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Photo: Tomas Oneborg / SvD / TT
Amnesty Secretary General Anna Lindenfors is now resigning.
Managers said the N word and racist people felt frozen.
Amnesty General Secretary Anna Lindenfors is now resigning, in part due to accusations of racism in the organization.
– We need new leadership for change, says Amnesty President Parul Sharma.
When the lives of blacks matter during the summer dominated the discussion pages and the flow on social media, Amnesty Sweden posted a picture on Instagram in solidarity with the movement. It caused several former employees to react.
According to testimonies, the organization itself had significant problems of racism. According to them, top managers said “n-word” in meetings with no problem. Blacks felt frozen and ignored. And the fact that one of the world’s largest organizations for human rights and equality work had only leadership targets irritated many. The accusations of racism in Amnesty Sweden woke up like a snowball and told all about their experiences of racism in the organization.
– I heard about racism in Amnesty in connection with its appearance on social media this summer, says Parul Sharma.
She is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Amnesty Sweden, but did not take office until October. He says Amnesty takes the allegations very seriously.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT
We need new leadership for change, says Amnesty President Parul Sharma.
The Secretary General now resigns
According to Parul Sharma, the board has now agreed with Anna Lindenfors that she can no longer remain as general secretary. The message arrived on Monday, December 7. Lindenfors had to continue the day.
“The Swedish Amnesty Board and Anna Lindenfors have different views on the future and the challenges facing the organization,” Amnesty wrote in a press release regarding the resignation.
What were the challenges behind your departure?
– The first part is what we are debating: work for equality. We need new leadership for change that can take Amnesty into a new phase where we can focus on building equality within the Amnesty organization, says Parul Sharma.
The second challenge was financial.
Photo: Hasse Holmberg / TT
Amnesty International logo.
So is it the accusations of racism that are partly behind this?
– We call it equality work. Equality includes strong work against racism, says Parul Sharma.
Before Parul Sharma became chairperson of the Amnesty Sweden board of directors, she wrote texts criticizing Amnesty’s handling of allegations and the whiteness standard in the charity industry in general.
“I am concerned about white corridors, white investigations, white delegations and white prospects. I don’t want to be an alibi for stupidity.” he wrote in a column in the Global bar in July this year. Is it your board entry that has led to the long-awaited change work?
– I can’t answer that, but personally I think it is important to react to leadership problems when an organization has challenges like the ones we have. As an individual, I am very sensitive to racism, says Parul Sharma.
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