History

Peter Benenson, 1961. © AI

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by London barrister Peter Benenson. He was outraged at reports that a group of students in Portugal had been jailed for raising a toast to freedom in a cafe. So he issued an appeal for the ‘prisoners of conscience’, as they later became known, who were languishing in jails around the world. He called on people everywhere to join a mass letter-writing campaign to pressure governments to set such prisoners free.

Within months, people in Australia and other countries had formed groups and began a worldwide movement, helping to create Amnesty International.

Today, Amnesty International is the world’s largest human rights organisation - a global movement of 2.8 million supporters across 150 countries. There are approximately 82,000 supporters in Australia working to defend human rights and dignity.

"I count the number of times you have saved my life and made our work possible."

Wangari Maathai, leader of Kenya's Greenbelt Movement and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Amnesty International members have taken action to defend her on five separate occasions.

Traditionally, Amnesty International worked to defend civil and political rights, focused on prisoners of conscience, torture and the death penalty. We have responded to changes in the human rights environment around the world, and expanded our areas of work to also encompass economic, social and cultural rights.

In 1977 Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.

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