Ben Sok suggested we stay the night in the village school, a blue floating wooden primary, with a wooden railing where we could hang our hammocks and mosquito nets at nightfall. Evidently, the school was his pride. Very soon he came to tell us of the incident over a year earlier when government officials, accompanied by armed police, gendarmerie and military, came to take the school away. It was planned as the first step of evicting Peak Kantel.

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A week prior to the event, with the help of Lebanese AI members, we had almost everything prepared. Then, four days before the launch, the country was rocked by an explosion of violence.
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In my job at Amnesty International I think a lot about torture. I think about how governments are able to make people think that torture is acceptable — at least in some circumstances. And I think about the people I have met who have been tortured - and the disconnection between their experiences and what government officials try to argue.

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Our world today is deeply polarized. Comparisons are increasingly being made with the Cold War but in many ways it is more complex and dangerous now, because the opponents are not just governments but also armed groups with little or no stake in international relations.

Like the Cold War times, the political agenda is being driven by fear: fear of ‘rogue states’ with weapons of mass destruction; fear of being blown up by terrorist bombs; fear of being swamped by migrants; fear of ‘the other’ and of losing one’s national identity.

Read more: Report 2007: The State of the World’s Human Rights

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The Editorial and Publishing Programme has been working with researchers, campaigners and policy and legal advisers for at least six months, trying to ensure we represent the organization’s research and the concerns of the individuals we work with and for accurately and powerfully.
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There was real optimism in international relations in the early 1990s - the Berlin wall had fallen; democracy and freedom were on the march in many parts of the world; peace in Northern Ireland looked possible; talks at Camp David promised reconciliation in the Middle East.

“But just a decade and a half later, the world is again mired in conflicts and crises, reviving a cold war mentality of a polarised international community, proxy wars and human rights sacrificed in the name of security or political expediency. Agendas driven by fear dominate.

Read more: Ending the politics of fear

Our objective was extremely ambitious: out of 192 governments represented in the UN, we wanted to get 150 votes in favour of the move to start negotiations on an ATT. The stunt was called ‘Race for an ATT ‘ - to lobby 192 states in 192 minutes.

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Early in the morning, before UN business got underway, we erected a statue in a public open space opposite the UN building. It was in the shape of a Kalashnikov AK-47, made of prosthetic limbs.

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