HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION

Human Right Organisation: Amnesty International



Human Right Organisation: Amnesty International 

Introduction

Amnesty International is an international organisation with many memberships given for the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe. Amnesty International works on behalf of people imprisoned for reasons of conscience, men or women, that their beliefs, their ethnicity or religious affiliation or political worth their being deprived of their freedom (does their support and assistance being made, however, that subject they have never used the violence or invoked his appeal). Amnesty International also opposes without reservation to all forms of torture and the death penalty. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is dedicated to the defense of international human rights. The principle of Amnesty International is to promote, impartially and independently, and to assure respect for human rights preserved in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

History and Activism Summary

Founded on 28 May 1961 British lawyer Peter Benenson, the organisation now has more than two million supporters residing in 140 countries. Its symbol is a candle in barbed wire. Amnesty International is an independent non-governmental organisation, an international community of human rights defenders who identify with the principles of international solidarity.  British lawyer Peter Benenson founded the organisation in 1961, who initiated a campaign for Amnesty of Prisoners of Conscience. It presently has 28 lac donors, supporters and members, in more than 151 countries.   (Power 2001 25-30)

History

On 19 November 1960, the lawyer British Peter Benenson read an article about two students Portuguese sentenced to seven years in prison for a toast to freedom. He immediately thought international pressure that would mobilize the public opinion in favor of prisoners of conscience: Amnesty International was born.

The organisation was basically established in 1961 in London on the motivation of Peter Benenson (1921-2005). Peter Benenson was a lawyer with a long-standing interest in civil liberties. Amnesty International started as a short-term publicity campaign launched in a newspaper article and coordinated through Benison's office. Within two years Benenson and his colleague Eric Baker, a Quaker activist, had established a permanent but small and frugally run organisation whose central purpose was to coordinate local groups of ordinary citizens who would "adopt" individuals imprisoned in other countries for their non-violent beliefs. (Robertson 2003 79-96)

Amnesty International referred to the adopted prisoners as prisoners of conscience, a term coined by Baker. Prisoners were assigned to the earliest groups in politically balanced sets of three. One prisoner would be assigned from a Western country, one from the Soviet bloc, and one from a non-aligned country. Group members were not permitted to adopt prisoners in their own countries. Members worked to support a prisoner and the prisoner's family, educating themselves about the political system in the adopted prisoner's country, and working for the prisoner's release by writing letters to the relevant authorities. Although local groups may still adopt prisoners, not all do, and as of 2003 not all Amnesty International members belonged to a local group. Members may also participate in campaigns targeting particular kinds of human rights abuses or focusing on the human rights situation of one particular country.

A time line of the History of Amnesty International is as follows

1961 - On May 28, British lawyer Peter Benenson launched by ...