State of the Empire: Reviewing 2019

Zero Anthropology

December 31, 291

 

This year marks the end of the second decade of the 21^st-century, and as we enter the third decade one prediction seems to be warranted: the 2020s will see the most marked and unambiguous signs of the final decline of the US empire, with multipolarity rising to its greatest height yet. This will not be the same thing as the end of capitalism, especially as state-capitalism appears to be renewed as the dominant form of economic and political development worldwide. In order to stave off or stall the US’ inevitable decline, the US will do everything in its power (as it is already doing). “Human rights” in particular will be further weaponized as a strategic instrument of competition, much like Britain—which had built its wealth on top of heaps of slave labour—when it mobilized internationally against the slave trade once slavery had lost its economic value to the British empire, yet as it continued to be relied upon by competing powers. “Climate emergency” will likewise be the reason for imposing a range of protectionist measures in order to diminish the competitiveness of commodities produced by rising/competing powers, and as a tool of destabilization and regime change against oil-powered states that oppose US-led Western dominance. Triumphalist talk about globalization will give way to the realization that the state which benefited the most from the post-Cold War period was China; as we see China’s Belt and Road Initiative spread globally our primary debates will focus on whether or not this is a new era of imperial globalization, or globalized neo-colonialism, or something substantively different. It would not be alarmist to suggest that the 2020s may be the most decisive and perhaps most dangerous decade the world will witness since the early 1930s…

This annual review traces some of these momentous changes as they began to take a clearer shape throughout 2019. Unfortunately, this will be the last time that we produce such a detailed end of year review on Zero Anthropology. For example, three research trips to the Caribbean in 2019 significantly ate into the coverage that follows below, with less time available to cover international developments. The next annual review will be in the form of a single essay, and with few if any links to resources for further reading. Nonetheless, these reviews could be invaluable resources to researchers seeking to trace the multiple trajectories of US imperial practice, under Trump and his predecessors, just as they have proven to be useful for our own writing.

Before we proceed, here is a list of the top 5 articles, in terms of those most read that were published on ZA in 2019:

1. “Girls, Groupies, and Grim Reapers: The Religious Politics of Mass Response”;
2. “On Duty for the CIA: German Nazis and Italian Fascists”
3. “A Desperate Empire Crashes in Venezuela”;
4. “The Kursk Disaster: Facts Sunk Beneath Waves of Drama”;
5. “The WikiLeaks Case: Democracy Dies in Empire”.

Also here is our Top 10 List of all other articles published online this year:

1. “The U.S. footprint in Bolivia’s incipient colour revolution,” Bruno Sgarzini, MR online, September 5.
2. “The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – For Consent: The Political Economy of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex [ACT I],” Cory Morningstar, The Wrong Kind of Green, January 17.
3. “Astroturfing the way for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” News from Nowhere, April 1.
4. “What Should We Learn from 40 Years of U.S. Intervention in the Middle East?” Alireza Ahmadi, The National Interest, January 14.
5. “What’s at Stake in Venezuela?” Greg Grandin, London Review of Books, February 8.
6. “Inside the Neoliberal Laboratory Preparing for the Theft of Venezuela’s Economy,” Justin Podur, Venezuelanalysis.com, February 20.
7. “Losing Momentum: A Warning from the Fracturing British Left,” Leontios Xenophilos, American Affairs, Volume III, Number 1 (Spring 2019): 161–71.
8. “Noam Chomsky and the Compatible Left, Part I,” Popaganda, March 4.
9. “Mueller’s report, finding no Russia collusion or conspiracy, is a major indictment of US media,” Danielle Ryan, RT.com, March 25.
10. “America’s Generals Have Learned Nothing From Our Failed Wars,” William Astore, The Nation, March 19.

The ZA “award” for protesters of the decade has to go to France’s Yellow Vests.

+++

Recommended Articles by Zero Anthropology for January 2019 include “Nicaragua and the Corruption, Cooptation of Human Rights,” Stephen Sefton, Wrong Kind of Green, January 5 (#10).

