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Siraj Datoo is Editor-in-Chief of The Student Journals and in his final year of university, reading French with International Studies at the University of Warwick.

Follow @sirajdatoo

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Director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, alongside the AI logo. Photographs: Amnesty International UK. Edited by TSJ

“Wanting a voice, wanting a say, wanting to make a difference is something that is very much part of the life of many, many students. If you take that onto a human rights and international stage, you can see where, when you join with others, you really can make a difference.” - Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK.

Kate Allen is an extraordinary woman who finds herself at the heart of the battle to protect human rights. A graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Ms. Allen has been Director of Amnesty International since 2001. Before that she had experience with Camden Council, where she set up the Women’s Committee, the Refugee Council, where as Deputy Chief Executive she headed the UK emergency evacuation programmes from Bosnia and Kosovo, and at the Home Office, where she worked on the 1999 Asylum and Immigration Act.

During her time as Director of Amnesty UK, membership has grown to more than a quarter of a million domestic members. Pivotal campaigns include ‘Demand Dignity’, launched in 2009 to focus on human rights abuses related to poverty, as well as extensive efforts to abolish the death penalty, end torture, release of all prisoners of conscience, to control the arms trade and to stop violence against women. She has travelled to countries including Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda and Mexico as part of her role at Amnesty.

You can also listen to the interview via podcast. {enclose InterviewWithKateAllen_TheStudentJournals.mp3}

Siraj Datoo: In light of the fact that filming is almost complete on a film portraying the life of Aung San Suu Kyi, I think it would be pertinent to first talk about her freedom and the situation in Burma. Last month, when Aung Sang Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, there was much joy within the Amnesty headquarters .Yet, at the same time, there was also some skepticism regarding the situation and whether her freedom would be permanent. Is the Amnesty team still concerned about her future?

Kate Allen: The situation in Burma is quite tense. I was fortunate enough two weeks ago to be part of a phone call with her and many Burmese exiles – former political prisoners and journalists.

I think it is clear that Aung San Suu Kyi’s release has given great heart and hope to many people who want to see freedom and justice in Burma. But we need to remember that there are - and it was Aung San Suu Kyi’s first words on her release from house arrest - still 2,200 other political prisoners still being held. They are mostly in prisons, far from their families, denied of desperately needed medical care and having horrific sentences of 65 years hanging over them, and having done nothing more than speaking their view and taken part in demonstrations in Rangoon and other regions. So we still need to see the release of more political prisoners.

The concern we have is that the generals have a shocking and violent record - it is a dangerous time in Burma at the moment. People are gathering and they’re talking politics: in these situations in the past, the generals have had no compunction in inflicting violence. So we remain alert and we will campaign at Amnesty until we see all those prisoners released in Burma.

SD: You also have a radio campaign in Burma at the moment?

KA: We are aware that freedom of expression is absolutely clamped down upon: it is impossible to gain access to impartial and true news. Even with sporting occasions, the results are not known: they are even fabricated. So one of the things we are aware of is that there are many areas of Burma where people have no access to independent sources of news and they don’t have radios. We thought that if we could get radios into Burma it would help people understand what is happening. It is legal to have radios – you don’t need licences – so you can access BBC World Service or independent radio stations, broadcasted by exiled Burmese journalists – and find out what is really happening in the country.

With our partners we have got several thousand radios into the region: it has proved a very successful campaign. I was able to let Aung San Suu Kyi know what we were doing during my conversation with her and she was very encouraging of the idea, which was great.

SD: There are a number of countries breaking human rights laws around the world, to which Amnesty respond by mobilising many campaigns. Is there any one which you would stress as the most important, particularly in the short term?

KA: We campaign on many countries – but we also campaign on what we would call themes which tackle injustice. One of the campaigns which we have run for several years is one for an international arms treaty.

An arms treaty would regulate the flow of arms around the world, providing a level playing field. It would not allow the trade alarms to countries to be used for internal repression or external aggression, and it would put human rights into decisions about where arms are traded. It is not that we’re against the arms trade, but we are against the way arms can be used. Millions of people die because of the abuse of arms.

We now, after several years of campaigning, have the General Assembly of the UN voting on it – there should be an international treaty by 2012, which represents a major triumph for Amnesty International and its partners. It’s something we’ve been actively campaigning on day-in, day-out; year-in, year-out. We are now involved in detailed discussions about the wording of that treaty.

