Civil Societies Amnesty International, Essay Example

Amnesty International is a global organization that is an advocate for human rights. This human rights organization was founded by a British lawyer Peter Benenson after two political Portuguese students were wrongly imprisoned for 7 years(Half a century of amnesty international (2011). According to Amnesty USA (2015), 1961 was the beginning of the promotion and awareness of human rights that grown to 3 million followers and supporters in over 150 countries.  The Amnesty International was born from the public’s response to an article that Peter Beneson wrote in Observer newspaper. The public response was so massive that the article was reprinted all around the world. The call action was established by the public’s outcry about the lack of human rights demanding social change.

The grassroots Amnesty International organization brought the human rights issues to center stage while seeking release of any political prisoners that lost their freedom because they voiced their human rights. Amnesty International empowers people to rise up against oppression and degradation of people while seeing to abolish the death penalty.  The organization has the public’s trust because the will research and develop campaigns to bring to light otherwise unpunished inhumane treatment to a population of people. For many decades dictators of other countries have been able to torturer, maim and kill their own people that are fighting for freedom, however, Amnesty International is the public’s voice bringing those torturers to justice.   Amnesty International is the global civil police that that speaks for those that are imprisoned, tortured or silenced because they speak and stand for freedom of all people across the globe (Hendrix & Wong, 2014). The world has accepted Amnesty International global views and the global movement that has been responsible for holding oppressive countries to justice.

Positioning with the Public

Amnesty International is positioned as a leader of the world against inhumane treatment, political prisoners or the tortured of people anywhere in the world. The public has come to respect the Amnesty International advertising as the champion of all human rights issues such as lack of access to proper healthcare or the improper treatment of people because they have different ideas that the status quo. The public believes the Amnesty International because they do not have a profit base mission that puts human life and rights at the bottom of the list. The public relies on the newspaper, Internet and other media sources to be informed about the global human rights issues, however, Amnesty International has positioned and branded themselves as an unbiased world organizational that human rights agendas could not be bought by the wealthy. They have positioned the organization on the world front media as the voice of unhuman acts across the globe while establishing a brand that is different from other organizations but Amnesty International is a non-profit for the people by the people.

The global positioning of the Amnesty International built a fundamental model of creating a global identity lead by early leadership Irene Khan. Irene was given credit for expanding Amnesty International global social and cultural commentary to center stage. The “Khan Strategy” position the organization to change with Amnesty strategy such as forcing agreements with countries to make humanitarian changes without harsh penalties (Stone, 2011). The global positioning has come with some barriers associated with changing leadership, however, the positioning of the Amnesty International remained intact because the goals and missions of human rights remained the priority. Amnesty International has positioned themselves as a non-governmental organization with name recognition that set new human treatment standards across the world.

Positioning Strengths

The positioning in the public is the primary goal for Amnesty International regardless of the leadership. The original goal of positioning the non-profit organization with the public to build a powerful network that could make change across the globe.  The early groups in the United States Human Rights Laws and movements talked about making change across the world but they needed to make change in the United States before they could provide a platform for human rights. The Equal Rights Movements were moved to the national media when Amnesty International positioned themselves with creating human rights groups in every state, city and country on one accord and power.

The United Nations has a strong position with the world human rights group as one the leaders that bring about change and human right issues. However, the Amnesty International positioned as the leader in exposing and promoting human rights without any political agenda. This is an effective strategy because the countries powerful regimes cannot put pressure on the Amnesty International groups because they represent thousands of people and they are driven by social issues and not by greed/profit.  There is another strength of the positioning of Amnesty International is the promotional activities that reach the media and public in such a fashion that can make a difference on the 6:00 o clock news with exposing the inhumane countries. The right positioning for Amnesty International across different countries allow them to integrate and assimilate campaigns that forces countries to stop in humane practices and change their registration to protect the population in the future.  The plan has worked since 1961 humble beginnings of awareness programs to make change.

Brand

The Amnesty International brand has been successful because they have made name synonymous with human rights. The branding of the organization began in 1961 with the global advertising and campaigns. The campaigns have been rich in content and meaning reaching the hearts, minds and souls of people globally. The stages of branding started at the local levels moving to the national levels and far reaching to the international media. In 1961, Amnesty International develop a community that would have a model that would work all over the world. The primary members were volunteer members that had not reason to change the status quo because the monetary reasons for growth was not a goal.  The brand in 1961 British lawyer Peter Benenson started by pursue three different goals as the triple threat which is diversity, leadership and intentional members.  The brand took on a life of its own because all other organizations could not make an impact in other regions because they had no power over the regimes. However, Amnesty International lead the way in bring the media, small groups, promotions, campaigns and civil connections with the people.

The brand for Amnesty International can be compared to the campaign branding of the baking soda industry. In today society, if you ask what the name of baking soda Company is, it’s only one called Arm & Hammer. They have managed to do the same thing with the branding of Amnesty International that is known as the leader of human rights and promotions concerning humane treatment of all people who are fighting for freedom. The branding continues with renewed campaigns for human rights with the smaller groups being more involved with the branding in each country, city and country.

The promotion and awareness campaigns have started movements in each country that has reach national attention with just the exposing of the humanity crimes. The Amnesty International branding has reached the powerful countries that previous did not believe the Amnesty campaigns could make a difference. In addition, Amnesty International has done their homework by understanding which countries hand exports or imports to lose or relationships with global markets that could pull out their support. The brand is known worldwide therefore, the initial contact or campaigns by Amnesty International has made countries take immediate actions to improve their human rights laws to avoid the onslaught of negative campaigns by Amnesty International.