Read the review in its entirety at Zero Anthropology:

https://zeroanthropology.net/2019/12/31/state-of-the-empire-reviewing-2019/

 

 

Media Conspiracy of Silence While Colombia’s Largest Indigenous Group is Dying

Further reading: Gold and Misery in Colombia: The Sad Case of Segovia

ERITREA: The Modern Day Carpetbaggers and Scalawags-Final

From Where I Sit…

September 13, 2014

Sophia Tesfamariam

On 5-7 September 2014 Jay Taber’s Counterpunch article, “Imperial Civil Society, False Fronts for Wall Street”, Taber writes about “compromised NGOs” such as Avaaz and Amnesty International, the foundations and other entities that fund them,  and how they have become “imperial civil society” cow towing to Wall Street, and being used to “justify privatization, austerity, and military aggression by NATO and the US”.

In his article, Taber writes about the relationship between these international NGOs, Corporate America and the Government. The two salient points presented are:

1. “…With corporate and government funding, often laundered through banks and foundations, international NGOs inspire pathos by constantly producing images of despair—thus allowing them to dominate discourse from an emotional vantage point. As a market-oriented institutional apparatus, this vast bureaucracy works hand in hand with military and finance authorities, thus functioning as Trojan horses on a par with transnational organized crime…As a fifth column of fascism, imperial civil society – funded by such entities as Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, and Soros Open Society Institute – operates worldwide (in tandem with official false fronts like USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, and U.S. Institute for Peace) to subvert sovereignty and derail democracy in favor of US hegemony…”

2. “…Overthrowing and destabilizing governments, using NGOs like Avaaz as provocateurs, puts authentic non-profits and journalists at risk. Indeed, the imperial network of financiers like Soros makes NGO entrepreneurs in the pro-war champagne circuit accomplices in crimes against humanity. As frontline opportunists in the psywar waged against public consciousness, these false fronts legitimate “humanitarian warfare” and “free-market environmentalism,” employed against indigenous peoples and independent states…”

So the reader might be asking what or how that has anything into do with Eritrea and in this sitting, the author will present the facts and allow the readers to make their own determinations…

The Carpetbaggers

The bulk of the articles, reports, books that advance the narrative on Eritrea disseminated through academia, media and policy making institutions in the United States and Europe have been generated by a handful of individuals and the “NGOs” that they are associated with. There may be others, but these are the repeat offenders…and the “wonks” who have made Eritrea their forte-lucrative one at that…and who work and collaborate with each other on the Eritrean Project…

• Tricia Redeker Hepner– Funded by the Social Science Research Council and the Wenner-Gren Foundation began her research of Eritreans in the Philadelphia area and today, as Eritrea expert at Amnesty International has been at the forefront of the anti-Eritrea campaign. Her involvement with Eritrean politics is fishy from the get go. How is it that a young American college graduate on her very first trip to Eritrea finds herself entangled in Eritrean politics?
• Dan Connell– Grassroots international, RootsNet and the Cape Ann Forum and Freedom House-Recipient of several grants including the MacArthur Foundation. This is the same Foundation that funds Human Rights Watch and other “NGOs”.
• Frank Smyth-Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ)-Too numerous to list here-Annual Report[1] has details of the individuals and corporations that fund this outfit-with Dan Connell, is a staple in the Eritrean political scene
• David Bozzini-self professed expert on Eritrea- Funded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, which is funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany
• Victoria Bernal– Bernal has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from Wenner-Gren, Fulbright, the Rockefeller Foundation and others
• Maryan Van Reisen-European External Policy Advisors (EEPA)-self professed expert on Eritrea-Clients include the European Parliament, various organs of the UN, various NGOs[2] including Caritas, Human Rights Watch, Action Aid, Save the Children etc. etc. Might explain the reluctance of the UN to conduct an independent investigation into the trafficking of Eritrea’s youth. As we shall see later, Van Reisen, like her counterparts, also has an interest in prolonging the agony of asylum seekers and Eritrean migrants.
• Jennifer Riggan-Came to Eritrea through the Peace Corps as an “English Teacher” in 1995-but now is an expert on Eritrea, and like the others “prepares affidavits and testifies on behalf of asylum seekers. Eritrea’s education system is her main target
• Sara Dorman-Came to Eritrea as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Asmara.  The new graduate claims “They needed a political scientist and I needed a job. It seemed like a great way to bridge the transition from student-hood to the real world”.  Today, she “studies” the behavior of Eritreans in social media and judging from the papers produced about Eritrea in the past, she will insist on painting a bleak picture of Eritrea and its leadership.
• Kjetil Tronvoll-A Norwegian researcher with the  Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights (OCPHR) is in a new “Struggle for Freedom in Eritrea”, and has worked closely with the EQL-His papers, books and articles on Eritrea are too numerous to list here. He is also one of the first western anthropologist to enter Eritrea in 1991-to conduct “research”. An avowed anti-EPLF westerner, he insists on defining Eritrea and the needs of her people.