We are in New York having those detailed discussions – we may need to mobilise our supporters to make sure we get the best wording and best treaty, one which the world absolutely needs. It will be something that saves lives. It’s brilliant to see the way that Amnesty campaigns and has an impact.

SD: In the longer term, what do you feel is the biggest challenge Amnesty will face in the next decade?

KA: The biggest challenge is to get governments to understand how important human rights are.

Amnesty will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. Amnesty has developed and changed over those 50 years. We have now moved into tackling some of the main abuses of human rights, from levels of poverty around the world, embracing issues such as slum clearances, maternal mortality and the role of corporate organisations.

For example, in terms of maternal mortality, there are parts of the world where women die needlessly because they don’t get the support they need during pregnancy and childbirth, which is absolutely devastating. We’ve been campaigning on that in Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and many other parts of the world.

On house demolitions, we’ve been campaigning in Kenya, where people live in slums and where bulldozers turn up to destroy those slums and police turn up to support the people in the bulldozers and the people who are wanting to profit from redeveloping land.It has been AI’s role to stand with those people who live in the slums; to help them in terms of the rights they have: the right to be consulted, compensated and be involved - and not to be victimised by property developers.

One of the communities we have been working with is the Deep Sea Community in Nairobi. These are poor places that warrant being called slums; but they are people’s houses, and they are people’s properties, and they are people’s way of making sure they are not living on the streets. We have had positive feedback from colleagues in Kenya that clearances have been deterred; government officials are now understanding that they are breaking international law when they affront the Kenyan populous.

People will not get out of poverty if they are constantly attacked, thrown back into absolute desperation. It is important that people are constantly protect the roof over their heads, that same right many of us have. Amnesty are assisting with that.

SD: There are a number of people interested in protecting human rights, but they are unsure of how effective human rights organisations are. You have already mentioned the arms trade treaty but can you cite any other examples of where organisations like AI have really made a difference on the decision-making process of governments and international organisations?

KA: It is the case that Amnesty International has been very successful. That can be with individuals who have been in prisons, tortured or have been at the risk of being sentenced to death. If you take some of our broader campaigns, such as the abolition of the death penalty, where in 1977 when began our campaign, there were 18 countries who were abolitionist. In 2010, there are 138 countries who do not use the death penalty. You just need to think about those figures to realise that behind that there are many people who have not been executed: it is something we will continue to campaign against until we’ve see it removed from all countries in the world. We know we have our work cut out, not only with China but with the US, but even there are we are starting to see some slow progress.

There are many ways we have been successful. There is a UN convention against the use of torture, which we started in Amnesty, for which we were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There is the International Criminal Court which brings people to justice; people who have been involved in horrendous crimes against humanity. Again, Amnesty and our many partners were responsible for the establishment of that court.

These are some of our wins on a global scale. Here in the UK, in the last couple of years, Amnesty’s campaigned for the UK government to sign up to the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. Ministers told me that they would not have signed up to it without the campaigning of Amnesty members. We have also secured resources for bringing those who live in uncertain immigration statuses who been trying to flee from abusive and violent relationships.

There are many, many occasions when we at Amnesty International make a difference. The reason we do that is that we are a movement of ordinary peoples. Here, in the UK, there are over a quarter of a million of us; across the globe, over 3 million of us. These are people who want to make a difference; people who know that by joining Amnesty and by taking action with Amnesty in coordinated way, we can – and we do – make a difference.

SD: You mention the hundreds of thousands of Amnesty members, of which a great number are students. How important are students to the campaigns AI run?

KA: Students are an absolutely vital part to our campaigns, both here and globally, at all levels. Students are actively involved, both in campaigning and through our decision-making structure. We are present in most universities in the UK and we have a presence in many schools across the country. We have changed our constitution so that members have a vote in Amnesty from the age of 14. It is an absolutely essential part of Amnesty that young people get involved.

People can get involved through university, by going online and looking at the website to find out about what we do, or you can join us and find your local (student) group. It is wonderful to have students involved in campaigning.

SD: Finally, you’ve now been Director of Amnesty for quite some time [since 2001].  Were you involved in student politics at university – did that have an impact on what you do today?

KA: I was involved a bit at university – and this was quite a while ago – and this was when students didn’t have a voice at the governing body. I’m afraid to say we failed to do that in my day, but I’m glad universities are now more enlightened.

Wanting a voice, wanting a say, wanting to make a difference is something that is very much part of the life of many, many students – if you take that onto a human rights and international stage, you can see where, when you join with others, you really can make a difference.

Visit the Amnesty International UK website - http://www.amnesty.org.uk