Purpose: To free all prisoners of conscience. These are people detained anywhere for their beliefs or because of their ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth or other status - who have not used or advocated violence; ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; abolish the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, and extrajudicial executions and "disappearances".

Date of Origin: May 28, 1961

Original Membership: 1,000 people

Current Membership: Around a million members and supporters in 162 countries and territories

Recent Participation: Amnesty International has recently been very involved with the conflict in Kosovo, including actively keepng current news up at their web site. They have records and a full database of documents pertaining to the Kosovo conflict. They are promoting the participation of others in helping the people. They present certain cases through photographs and encourage people to become active in stopping the many human rights violations that have occurred during these issues.