Title: Human rights problems organization
Dear Sir/Madam,
First of all, please read this e-mail till the end. You do not have to agree with anything mentioned in this e-mail or react on it. However, because I wrote this e-mail seriously, please appreciate my work and time, and finish reading it at least. Thank you very much!
Recently I have read a brochure from AMNESTY International. After it, I have looked at your website. I believe that all the information and examples are true and it is good that you have information about all the countries. But why do you only give one-side information? You are a human rights organization, but you do not give all the human rights information, but only information about human rights problems in all the countries.
Firstly, it may mislead people. For people who have no knowledge about human rights, after they read your information, they would think the human rights situation in those countries are much worse than in reality. Secondly, if all the human rights organizations only talk about problems, all the developing countries will not be motivated to improve anymore. There are all kinds of human rights problems in developing countries. If they improve some human rights and the improvements are not appreciated by any international organization, and the human rights organizations continue to give negative information about the other problems in those countries, those countries may not want to do anything anymore. They do not get any encouragement or compliment if they improve something, but only endless complaints. It is the same as breeding children. If the parents only complain all the time, in the end the child will not listen anymore.
Take China as an example. There are a lot of articles on your website about the problems in China and no single article about the human rights improvements there. Is there no improvement at all then? I believe that all the problems you showed are present. But human rights consist of the right to life, the right of freedom, equality, social rights, cultural rights, the right to food, the right to work, the right to education, etc. But you only showed the problems about the right of freedom, death penalty and forget the development of social rights, cultural rights, the right to food, the right to work, the right to education, etc. in China. It gives all the people a wrong idea about China. It is wrong and unfair.
In addition, I still have some questions to ask:
1. You can provide human rights information of course, but why do you link the human rights problems in China with the Olympic Games? There are human rights problems in every country. Will you also do it later during the European Championship in Switzerland and Austria in 2008, the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010 and the Olympic Games in London in 2012? Is it the right and fair way to solve problems? If you are not going to do it in other countries, why do you only do it with the Olympic Games in China?
2. Death Penalty is also used in the United States and there are also many human rights problems in Greece, but why haven’t you linked the human rights problems with the Olympic Games at that time?
3. People also have rights to enjoy successful Olympic Games. Do you want to interrupt this right from people?
4. On your website and your brochure it is written that “Liu Jingmin, Vice-President of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, said in 2001 that allowing Beijing to host the Games would ‘help the development of human rights’. Seven years on, China’s human rights record shows little sign of improvement, according to an Amnesty International report” (
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-a ... g-olympics-20080401; similar sentences are also in the Dutch Brochure “IS CHINA OP TIJD KLAAR VOOR DE SPELEN?” on page 1). But on your website and your brochure you mainly only mentioned the problems about the freedom of press and internet, death penalty and the defenders of the human rights in China. As you said, the Chinese government has promised that the human rights situation in China will improve. The Chinese government did not promise that they would improve death penalty issue and the freedom to defenders of human rights specifically. On the other hand, more and more Chinese students study in a university. Moreover, the Chinese government tries its best to reduce unemployment and inflation (so that people can afford more and more). Now the Chinese government is building subsidy-houses for poor and middle-income people so that they can buy a house against a lower price. At the same time, there is a food crisis now in many countries. With 20 percent of the world’s population, Chinese have enough food to eat. Of course the development of some human rights in China is insufficient or slower than other human rights. But no country can change everything in such short time. In general, China has improved in the last eight years. Therefore, you cannot say that “Seven years on, China’s human rights record shows little sign of improvement” or “The human rights situation in China is bad”. Besides, terms such as ‘bad’ may be perceived in different ways by different readers and therefore is not correct corresponding language.
5. There are so many different human rights, but have you ever thought that some of them are more important than others? The freedom of press, internet and the defenders of human rights are important, but aren’t the right to food, education, work and safety more important? Should not all the developing countries develop those rights first and faster? Do you want to see that all the Chinese have freedom of speech for instance, but are dying from hunger?
6. In the meantime, have you ever thought about the possible negative effects of improper human rights or too fast human rights development? It can cause civil wars or a may increase criminal behaviour. If it happens and millions of people die from it, who will take the responsibility? Can you? Improvement should be executed step-by-step and it is normal if some human rights are developed faster than other ones. The way of development is also different due to the different cultures in different countries. The cultural differences should be respected.
7. Why do you pay much less attention against for instance France in relation to the problems in Corsica? The students there do not have to learn Corsican at school and Corsican is going to distinct. But in Tibet all the students have to learn Tibetan for 12 years and Tibetan is used everywhere in Tibet. Corsican protestors are treated as illegal underground groups and the leaders are not allowed to visit other countries to promote the independence of Corsica. But in Western countries Tibetan protestors are protected and Dalai Lama is treated as a hero. He was invited to give speeches and even received many awards in many countries. There are also a lot of demonstrations from Corsican protestors, only you almost never hear anything about it. But Western media never misses any demonstration from Tibetan protestors. Do you understand it? Is that not pure discrimination?
8. Finally, people also have the right to know the truth. Please have a look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas or this website
www.anti-cnn.com (a online forum made by a Chinese graduate containing discoveries of Western media’s lies about China. From this website, you can find that many big media organizations such as CNN, BBC and RTL broadcast or publish untrue and biased information and photos about China. So there are serious problems with some Western media. Additionally, most Westerners believe everything from the media without any doubt, but often they are mislead by the untrue and biased information of media. Will you do something about the human right of knowing the truth and demand the media to provide true and complete information later?
Human rights are very important. I also support human rights development. The goal of your organization is good and all the members should also be thanked. But as a human rights organization you have to show people everything about human rights, both developments and problems. If you only give information about human right problems, then you should call your organization a “human right problems organization”, not a “human rights organization”. Additionally, I hope that you will think about my questions and I am looking forward to your answers.
Thank you for finishing reading my e-mail. It is most appreciated!
Kind regards,
Betty Lin
