Anna neistat born
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Now, as Amnesty International’s senior director for research, she gives an in-depth interview about Australia’s treatment of refugees on the island of Nauru, Russia’s young protest movement and what the future holds for humanitarian work.
Coming of age in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet state, Anna Neistat was an aspiring lawyer passionate about Russian criminal reform and the jury trials.
I still very much focus on crises, but I stepped into a more managerial role, which was timely. She has authored numerous human rights reports and opinion pieces and regularly contributes to legal and human rights debates in academic and policy institutions. It requires the state’s commitment, but also the participation of the population.
Amnesty’s Anna Neistat: Life on the humanitarian frontline
With Human Rights Watch, Anna Neistat spent two decades investigating more than 60 of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones, eventually starring in an award-winning documentary about her work. When they are turning 180 degrees on their commitments, it creates a completely different level of challenge for the human rights movement.
What new challenges have emerged during the past decade?
Certain innovations present both challenges and opportunities.
In Russia, throughout history, power was based on fear. “Babel” journalist Oksana Kovalenko spoke with Neistat about what exactly the “Docket” program does, whether Ukrainian victims living abroad can apply to the fund and how Russian war criminals can be brought to justice.
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But as the Russian expression goes, history has no a conditional mood: whatever happened, happened.But these young guys, they just don’t have it! So you have to go back to the same question four different times and test the testimonial capacities of your witness. The whole security argument doesn’t stand any laugh test. Her work has been profiled in the media and in the award-winning documentary, E-team. I worked with a judge who was one of the authors of the law on jury trials – legal enlightenment, as we call it.
Our programme “business and human rights” dug into all the companies providing services on Nauru, since Australia subcontracts all the services there. Previously, she worked as Associate Director for Program and Emergencies at Human Rights Watch. I couldn’t even open my mouth. Trump brought it front and centre but he is not alone.
The EU-Turkey deal and the deal they’re trying to reach with Libya are similar: “Let’s pay somebody else to make sure refugees do not come to our shores.” “Let’s reach a political deal that would basically prevent people from even stepping foot on our soil so that we do not have to deal with them. These are the people for whom we work, so it’s reasonable to use their individual stories to ask for support, but it’s not necessarily an obvious thing for them.
Look at Australia and Nauru. What is it that makes them do it? When we released the report, we basically became the number-one enemy of the state: I had rarely come under that level of attack in the Western world.
Especially around the events in Ukraine, they’ve invested in Russia Today, Lifenews, Sputnik: it’s just a completely different level [of misinformation]. Now, we have additional pressure: also being a videographer or a photographer, and asking the interviewees whether we can use their case to raise money.