Those who have followed developments in Africa and especially the Horn of Africa for the last 25 years are familiar with these agencies and their “work” in Africa, but none has experienced as an aggressive campaign by groups funded by the “false fronts”, as the State of Eritrea and its people…(Zimbabawe comes close)

The carpetbaggers, dual hatted researchers, “anthropologists” by day, and “hired intellectuals” by night, have become a staple at every conference, forum, meeting, seminar, workshop etc. held about Eritrea. The many “by invitation only” conferences and presentations are made at academic institutions and forums and are never known with the Eritrean people in Eritrea or in the Diaspora. The idea is to “sensitize” the American and European public so that any actions of their governments will then become easily accepted.

Sometimes, one gets the feeling that Eritrea is a European state… as those around the table are almost always Caucasians, with the members of the Eritrean Quislings League (EQL) serving as the “Eritrean faces”. Most of the papers are placed in “academic journals” and other repositories not easily accessible to the general public, and if they were, the Eritrean public was not aware of their existence. Heck, even the Eritrean Studies Association is run by scalawags and carpetbaggers…hence its slow demise. →

Amnesty International: Infamous Tool of Conspiracies

Tesfa News

December 5, 2013

Reality. Amnesty International has taken the amnesty out of humanity and became a killing tool by using criminals they call dissidents, political opposition and human rights activists in countries of interest.

 Taking the Amnesty out of Humanity. Please help stop a warmonger speaking on behalf of the Eritrean people

The Eritrean intelligence unit intercepted a certain fax message that was classified as “Urgent” and “Strictly Confidential”. The letter was written and signed by Ms. Catherine Price, Amnesty International’s head of Africa Special Program, to Mr. Adams Subi Waitara, Amnesty’s senior researcher Tanzania Section, regarding to the latter’s appointment to lead a four man delegation to Eritrea for a “highly confidential mission.”

The letter also instructs Mr. Adams that the remaining three colleagues will meet him in Nairobi on the 1st day of September 2011. After having a thorough discussion and understanding of their secret mission, they will start heading to Eritrea strictly between the dates of 6th – 16th September 2011.

The names of the three colleagues that were stated on the letter as delegates are Mr. Mohammed Hassan Noor, Ms. Concepcion Empeno and Kathryn Achilles.

However, Amnesty realized that their fax message has been intercepted by the Eritrean intelligence unit.  They also realized their secret mission got killed even before it started.

On the 18th of September 2011 (the choice of the date has its own essence), “Amnesty International” issued a lengthy and boring statement aimed at defaming Eritrea. “Amnesty” in its report accused Eritrea of “preventing the establishment of non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, and civil society starting from 1993.”

After all the experiences accumulated over the years, because the people around the world have well understood what civil society means, there is no need of clarifying why Eritrea prevented the establishment of civil society. No one expects a stooge to be happy when a branch of its type is denied the right for establishment.

“Amnesty International” has in a hurry issued a statement of denial before the Ministry of Information issued a statement. It would have been better for “Amnesty International” not to rush, for all the documents and their signatures are in the hands of the Government of Eritrea and be public.

The main objective of this writing is to expose the act of ploys committed during that time by this organization. Who are the people that “Amnesty International” tried to illegally send to Eritrea from 6th to 16th of September, 2011? What was their mission? Who is funding the mission?  For what purpose? What measures did the Government of Eritrea take?