Their corporate image became known around the world, while Amnesty International purposely promoted the brand as the leader of human rights. They develop the ability to use their image to make changes without having to physically be present in that country. The mission statement and campaign about the imprisoned people that were fighting for freedom sometimes found a way for countries to immediate negotiate better treatment.  The Amnesty International activities have been known to change the treatment of oppressed people with just the announcement of Amnesty International planned activities to stop the poor treatment.  Amnesty International is not selling marketing or advertising they are selling everything associated with the company such as image, advocacy, human rights, making changes and their ability to engaged with the problem countries.  The branding message that is continue to be sent today to countries globally that in humane treatment will not be in allowed in the 20^th center and Amnesty International is still leading the way with their branding of change.

Amnesty International has use several methods for branding with the world to make change in the human rights arena. The first branding method is engagement with the public and the country that is mistreating human beings. It’s defining the mission in the eyes of the public while defining and delivering the human rights to all nations. They have incorporated the new technology that allows them to spread the human rights agendas around the country. They have expanded their web presence along with far reaching promotes and awareness which makes it easier to make change in other countries. The Amnesty International has a history of using the best platforms to deliver the promotions and messages in any area. They have fully provide a technology platform in the age of social networking to reach a larger mass of members which is growing exponentially daily.  The have develop the brand that means” Socially Responsible” which gives them credibility with the brand. They have customize their campaigns to address the human rights infractions regardless of the location which their network of small groups assist in making the promotion and awareness campaigns effective.

There is no doubt that Amnesty International has one the most powerful brands that has evolved since the 1960s. The combination of hourly news media, technology and the people wanting the news faster and quicker has been an advantage for the Amnesty International campaigns. In the past, the Amnesty International promotion and awareness campaign could be delivered over several months to a year to drive home the message of human rights. However, they have the ability to develop a campaign that can be sent to millions in matter of minutes and reach the countries in many different new types of medias.  The times have change where all countries are being held accountable for human rights in the global public eyes.

Amnesty International Repositioning

Amnesty International reposition the organization to adapt a business model that allowed the members to function as a unit on a voluntary basis. The primary reasoning the repositioning of Amnesty International works because they are most driven by non-paid members with only a very few paid members. In the countries that have the strongest positions and presence they organize sections.  The sections are responsible for positioning the members that coordinate the daily activities and missions which developed into smaller and larger groups with professional’s expertise being welcomed. The Amnesty business model does have a board of directors that coordinate activities of smaller membership groups in different countries all with the same goals and mission. However, in countries that do not have a solid structure the members can become “International Members” which positions the Amnesty International to reach millions of different public audiences across the world.

Amnesty International has position themselves in two ways in the public. They allow the public to set-up small groups that address human rights issue locally and globally. In addition, the “International Networks” allow smaller groups to be a part of larger groups globally. They have the same goals to ensure that all people in the world have freedom regardless of race, color or creed.

Awareness Human Rights

Amnesty International believes that it is an inherent right of human beings to be treated with respect and dignity. The alienable rights of human beings is freedom and free from harm to purse those individual freedoms regardless of your sex, ethnic origin, religion, or language. The oppressed around the world all want human rights without punishment or discrimination. Amnesty International has built a relationship with the public in all corners of the world because the demand the rights of all people should be universal rights. The universal human rights should be legislated by law and guaranteed in forms of national humanitarian agreements, treaties and customary international laws. The International human rights connections of between human rights groups, the public and the oppressed are led by developing human rights law and collaboration of governments to adhere human rights. Amnesty International believes that all humans rights are indivisible regardless whether poor, disadvantage or political and should have the right to live with equality and freedom of expression.

In the early years before Amnesty International the human rights were fought across the world without the combined powers of other countries. The oppressors were able to treat people inhumane without any economical or public backlash.  The original reason for the implementation of the Amnesty International organization was because the founder was defending the rights of wrongly imprisoned Portuguese students. The fight for human rights was brought to the national media while bring awareness and support from every corner of the world. This format allowed small groups in any country to join the International amnesty movement while living in France, England or Africa. They bridge the gap between countries developing dialogues for the first time in history for human rights.

The human rights movements normally had some kind of social issue or problem that brought all the advocates together for one cause. However, this phenomenon happen on the local or nationally levels. The Amnesty International provide a platform that address social issues making it relevant regardless of the location or the power of that country.  The individuals that fought against inhumane treatment many times encounter the barriers of not living in the country or having any contacts that could make a difference. The goal of Amnesty International found a way to start the movement by making large campaigns for “awareness”. This was brilliant plan to make the audience look at the picture long enough they begin to care. In addition, the main offenders are now on the world stage with the awareness movements which sometimes made the changes without any punishment or sanctions. The awareness programs and campaigns change the way countries responded to human rights acts.  The mission of the cause of human rights and the brand continues to promote human rights in every country in the world.

References

Amnesty International Report 2014/15. (2015). The state of the world’s human rights. United Kingdom: London: Peter Bensen House Half a century of amnesty international. (2011). The Lancet, 377(9780), 1808. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/869136415?accountid=34899

Hendrix, C. S., & Wong, W. H. (2014). Knowing your audience: How the structure of international relations and organizational choices affect amnesty international’s advocacy. The Review of International Organizations, 9(1), 29-58. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11558-013-9175-z

Stone, C. (2011).Amnesty International branding an organization that also a movement. The Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organizations. Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/hauser/role-of-brand/documents/amnesty.pdf