Since well before the advent of computers or the internet, posters have been a powerful campaigning tool for grabbing public attention in visually-impactful ways. Enjoy a tour through selected pieces from our history below.
Letter writing
One Movement, One Message, Many Voices
All those in favor of the death penalty, raise your
hand
Amnesty International Chile
Amnesty International, Defenders of Women's Rights
Striking poster commissioned by Amnesty International
Israel
Who's living in my house?
Picasso for Amnesty International
Paul Hill poster
Universal Declaration of Human Rights poster
State of Terror
Freedom
1989 - Letter writing
From the
beginning of Amnesty International in 1961, people have written letters on behalf of victims of human rights violations. Today, hundreds of
thousands of ordinary people throughout the world challenge cruelty and injustice by taking a few minutes to write a letter.
Poster produced for the Human Rights Now! Campaign (1988). Human Rights Now! was a worldwide campaign to increase awareness of
Amnesty International and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1988 - All those in favor of the death penalty, raise your
hand
An
eye-catching poster for the Campaign against the Death Penalty depicting a number of former world leaders whose governments used the death
penalty: Chairman Mao (China), Adolf Hitler (Germany), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Joseph Stalin (Russia), Ayatollah Khomeini (Iran), and US
President, George Bush Sr.
Poster produced by
Amnesty International Chile to commemorate the re-establishment of democracy in Chile after 17 years of military rule under General Augusto
Pinochet.
Poster to coincide
with Amnesty International's report: Bosnia-Herzegovina: "Who's living in my house?" Obstacles to the safe return of refugees and
displaced people (1997).
General
poster commissioned by Amnesty International USA with a lithograph by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and design by Pentagram. A keen supporter
of human rights, Pablo Picasso donated this design for use by Amnesty International.
Poster created by Amnesty
International USA featuring Paul Hill, one of the so-called Guildford Four who was released in 1989 after serving 15 years' wrongful
imprisonment in the UK. Photograph by Annie Leibovitz (b. 1949), American portrait photographer.
Poster created by Amnesty
International Australia in response to human rights violations in South Africa. It lists the names of people "disappeared", tortured and
killed in detention in South Africa.
Design by Michael Callaghan (b. 1952), Australian designer from Redback Graphix.
Poster created by Amnesty International
Faroe Islands, established in 1965 just four years after the movement was founded by Peter Benenson. Amnesty International Faroe Islands
has approximately 1,300 members in a country with 47,000 inhabitants.
Drawing by Olivur via Neyst (b.1953), Faroese painter and
graphic artist.
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