For obvious reasons the Government of Eritrea did not want to disclose the rest of the documents except the one we are glad to share it with you here below. →

Getting It Right: Hugo Chávez and the “Arab Spring”

Zero Anthropology

Some opening vignettes might set the right tone for properly appreciating the question of “who was right” about the so-called Arab Spring. (The notion of there having been an “Arab Spring,” a term first coined by U.S. neoconservatives such as Charles Krauthammer back in 2005, is one that has been subject to radically diverse interpretations, from marking in generic terms some sort of struggle for “freedom” and “democracy” [as if there is only one kind of democracy], to views of a covertly directed process of U.S. political intervention, and direct military intervention. Nonetheless, this article is aimed at those who, even now, are still enchanted with the positive aura of the Arab Spring idea.) As usual, my focus will be on Libya. →

Human Trafficking and the Human Rights Agenda Against Eritrea

Above image: Independent Eritrea – Eritrean soldiers march during the country’s Independence Day in Asmara. May 24, 2007.

Photo: Saba (Saba shoe factory), Independence Day carnival, BDHO Avenue Asmara Eritrea.

A Better People | Shedding light on Human Rights, Government, and Politics

by Simon Tesfamariam |  Red Sea Fisher

 March 16, 2013

“Africom has some sort of military “partnership”–bilateral agreements–with most of Africa’s 53 countries” but “the exceptions: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Eritrea and Libya. Ivory Coast is now in the bag. So is South Sudan. Libya may be next. The only ones left to be incorporated to Africom will be Eritrea and Zimbabwe.” Thus, Eritreans must be ready for any eventuality as the external forces that seek regime change in Eritrea–for simply not following their rules or refusing to kneel down–are left with no choice but to pull the human rights card. →

Press Release: World Wide Outcry To Make Amnesty International See Reason and Make Amends

Source: Human Rights for All

24/03/2010

March 22, 2010

People from across the world, including key human rights activists, public intellectuals and citizens groups have supported a global petition demanding public clarification and accountability from Amnesty International.

Among the prominent signatories figure: Salman Rushdie, Michael Walzer; Amitav Ghosh; Malalai Joya, (MP Afghan Parliament, suspended for criticizing warlords).; Dr. Nawal El Sadaawi (Writer and former political prisoner) Egypt.; Martha Nussbaum (Professor of Law and Ethnics, University of Chicago; co-founder of the Human Development and Capabilities Association with Amartya Sen) US.; Dr. Yakin Erturk (Former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and board Member of UNRISD). Turkey,: I. A. Rehman and Iqbal Haidar (the most senior members of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission); Farida Shaheed (UN Independent Expert on Cultural Rights and Director of Research at Shirkat Gah) Pakistan; Jodie Evans (Environmental activist and founder member of CODEPINK, Women for Peace) US; Nayantara Sahgal (Celebrated writer, and former Indian Ambassador to Italy) India; Romila Thapar (Eminent Historian of Ancient India) India; Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and founder of South Asia Foundation) Ramachandra Guha (historian, and a regular columnist with The Telegraph of Calcutta.) [See
below wider list of notable signatories]

• On Feburary 7, 2010 Amnesty International’s controversial alliance with Moazzem Begg and his organization, Cageprisoners, who have an ambiguous position on the Taliban, was publicly questioned by Gita Sahgal, Head of the Gender Unit at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, London.

• Sahgal raised a fundamental point of principle, which is “about the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination.”

• This principle in no way contradicts or negates the Amnesty International campaign against the fundamental human rights abuses that have occurred at Guantanamo and elsewhere.

• Rather than responding to the seriousness of her concerns with an investigation of the issues and/or having a democratic debate both internally and in the public domain, Amnesty International suspended Gita Sahgal and publicly reiterated its alliance with Begg. This is a compromise of its own core values.

• In response to the petition, as well as in a recent public statement, Amnesty has quoted the concept of defensive jihad as justification for its support of Begg.

—-

Full text of the The Global petition to Amnesty International: Restoring the Integrity of Human Rights

The above petition is open for public signatures

—-

Selected list of the notable signatories includes :

Rhonda Copelon (Director of IWHR (International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic, City University of NY) US

Meredith Tax (Writer and feminist organizer; President of Women’s WORLD). US.

Michael Walzer (Political scientist at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, and editor of Dissent magazine). US.

Salman Rushdie (Internationally known writer; winner of the Booker Prize).

Amitav Ghosh (Writer and Professor of Comparative Literature at Queens College, NY; awarded the Padma Sri prize awarded by the Indian government). US and India.

Malalai Joya, (MP Afghani Parliament, suspended for criticizing warlords), Afghanistan.

Dr. Nawal El Sadaawi (Physician, writer, and former political prisoner) Egypt.

