Amnesty International

On the 28th May 1961, British lawyer Peter Benenson had an appeal published in newspapers throughout the world. Having read of the seven year prison sentences bestowed upon two Portuguese students after they'd raised their glasses in a toast to freedom, Peter Benenson wrote his appeal titled ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’.
Mr Benenson hoped that his appeal would inspire others around the world to speak out against travesties and abuses of human rights. He envisioned an international movement of people, all motivated by a satan's CV of injustices that plague people of all minorities and majorities, all over the world. From the uber-liberal awakening of the sixties and the privileged awareness of the early 2000s, not much has changed. Same leaders, different names, same victims, same crimes.
The appeal was effective, Mr Benenson's call was answered by many. Within a year a new organisation had spawned national branches in seven different countries, sent delegations to four courts to represent prisoners and taken on 210 ongoing cases of human rights breaches. Amnesty International was born and has since grown into one of the largest, most effective and well respected non-government organisations around.
Today, Amnesty International (AI) has over one million members and donors from around the world; is active in 140 countries with nationally organised sections in 55 countries. AI is a non-profit, non-government organisation (NGO), utilising the money it receives from donors to sustain the ongoing actions and research it's involved in. AI's mission is essentially to mobilise public opinion to place pressure upon governments, corporations and organisations to end known human rights abuses and help with the future prevention of human rights abuses.
AI has recently found, from one of its public surveys, that the image of the organisation has left many people believing it to be a distant and somewhat untouchable entity. AI relies upon the general public for not merely financial support, but the core of its activist movement. From people putting pressure on their local MP to voice their concerns in parliament, to people lobbying foreign governments, ruling royal families or dictators directly, using the power of the written word in the form of a letter. Hopefully one person's letter will be joined on its journey by thousands of letters from all over the world, inundating their recipient.
Amnesty International's current action campaigns include working for tougher international arms control, the release of prisoners of conscience, preventing torture, abolition of the death sentence wherever it still exists and an end to violence against women. If you're interested in what Amnesty Internatonal does or want to know how easy it is to help them, just visit www. amnesty.org.uk. Human rights are afforded to everyone, without exception, yet unfortunately not one country today appears to be free of criticism. Many corporations make too much money from breaching too many people's human rights.

Neil Johnson

© Substance Magazine 2004