Civil liberty pressure groups

Aim of Amnesty International

• Ensure that all human beings enjoy the rights set out in the UN UDHR and associated declarations on HR

3 methods used

1. Public activism

2. Targeted lobbying

3. Research papers

‘Challenge’ events

• Organised to raise funds and awareness

Pocket Protest

• SMS action network

• Enables members to instantly support a petition on behalf of a political prisoner

2 features of Amnesty’s website

1. Information about ways in which HR are being abused throughout the world

2. Ways in which supporters can express their solidarity with threatened and persecuted groups and individuals

Amnesty and the gov’t — Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

• Encouraged member to lobby MPs

• Publicised her husband’s hunger strike outside the Foreign Office

• She was released in 2022, in part due to continued pressure from lobbyists

Amnesty’s research papers

• Widely circulated amongst MPs and ministers

• Cover issues like rights of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, minority groups in the UK and HR abuses in 🇲🇲 and 🇨🇳

Write for Rights campaign

• Used to release people from prison/restore their rights

3 beneficiaries of Write for Rights

1. Yecenia Armenta, confession extracted after torture, 2016

2. Fred Bauma and Yves Makwambala, jailed for pro-democracy work in DRC, 2016

3. Magai Matiop Ngong, sentenced at 15 y/o, 2020

Aim of Liberty

• Fight unjust attempts to undermine civil liberties in 🇬🇧

5 methods

1. Lobbying

2. Research papers

3. Providing evidence at select committees

4. Campaigns (demonstrations, online petitions)

5. Courts

Use of courts — 2020

• Supported Ed Bridges’ case against S.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 police for breaching Article 8 by storing biometric data about him secured by automatic facial recognition surveillance

2 important areas Liberty acts on

1. Limits to public protest

2. Increased police powers, e.g. stop and search, automatic facial recognition

Use of courts — 2025

• Liberty v Home Sex

• Successfully stopped gov’t’s attempt to define ‘serious disruption’ as ‘more than minor’ under Articles 10 and 11

  • This would have led to more restrictions on right to protest

Use of courts — 2017

• SC challenge to EA loophole that allowed employers not to provide equal spousal provisions for same sex couples

Failure — COVID

• Had lots of petitions and campaigns against lockdown but didn’t win

Failure — Brexit

• 2019 — Ct of Appeal denied application from Liberty that would have prevented a no-deal Brexit