Martha Nussbaum (Professor of Law and Ethnics, University of Chicago; c-founder of the Human Development and Capabilities Association with Amartya Sen) US.

Dr. Yakin Erturk (Former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and board Member of UNRISD). Turkey

I. A. Rehman and Iqbal Haidar (the most senior members of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission) Pakistan

Farida Shaheed (UN Independent Expert on Cultural Rights and Director of Research at Shirkat Gah). Pakistan

Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak (Literary theorist and University Professor at Columbia, visiting faculty at Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) US and India.

Marieme Helie-Lucas (Algerian sociologist and founder of Women Living Under Muslim Laws and coordinator of Secularism is a Women’s Issue, siawi.org). Algeria and France.

Charlotte Bunch (Founder of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University, NJ). US.

Rosalind Petchesky (Professor of Women’s Studies and Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York and MacArthur Fellow) US.

Katha Pollitt (Poet and columnist for The Nation magazine) US

Judy Norsigian (Cofounder and Executive Director of theBoston Women’s Health Collective which publishes Our Bodies Ourselves) US

Jodie Evans (Environmental activist and founder member of CODEPINK, Women for Peace) US

Kum-Kum Bhavnani (Filmmaker) US

Gila Svirsky (Feminist peace activist, cofounder of Women in Black and the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace) Israel

Sonia Correa (Research associate at ABIA – Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS,and DAWN coordinator for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health Research) Brazil

Carole Vance (Associate Clinical Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University) US

Steven Lukes (Professor of Politics and Sociology, New York University) US

Tom Harrison (Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy) US

Patricia McFadden (Editor of SAFERE, Southern African Feminist Review) Zimbabwe

Cynthia Fuchs Epstein (Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of NY) US

Kristen Booth Glen (Surrogate Court judge in Manhattan; former Dean of the Law School of the City University of New York). US.

Mariella Sala (Writer and former director of RELAT, a Latin American network of women writers; the Latin American Press Agency; and Flora Tristan women’s association) Peru

Virginia Vargas (Sociologist; founder of the Flora Tristan women’s association, and former Latin Amerian coordinator for the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing). Peru.

Dubravka Ugresic (Internationally known writer, formerly from Croatia; winner of many European prizes). Netherlands.

Wanda Nowicka (Polish feminist organizer; co-founder and Director of the Federation for Women and Family Planning, and and co-founder of ASTRA, the Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) Poland

Dan Connell (Distinguished Lecturer in Journalism and African Politics, Simmons College, Boston) US

Lynne Segal (Socialist feminist writer and activist; Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies, Birkbeck College, London.) UK.

Doug Ireland (Well known investigative journalist and defender of gay rights). US

Nayantara Sahgal (Celebrated writer, and former Indian Ambassador to Italy) India

Romila Thapar (Eminent Historian of Ancient India) India

Lilian Halls-French, President, European Feminist Initiative (IFE-EFI) France

J. Sri Raman (Senior journalist and Peace campaigner) India

Jean-Marie Matagne (Former presidential candidate, President of Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire –ACDN) France

Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Founder of the South Asia Foundation) India

Kamla Bhasin (Co-President, PeaceWomen Across the Globe) India

Hameeda Hossain (South Asians For Human Rights) and ASK (Ain O Salish Kendra) a women’s rights organization, Bangladesh

Yvonne Deutsch (co founder of Women in Black Jerusalem and founder Feminist Center in Jerusalem) Israel

Shabnam Hashmi (founder of Act Now for Harmony and Democacy -Anhad) India

Kushi Kabir (Feminist and founder of Nijrera Kori, women’s mass organistaion) Bangladesh

Harsh Mander (former state official and founder of Aman Biradari) India

Andrej Grubacic (Associated with Global Balkans Network) USA

Sunanda Sen (renowned economist) India

Kumudini Samuel (Women and Media Collective) Sri Lanka

Uma Chakravarti (Feminist Historian, and human rights activist, India)

Amit Bhaduri (Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) India

Caroline Fourest (Writer and journalist, Editor of the Journal Prochoix) France

Anand Patwardhan (documentary filmmaker and peace activist) India

Sooni Taraporevala (widely acclaimed film scenarist) India

Bruce Portugal Amoroto (Diversity and Equality) Philippines

Sonia Jay Wright (Rede Mulher & Democracia) Brazil

Houzan Mahmoud (Kurdish women’s rights and peace activist and co-founder of the Iraqi Women’s Rights Coalition) Iraq

