Agnès Callamard, new Secretary General of Amnesty International
Audio 03:25
Agnès Callamard in June 2019. AFP / File
By: Vincent Souriau
8 mins
Her name is Agnès Callamard, she is a Frenchwoman and she is the new patron of the NGO Amnesty International, one of the most important world organizations for the defense of human rights.
She's not a diplomat and she doesn't want that label.
She claims to be an activist, a woman on the ground and has made herself known at the UN through her uncompromising investigations targeting both the strong and the weak.
Portrait.
Publicity
If we listen to those who have crossed paths with her, she is an electric battery, a little bit of a woman swollen with energy, full of humor and who speaks English perfectly with a terrible French accent.
Please welcome Agnès Callamard, 56, new Secretary General of Amnesty International, a house she knows well since she worked there between 1995 and 2001 until becoming the chief of staff of the then boss, the Senegalese Pierre Sané.
“
She will bring unparalleled expertise and an international network,
” he said.
Agnès is the synthesis of an NGO-United Nations-university nexus.
She comes from academia.
She worked for the United Nations and for Amnesty International.
It brings together the three experiences of key players in the global human rights system.
Once you have this experience, you can have a general reflection on the issue of human rights and the action that must be taken.
And I believe that, really, this is the best choice Amnesty could make.
"
An activist who spares no one
She is an activist who plowed the ground for the UN before being appointed in 2017 as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
And there, she spared no one: she tackled the United States for the illegal drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
She criticized France for the abandonment of the French jihadists arrested in Iraq and also mobilized against the impunity of crimes committed against journalists.
“
Unfortunately, during a video conference of our association, we lost our general secretary Pierre-Yves Schneider, who had a heart attack before our eyes,
” says Danièle Gonod, president of the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, our two colleagues murdered in Mali in 2013. “
It was something dramatic for us and she came to her funeral.
Much is said about her for her struggle, her energy, her determination, her courage, but all of this is underpinned by genuine empathy.
She doesn't deal with cases, she talks about people.
"
"Reduce fractures"
Her most resounding fight is undoubtedly the one she led in memory of Jamal Khashoggi, this Saudi journalist executed in atrocious conditions in Turkey in 2018. In the report she submits on behalf of the UN , Agnès Callamard does not hesitate to speak of a premeditated act by the Saudi state, which earned her harassment and death threats.
Today, his UN mandate ends, but the rest will not be easy either, underlines Pierre Sané.
“
Amnesty went through a difficult period because there were management problems, staff treatment problems which were a bit of a manifestation of a very deep unease.
And this discomfort still exists so I believe that is his first priority.
It is to reduce the fractures, to unite the movement and to redefine the fields of work: the fight against poverty, climate change ... That is to say fields which are not necessarily those of Amnesty.
But human rights are evolving and Amnesty must evolve to continue to be relevant and bring hope to victims,
”says Pierre Sané.
Agnès Callamard understood this well and has already taken ownership of this work.
Coming back to Amnesty International "
is not going back to basics,
" she said.
I have changed a lot and I think Amnesty has changed a lot too.
"
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