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News by Maureen McNamee Amnesty worker to discuss human rights issues at fund-raiser The new secretary general for the Canadian section of Amnesty International (AI) will be the keynote speaker at a local fund-raiser on April 27. Former Calgarian Alex Neve, who took on the post in January 2000, has a long history with AI. As a refugee lawyer and researcher, he joined the Canadian Refugee Network in 1988 and was media spokesperson for several years. In 1997, he joined the International Secretariat in England as part of AI’s crisis response team. Neve has said that these are both horrifying and promising times for human rights activists. During a phone interview, he explains that the bad news comes in the form of atrocities in East Timor, Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and other countries, while the good news is that progress is being made. "Certainly the last decade has seen a trying number of... situations of extreme human rights abuses," he says. "That’s overwhelming, it’s disheartening." Neve adds that it’s been particularly disappointing because at the beginning of the ’90s, as the Cold War came to an end, people hoped it was the dawn of a new era in which governments would take a new approach to human rights. "That just didn’t prove to be true at all." However, as the decade came to a close, good news started to emerge. Neve explains that governments have started to hold people accountable for human rights violations, which has been made evident through international tribunals set up by the United Nations, as well as the arrest of Chile’s General Pinochet (despite subsequent developments). "We’re finally seeing governments start to take some concrete steps toward tackling one of the big issues around human rights: impunity," he adds. "A permanent international criminal court is now just over the horizon." Neve says such a court offers hope that violations will be addressed, but warns that we’re not there yet – the U.S. did agree to draft a statute, and so far only eight out of 60 governments have signed on. Canada has not signed yet, but he expects it will soon. "Canada really is trying to lead the charge on this," he adds. At the fund-raising dinner, taking place at the Regency Palace in Chinatown, Neve will discuss issues surrounding human rights as we move into the 21st century. Proceeds will go to action cases being worked on at the national and international levels, including the Refugee Network in Calgary, the "Arrest Now" Bosnia campaign, and campaigns against the death penalty, violations against women, and torture. Tickets are available at Good Earth Café (all locations), Ten Thousand Villages, U of C Ticket Centre, and the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society. For more information, check out the Web site at www.amnesty.ab.ca.

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