Amnesty Fact Sheet (click here for a printer-friendly PDF version)
AI Works
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide, voluntary movement of people who campaign for human rights. Our vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. Our mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression and freedom from discrimination, within the context of our work to promote all human rights.
THE BEGINNING
In late 1960, British lawyer Peter Benenson read a newspaper story about two Portuguese students sentenced to seven years in jail. Their crime? Raising their glasses in a toast to freedom. Outraged, Benenson published an article called "The Forgotten Prisoners" in the London Observer on May 28, 1961. In his article Benenson asked readers to write letters demanding the release of the students and other "prisoners of conscience" around the world. The response was so overwhelming that by the end of the year-long "Appeal for Amnesty," groups of letter writers had formed in a dozen countries. Amnesty International was born. In 1977, Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize for having "contributed to securing ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in the world."
TODAY
More than 2.2 million Amnesty International members in more than 150 countries worldwide are leading the struggle to defend human rights and save lives. They create public pressure to stop abuses by organizing campaigns on specific issues and developing programs of action for specific countries. By writing letters, lobbying government officials, publicizing abuses and organizing events, AI members actively fight for human rights. Over 370,000 of AI’s worldwide members are in the United States, and many belong to one of AIUSA’s 1,700 local and student groups.
AIUSA members meet regularly in hundreds of communities across the country to write letters and organize actions to protect individuals at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and ill treatment, death threats and execution. Through our online Human Rights Action Center, tens of thousands of online activists receive e-mail alerts and sign electronic letters of protest when someone is at risk of a severe human rights violation. They also access online information on pending legislation and opportunities to focus their action where it can make a difference.
OUR WORK
Amnesty International campaigns on a diverse range of issues worldwide, including freeing individuals at risk; ending torture, unlawful detentions and other human rights abuses occurring within the context of the "war on terror"; stopping violence against women; abolishing the death penalty; and attaining justice for the people of Darfur.
Amnesty International regularly conducts intensive and far-reaching analyses of human rights around the world. Findings are released to the international community to publicize important issues, advocate for change, and hold human rights violators accountable for their crimes.
OUR RESULTS
Amnesty International campaigns get the job done. Since 1961, pressure from your letters, faxes and, recently, e-mails has helped free more than 40,000 political prisoners worldwide. Amnesty International campaigns get the job done. Our campaign against torture led the United Nations to adopt the Convention against Torture. Our pursuit of international justice spurred the arrests of former Chilean dictator Pinochet and the former Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic. We have successfully campaigned for the rights of rape victims in South Africa to receive treatment for HIV/AIDS.
YOUR PART
Every day, people turn to Amnesty International to protect their human rights. And for more than 40 years, AI has been there, opening prison doors, confronting those who torture, rape and kill, and speaking for those whose voices have been silenced. With almost 370,000 members, AIUSA is now the largest country section of Amnesty International, and our work here benefits people of conscience around the world. Join us in our defense of human rights for all. You can make a difference. Write a letter, sign a petition, become a member, make a donation or log on at www.amnestyusa.org.
