Human rights organization Amnesty International (The Netherlands) drops LGBT issues

By Anna McFaith on Monday, December 7, 2009 - 20:38

At 12 am this afternoon, the Dutch branch of Amnesty International sent an e-mail to all its volunteers. It went as follows:

“Dear volunteers,

On saturday 1 August, Amnesty International was visible for half a million people at the Gaypride by joining the parade with the Amnestyboat. We’ve gotten a lot of respect and appreciation for this, judging by the reactions from people who stood on the sides of the canal. Come 2010 we will unfortunately be unable to join the Gaypride.
Amnesty Holland has, regrettably, decided that in the years 2010-2016, LGBT rights will NO LONGER be a priority. Factually this means that we are not allowed to have an Amnestyboat at Gaypride, there will not be any more cases (actions) on which we can take action, we will no longer gather signatures for LGBT causes, etc.
This means we can still join LGBT activities but without contributing. We feel that we cannot add to these activities this way and we have therefore decided to disband the regional LGBT network. This includes our LGBT FNU Hyves page, as we cannot use the Amnesty name. I regret having to undertake these actions but I have no choice seeing as I, as an LGBT network, can’t offer you anything if I can’t focus on content. It has been hard as it is to get a LGBT case from London this year.
Come 31 December, the FNU LGBT network shall be disband and the Hyves page removed.
I thank you all for your hard work and wish you all the best of luck.

Kind regards,

Nettie Tetelepta

Region Coordinator Projects

Amnesty International"

Alice Verheij, who had once tried to become a volunteer of Amnesty but got fed up with Amnesty’s quiet early on, received this e-mail and put it up on her blog as soon as she got it. From there on it hit Twitter and it reached us. It also reached Amnesty International and an employee of Amnesty issued the following statement on Alice’s blog:

“Dear Alice,

Amnesty International fights for a world where all human rights are accepted. This includes the right to protection against discrimination on grounds of one’s sexual orientation. Amnesty International The Netherlands has decided to focus on four major themes in the coming period. These themes include poverty, freedom of speech, and protection against discrimination. Recently amnesty organized political support in Holland for the European antidiscrimination aim.

LGBT-rights in the Netherlands will get a lot less attention from Amnesty. This won’t mean that Amnesty will do nothing with the subject or that we will not have an opinion about it. If need be, we will make our voice heard. But the priority has been lowered because our country has a lot of organizations fighting for LGBT-rights. If amnesty can add to that, we will but we prefer to do it by supporting existing initiatives of others.

The right to free sexual orientation remains a universal human right what has Amnesty International’s unwavering support. The decision has been made for Amnesty The Netherlands alone. Other amnesty-sections will establish their own priorities. The Dutch section will remain an active participant in Amnesty’s international LGBT network. We will also keep supporting the work of other European sections.

Concerning our volunteers, of which you have been one for many years, we thank you for your support. We will keep an open line of communication with various LGBT networks within Amnesty.

Kind regards,

Eduard Nazarski”

Tags: amnesty international, dynamic, gay pride, human rights, lgbt, political, the netherlands

Nuances

Submitted by Carrie on December 7, 2009 - 21:37.

Please don't draw conclusions for the whole of Amnesty International based on this article.

Ofcourse, it is everybody's right to address Amnesty Netherlands and ask for clarification about this policy, if it indeed is a policy and not originated from one person only. But, as an activist for Amnesty in Belgium, I would like to point out that the different Amnesty sections in the different European and non-European countries each work differently on LGBTIQ-issues. Our local group of the Belgique francophone section works hard on LGBT http://www.amnestyinternational.be/doc/rubrique87.html and I would really not like to see all this work reduced to 'Amnesty doesn't care about LGBT anymore". I know that the same takes place in the UK or even Lithuania, Serbia etc.. Especially in these last countries, the reputation and image of Amnesty and the LGBT activists is very important in their work. So, although I myself feel Amnesty Netherlands should be asked to clarify or even rectify their statements, please be carefull for generalisations.

Thank you for your comment.

Submitted by Anna McFaith on December 7, 2009 - 21:57.

Hello Carrie,

Thank you for your comment. We have tried to make it really clear that this is a decision made by the Dutch branch of Amnesty alone. We even quoted an Amnesty employee who placed the same statement as you did; other branches are free to choose their own priorities.

That doesn't take away the fact that the Dutch LGBT community feels pretty betrayed right now and that we fear this sends out the wrong signal, perhaps globally. We fear that if other organizations hear this, they will drop support as well. Decisions like this have consequences and it's important that people are aware of them.

Keep up the good work with Amnesty Belgium!

faith

I agree with Faith

Submitted by Chantal on December 8, 2009 - 00:07.

This is about the Dutch branch of Amnestiy and has been made very clear in the post.

But it has to be understand that actions like these can indeed have consequenses for the entire LGBTQ community like Faith said. Who is to say that other branches don't pull back their efforts when it is made clear to them that other causes are 'doing enough' for equality etc.

There is NEVER enough done for causes. It is, unfortunately, always two steps forward, one step back

Yeah well... I don't think

Submitted by Manon on December 9, 2009 - 14:07.

Yeah well... I don't think it's the end of the world. If they don't have the ressources to work on LGBT issues, it's best to say it now and focus on other issues. I think they explained their point pretty well.

The LGBT cause still exists in the Netherlands, but as it has been said, other organizations fight for it, and Amnesty has issues such as poverty to take care of. And I don't think I'll upset anyone if I say that poverty is a more important issue (in facts and in consequences, not in theory, because of course the LGBT cause has to do with the idea of equal rights, which is fundamental. I'd just rather eat everday than be able to get married).