Amnesty International

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Amnesty?

Amnesty International is a large group of people, who all agree that some of the wrongdoing and injustice in the world can be changed by united action. Amnesty has got more than a million supporters around the world, which makes it the largest volunteer based organization in the world, to work with human rights.

Amnesty has three main objectives: Immediate release of all prisoners of conscience, just and swift trial for all political prisoners and a total stop to torture and death punishment. Amnesty attempts to achieve these objectives by putting pressure on governments and authorities, who are behaving unjustly. In order to give a better insight in Amnesty International we will start by explaining some of the history and main ideology behind the organization.

Photographer: Elisabeth Borch

Lawyer struck by a bad conscience

The start of the organization that was later given the name Amnesty International, took place in 1960, when the British lawyer Peter Benenson read the daily newspaper on his way to work. The newspaper told the story of the imprisonment of two Portuguese students. The two students were sentenced to 7 years of prison for having proposed a toast to freedom in a restaurant.

This really upset Benenson, who had already witnessed several in- and outside of court. He had followed political trial in South Africa, Cyprus and Hungary. In order to stop those injustices, Benenson decided to start a campaign to help the people who had been imprisoned because of their gender, color or religious or political conviction.

From now on those prisoners, who Benenson referred to as "prisoners of conscience" should not remain forgotten.

This campaign really got things started. Benenson wrote the article "The forgotten prisoners" in several newspapers all around the world. Thereby the campaign "Appeal for amnesty" had been started.

Read more about:

How Amnesty International grew into the enormous organization it is today. About the organizational structure of Amnesty International. You can also read about the different campaigns of Amnesty International and their opinions on death punishment and torture.

Amnesty International | UN and its declaration of human rights | UNICEF | Related links |