Amnesty International Norway will organize a candlelight procession through Oslo on 10 December (Human Rights Day).

Mr O'Cuanachain will join other Nobel Laureates in an appeal for Aung San Suu Kyi, also a Nobel Laureate -- highlighting the plight of thousands of other political prisoners in Myanmar.

An electronic media kit is available by visiting http://web.amnesty.org/mavp/av.nsf/pages/hrd2001.

Please visit http://www.amnesty.no to view AI Norway's electronic petition addressed to Kofi Annan.

You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main text is not altered in any way and both the header crediting Amnesty International and this footer remain intact.

© Scoop Media