Martha Villanueva / www.gruposafo.org

Rina Nissim (Women’s Health Activist, Publisher) Switzerland

Stasa Zajovic (founder of Women in Black-Belgrade) Serbia

Ramachandra Guha (historian, and a regular columnist with The Telegraph of Calcutta.) India

Lino Veljak, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Asghar Ali Engineer (Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism) India

Sultana Kamal (Director of Ain O Salish Kendra and former advisor the Bangladesh Govt.) Bangladesh

Tanvir Mokammel (film maker) Bangladesh

Mazher Hussain (Director, Confederation of Voluntary Agencies –COVA) India

Jameela Nishat (Hyderabad-based feminist and poet) India

Gautam Navlakha (Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay and a senior member of People’s Union for Democratic rights)

Ruth Vanita (Feminist and Writer, former co-editor of the journal Manushi)

Kavita Srivastava (General Secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties) India

Deniz Kandiyoti (Reader at the Department of Development Studies and Chair of the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.) UK

Pierre Pradervand (writer and founder of vivre autrement) Switzerland

Mohammad Tahseen (Executive Director, South Asia Partnership-Pakistan) Pakistan

Sheema Kermani (Dancer, and Feminist. Founder of the group Tehrik e Niswan) Pakistan

Sheba Chhachhi (artist, photographer, feminist activist, and writer) India

Zoya Hasan (Professor of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University) India

Dr Abid Suleri (Executive Director Sustainable Development Policy Institute -SDPI Islamabad (Pakistan)

Sonia Jabbar (writer, journalist, photographer, filmmaker) India

NiraYuval-Davis (Director of the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London) UK

Babu Gogineni (International Director of the International Humanist and Ethical Union) India

Tarek Fatah (political activist, writer and broadcaster) Canada and Pakistan

Kumudini Samuel (Women and Media Collective) Sri Lanka

Sumit Sarkar, was Professor of History at the University of Delhi and founding member of the Subaltern Studies Collective (India)

Tanika Sarkar (Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University) India

Dilip Simeon (Labour Historian and founder of Aman Trust) India

Githa Hariharan (writer, and editor) India

Urvashi Butalia (Feminist Activist and founder of Zubaan Books) India

Deepa Dhanraj (Feminist and documentary Film Maker) India

Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters, UK

Farooq Tariq / Labour Party Pakistan

Jessica Almy-Pagán, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo

Pamela Philipose (Journalist and Director of Women’s Feature Service) India

Meghna Guhathakurta, Academic, Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Subhashini Ali, President, (All India Democratic Women’s Association – AIDWA), India

Javed Anand (General Secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy and Co-editor, Communalism Combat; Founding Trustee, Citizens for Justice and Peace , Mumbai) India

Karamat Ali (Co Director, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and founding Member of Pakistan Peace Coalition) Pakistan

Ruchir Joshi (writer and film maker) India

Prof. Kamal Chenoy (Chairperson, Centre for Comparative Politics & Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University) India

Dr John Dayal (former journalist and is Secretary General of All India Christian Council) India

Nick Cohen (journalist, author, and political commentator) UK

Kalpana Kannabiran (Asmita Collective) India

Tahir Mahmood (Jurist and Member, Law Commission of India) India

Peter Waterman (writer, scholar, initiator of a Global Labour Charter) Netherlands

Cherifa Kheddar (President “Djazairouna” association of familles of victimes of islamist, terrorism) Algeria

Harsh Kapoor (Founder South Asia Citizens Web) France and India

Organisations:

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), International

Baobab for Women’s Human Rights, Nigeria

Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), US

Fundacion Arcoiris por el respeto a la diversidad sexual, Mexico

I-NFORM, Sri Lanka

MADRE, US

Marea (Feminist journal), Italy

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), Afghanistan/Pakistan

Secularism is A Women’s Issue (SIAWI), International

Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, US

Women Against Fundamentalism, UK

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), International

and 1500 more signatories

http://www.awid.org/eng/Women-in-Action/Announcements2/Press-Release-World-Wide-Outcry-To-Make-Amnesty-International-See-Reason-and-Make-Amends