Rhila 29

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Amnesty International is an organization of people who are fighting injustices and promoting human rights all across the globe. Some of the issues the address are women's right, LGBT rights, prisoners and people at risk, torture, children's rights, censorship and free speech, death penalty, etc. When Amnesty International takes up campaigning for individuals at risk, it becomes known as an Amnesty International case. A case may be an individual person, a group of people or a community of people. Unfortunately, they aren't able to address all the cases they hear about, but they do take on the most "grave" cases.

One of the cases i read about on Amnesty's website was about how journalist Ebrima Manneh was arrested in July 2006 by officers believed to be from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and ever since his arrest, he's been missing. Supposedly he was arrested because he was speaking out against the government, which Amnesty believes is a violation of freedom of speech and expression. The Daily Observer, the newspaper he worked for, had a editing manager that was a very good ally with President Yahya Jammeh, so they had a dispute about the editorial Manneh wanted to publish. Amnesty writes, "While the exact reason for his arrest is unknown, it is clear that Ebrima Manneh is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression". He's said to be held in a police station, but the the government issued an official statement on February 21, 2007 denying any involvement in Manneh's arrest or any knowledge of his whereabouts. Many journalists found out about this occurance and it became an international issue. The ECOWAS court decided that Ebrima Manneh's right to liberty and to a fair trial had been violated by the Gambian government, and it ordered the Gambian authorities to release Manneh from unlawful detention without delay; restore his human rights, including his right to freedom of movement; and provide him with $100,000 as damages; however, the Gambian government still hasent released him . Since 2007, many journalists have left the country or have gone into hiding because it's very difficult to speak one's mind. The former president of the Gambian Press Association, Demba Jawo said, "Being a journalist in The Gambia is definitely not an easy thing — because of a lot of threats, a lot of anxiety as a journalist."

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