Amnesty International

Amnesty International is a global organization with an international, grass-roots membership devoted to the protection and promotion of human rights around the world. It was founded in 1961 in London on the inspiration of Peter Benenson (1921–2005), 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 Benenson's office. Within two years Benenson and his colleague Eric Baker, a Quaker activist, had established a permanent but small and frugally run organization whose central purpose was to coordinate local groups of ordinary citizens who would "adopt" individuals imprisoned in other countries for their nonviolent beliefs.

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 nonaligned 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.

Amnesty International is well known for its commitment to accurate, impartial reporting on human rights violations around the world. Its yearly Amnesty International Report assesses in brief the human rights performances of most countries in the world. Amnesty International's fact-finding activity started in the late 1960s, when the organization began to employ researchers to write special reports on human rights in various countries. Amnesty International uses research both to inform its own work and also to educate the public about human rights violations across the world. In the 1970s the organization began to combine its members' activism with the professional staff's activities to press the United Nations (UN) and regional intergovernmental human rights bodies to develop legal standards prohibiting torture, political killings, disappearances, and other human rights abuses. Amnesty International is widely credited with bringing torture to world attention through its global campaign for the abolition of the practice in 1973. That campaign also saw the beginning of Amnesty International's Urgent Action Network, a global quick-response system based in Colorado and linked to Amnesty International headquarters in London. In an extension of the letter-writing technique for prisoner adoption, the Urgent Action office asks members to act quickly and send letters, e-mails, telegrams, or faxes to authorities on behalf of threatened individuals around the world.

From its inception Amnesty International has based its demands on select parts of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights: those articles concerned with freedom of speech, freedom of religion and of thought, humane treatment of prisoners, and the right to a fair trial. This set of principles was incorporated in Amnesty International's mandate, which served as a benchmark for all its work. Periodically, the mandate has been expanded or altered to address new human rights issues. In 2001 Amnesty International broadened its mandate considerably to encompass a full array of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the body of international law governing armed conflict.

structure, funding, and governance

As of 2002, the global headquarters in London, known as the International Secretariat, housed approximately four hundred paid staff members and over one hundred volunteers. Research activities and campaigning strategies are directed from London, as are the organization's contacts with various parts of the UN and other intergovernmental organizations. For the most part, however, few Amnesty International members have direct contact with the International Secretariat. Instead, they are served by national Amnesty International offices that maintain contact with London. The national offices, especially the larger ones, have a good deal of independence and are expected to recruit members and funds to both further their own work and support the work of the International Secretariat.

In order to preserve its independence and impartiality, Amnesty International does not accept any funding from governments, other than small amounts for prisoner relief and human rights education. Members' donations and other fund-raising activities support the bulk of its day-to-day operations.

Amnesty International relies heavily on participation and governance by its members. A board of directors elected by the membership sets priorities for the national section of Amnesty International in the United States, for example, and the direction of the organization is further shaped by members at annual meetings. Similarly, international policies are established by an elected International Council and International Executive Committee. The International Executive Committee appoints a secretary-general, Amnesty International's director.

sources of challenge and change

Because they monitor the changing activities of governments and other potential abusers of human rights, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations must also change. Not surprisingly, an added source of debate and innovation for Amnesty International has been the creative tension between the demands of its grassroots membership and its organizational policy. Amnesty International's original, narrowly focused mandate coupled with its members' strong commitment to human rights was a source of strength for it as a young organization. The mandate's expansion to encompass economic and social rights reflects two aspects of Amnesty International's growth.

First, its members, including many in developing countries, have become sensitive to poverty and international economic injustices as major sources of human rights problems. They want Amnesty International to address such issues. Second, Amnesty International has become a nearly global household word as a result of its human rights advocacy. Just as human rights problems may evolve over time, Amnesty International's high profile leads to expectations that it will explore in depth the causes underlying human rights problems and implement active strategies for their resolution, in addition to the more reactive approaches reflected in its time-tested prisoner adoption and campaigning techniques.

See also: American Civil Liberties Union; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

bibliography

Amnesty International. Facts and Figures: The Work of Amnesty International New York: Amnesty International, 2002. <http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGORG100032002>.

Amnesty International. "Globalise This: Human Rights." OECD Observer, no. 231/232 (May 2002):38–39.

Amnesty International. Statute of Amnesty International, as Amended by the 26th Meeting of the International Council, Morelos, Mexico, August 16–23 2003. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/about/statute.html>.

Amnesty International. Amnesty International Report 2004. New York: Amnesty International Publications, 2004.

Baehr, Peter R. "Amnesty International and Its Self-Imposed Limited Mandate." Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 12, no. 1 (1994):5–21.

Buchanan, Tom. " 'The Truth Will Set You Free:' The Making of Amnesty International." Journal of Contemporary History 37, no. 4 (2002):575–597.

Clark, Ann Marie. Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights Norms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Kaufman, Edy. "Prisoners of Conscience: The Shaping of a New Human Rights Concept." Human Rights Quarterly 13 (1991):339–367.

Power, Jonathan. Like Water on Stone: The Story of Amnesty International. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001.

Robertson, Fiona. "NGOs and the Advancement of Economic and Social Rights: Philosophical and Practical Controversies." International Relations 17, no. 1 (2003):79–96.

Ann Marie Clark