Resolution to ICM 2001 - Relief Review Underlag till styrelsemöte 1-2 januari 2001

Till: Styrelsen
Från: ICM-delegationen
Datum: 19 januari 2001



Resolution to ICM 2001

Relief review

The International Council

recalling Decision 15 of the 1993 ICM;

noting that the relief review that was decided by the 1993 International Council Meeting has still not been carried out and is not included in the Troia Action Plan;

taking into account that past major mandate amendments (e.g. NGE issues) and current policy discussions affecting Amnesty’s overall work (e.g. naming the names, non-state actors) have and will have implications for relief policies as well;

taking further into account the work on Human Rights Defenders and the need to clarify the relationship between relief and work on Human Rights Defenders;

DECIDES that a thorough review and revision be carried out of the Relief Policies and Procedures;

REQUESTS that this review be carried out in close cooperation with section relief officers and that the new guidelines be completed and distributed to sections in time for the 2003 ICM.

AI Sweden
AI Switzerland
AI Norway



Explanatory note:
Decision 51 of the 1991 ICM called for a thorough review and revision of AI´s relief policies and procedures. A review was accordingly carried out in 1992-93, leading to the recommendations made by the intersectional meeting in Gripsholm, Sweden, in 1993. The recommendations put forward by the meeting to the 1993 ICM were the following:

-generally humanitarian relief for general needs should continue to be limited to victims in the Prisoner of Conscience (POC) category;

-expand the preventive use and other aspects of AI relief for purposes which address certain specific forms of human rights violations whether or not the victims fall into the POC category, such as the provision of legal aid in order to prevent people becoming victims of torture, disappearance or extrajudicial execution (EJE), and medical relief to people injured in EJE attempts and to victims of prolonged "disappearance" who "reappear" and who require medical treatment as a result of ill-treatment;

-AI´s relief policy relating to victims of non-governmental entity (NGE) abuses should in principle mirror the policy towards victims of violations by governments, but in normal circumstances AI would expect governments to respond to the needs of victims of NGE abuses.

Decision 15 of ICM 1993 instructed the IEC to issue new guidelines on AI's relief policies and procedures in accordance with the recommendations of the Gripsholm meeting and take into account other recommendations of that meeting. Furthermore, the IEC was requested to consider possibilities for:

- establishing a non-relief budget line for developing AI work in providing financial assistance in instances which would have a strategic advantage in furthering AI's aims but which cannot properly be treated as part of AI's relief program (for example, provision of legal aid in death penalty test cases, as set out in 1991 ICM Decision 52);

- making some provision in AI's general budget for contributing towards those areas of relief which have a major preventive element.

New guidelines on policies and procedures for AI´s relief work were issued through the adoption of the revised Guidelines for AI relief work (FIN50/01/95)

Decision 29 of ICM 1997 decided that initiatives on behalf of Human Rights Defenders with a predominant preventive element be funded through AI´s relief budget and requested the IEC to:

a) Evaluate how the guidelines from 1995 have been implemented
b) Undertake a study on how other forms of assistance such as financial assistance with a less preventive element to Human Rights Defenders can be increased and financed outside the relief budget. Likewise the ICM requested the IEC to report on the implementation of this decision to the 1999 ICM.