Islamophobia at Amnesty

Rahman Lowe Solicitors act for Aisha Jung in a claim against Amnesty International for whistleblowing, religious and disability discrimination. The case is due to be heard at London Central Employment Tribunal for 10 days from 27 March 2023. It appears to be the first case of its kind concerning Amnesty’s decision-making process in designating someone with neo-Nazi views as a Prisoner of Conscience.

Background

Ms Jung started work with Amnesty in 2005 as Senior Campaigner in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Programme and continued working in this role until her brutal dismissal on 9 May 2022. The focus of her work was on Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. She was the most senior employee in the Belarus team. She worked tirelessly to abolish the death penalty, protect migrants and campaigned to protect those that were arbitrarily detained.h

In January 2021, Amnesty designated Mr Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader with the status of Prisoner of Conscience (PoC). Mr Navalny was sentenced to a little over 3.5 years in prison by a Russian Court

Whilst Mr Navalny is known outside Russia as an anti-corruption campaigner, he rose to political prominence in Russia as a self-declared nationalist who spent many years sharing platforms with ultranationalists and neo-Nazis. In a 2007 video, which he made to launch his nationalist movement, NAROD, Mr Navalny presents himself as a “certified nationalist” who wants to exterminate “aggressive flies and giant cockroaches” while bearded Muslim men appear in cutaways. In the video, he is seen whipping out a gun and shooting an actor wearing clothing that identifies the person as a Muslim. Shortly before releasing the video, Mr Navalny was kicked out of Yabloko, Russia’s oldest liberal democratic party, for his “nationalist views” and participation in the Russian March, an annual rally of thousands of far-right nationalists, neo-Nazis, monarchists and white supremacists, with whom he shared platforms.

On 24 February 2021, Mr Navalny appeared to have been stripped of the PoC status because of concerns relating to past comments, which were akin to hate speech.

On 7 May 2021 Amnesty re-instated Mr Navalny’s PoC status. Amnesty claims that it reviewed the process of designating someone with PoC status and confirmed that: “We recognise that an individual’s opinions and behaviour may evolve over time”. However, Ms Jung claims that there is no credible evidence to suggest that Mr Navalny publicly denounced his previous statements concerning Muslims, nor any evidence to suggest that his views have evolved over time.

Shortly after, Ms Jung blew the whistle and complained that as a Muslim, she found the organisation’s decision to be insulting, offensive, and discriminatory towards her and other Muslims, both within and outside the workforce, and that it breached equality laws. Her grievance included other examples of discrimination she faced in the organisation.

Amnesty refused to investigate her full grievance, nor disclose copies of any documents relating to any alleged investigation.

Amnesty’s conduct caused considerable stress, anxiety and injury. Ms Jung was also signed off by her GP as unfit for work, and during her sickness absence, Amnesty terminated her employment with immediate effect on 9 May 2022 and alleged that there was a breakdown in trust and confidence. The termination was brutal and inconsistent with the conduct of an organisation that claims to be a leader in the field of human rights.

Claim

Ms Jung has brought a claim against Amnesty in the Employment Tribunal for whistleblowing detriment and automatic unfair dismissal, religious discrimination (harassment, direct discrimination, and victimisation), disability discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Over the last few years, Amnesty has struggled to deal with allegations about racism and discrimination within the workplace.

In 2017, following BAME employee concerns about equality issues, including complaints about negative and/or ignorant comments made by staff about Muslim employees and fasting during Ramadan, recommendations were made to progress the work on race equality.

In October 2020 an independent consultancy, Howlett Brown published a report which found that  “Amnesty International has a culture of white privilege”, with incidents of overt racism including senior staff using the N-word and P-word. On 16 June 2022 an independent review by Global HBO found that Amnesty International UK is ‘colonialist and institutionally racist’. They found that racial discrimination, bullying and white saviourism is endemic within the charity.

The case is therefore of considerable public interest as Ms Jung is holding Amnesty to account over the inconsistent application of its policies, procedures, and the discriminatory treatment of its BAME and Muslim workforce. The right to speak up about equality issues and not be victimised is also at the heart of this case. It is understood that this is the first case of its kind at Amnesty where a person has been designated as a PoC whilst propagating hatred and violence, which is highly controversial and one that appears to be at odds with Amnesty’s mission to condemn racism, and human rights abuses. Nelson Mandela, a black civil rights activist was famously denied the status because of the organisation’s strict policy but Navalny, a white nationalist,  was granted the status. It is also noted that Bobby Wine of Uganda who is also black, was denied the PoC status.

It is only with your support that Ms Jung can continue to hold Amnesty to account and seek justice for those that raise matters of public interest within the workplace. This case is about justice and Ms Jung’s campaign for a review into issues of structural racism which exists within Amnesty. She is fundraising for fees using the Crowd Justice platform. If you would like to make a donation to help her campaign, please do so here.