Reply #14: Article about Bias at AI

[Colorado Blue]

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Amnesty-International

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Criticism and rebuttal

Criticism of Amnesty International may be classified into two major categories, accusations of selection bias and ideological bias. In addition, many governments, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo<2> (http://www.namibian.com.na/Netstories/2000/January/Africa/aggression.html),

China<3> (http://www.uscpf.org/news/2001/02/021601.htm),

the Taliban<4> (http://www.indiapolicy.org/lists/india_policy/2001/Feb/msg00069.html),

Vietnam<5> (http://www.thienlybuutoa.org/Misc/cream_of_the_diplomatic_crop.htm),

and Russia<6> (http://www.hrvc.net/news8-03/updates8-03.htm)

have attacked it for alleged bias, one-sided reporting, or failure to take security threats as a mitigating factor. Selection bias is the error of distorting a statistical analysis by pre- or post-selecting the samples. ... The Taliban (Pashtun and Persian: ØÇáÈÇä; students of Islam), also transliterated as Taleban, is an Islamist movement which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, despite having diplomatic recognition from only three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. ...

The majority of these criticisms to governments (or supporters of a government) pleading mitigation for admitted infringements of human rights, either because of special circumstances (such as security threats) or because other countries' records are worse.


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