Amnesty International was founded in London in July 1961 by English labour lawyer Peter

Benenson.[8] According to his own account, he was travelling in the London Undergroundon 19
November 1960, when he read of two Portuguese students from Coimbra who had been sentenced
to seven years of imprisonment in Portugal for allegedly "having drunk a toast to liberty".
By the mid-1960s Amnesty International's global presence was growing and an International
Secretariat and International Executive Committee were established to manage Amnesty
International's national organisations, called 'Sections', which had appeared in several countries.
The international movement was starting to agree on its core principles and techniques. For
example, the issue of whether or not to adopt prisoners who had advocated violence, like Nelson
Mandela, brought unanimous agreement that it could not give the name of 'Prisoner of Conscience'
to such prisoners. Aside from the work of the library and groups, Amnesty International's activities
were expanding to helping prisoners' families, sending observers to trials, making representations
to governments, and finding asylum or overseas employment for prisoners. Its activity and
influence were also increasing within intergovernmental organisations; it would be awarded
consultative status by the United Nations, the Council of Europe and UNESCO before the decade
ended.
Amnesty International drew together reports from countries where torture allegations
seemed most persistent and organised an international conference on torture. It sought to
influence public opinion in order to put pressure on national governments by organising a campaign
for the 'Abolition of Torture' which ran for several years.
Amnesty International's membership increased from 15,000 in 1969[16] to 200,000 by
1979.
The organisation was awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its "campaign against torture"[5] and
the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1978.
Throughout the 1980s, Amnesty International continued to campaign against torture, and on behalf
of prisoners of conscience. New issues emerged, including extrajudicial killings, military, security
and police transfers, political killings; and disappearances.
After 2000, Amnesty International's agenda turned to the challenges arising
from globalisation and the reaction to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. The
issue of globalisation provoked a major shift in Amnesty International policy, as the scope of its
work was widened to include economic, social and cultural rights, an area that it had declined to
work on in the past. Amnesty International felt this shift was important, not just to give credence to
its principle of the indivisibility of rights, but because of what it saw as the growing power of
companies and the undermining of many nation states as a result of globalisation.
Principles
A vital part of AI's mandate is the so-called "violence clause". It sets prisoners of
conscience apart from the other categories of prisoners on whose behalf the movement works. If a
prisoner is serving a sentence imposed, after a fair trial, for activities involving violence, AI will not
ask the government to release the prisoner.
AI does not judge whether recourse to violence is justified or not. However, AI does not oppose the
political use of violence in itself since The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its preamble,
foresees situations in which people could "be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to
rebellion against tyranny and oppression".
AI neither supports nor condemns the resort to violence by political opposition groups in
itself, just as AI neither supports nor condemns a government policy of using military force in
fighting against armed opposition movements. However, AI supports minimum humane standards
that should be respected by governments and armed opposition groups alike. When an opposition
group tortures or kills its captives, takes hostages, or commits deliberate and arbitrary killings, AI
condemns these abuses.

Work
Amnesty International primarily targets governments, but also reports on non-governmental bodies
and private individuals ("non-state actors").
There are six key areas which Amnesty deals with:
Women's, children's, minorities' and indigenous rights
Ending torture
Abolition of the death penalty
Rights of refugees
Rights of prisoners of conscience
Protection of human dignity.
Some
specific
aims
are
to:
abolish
the
death
penalty,
end extra
judicial
executions and "disappearances," ensure prison conditions meet international human rights
standards, ensure prompt and fair trial for all political prisoners, ensure free education to all

children worldwide, decriminalise abortion,[51] fight impunity from systems of justice, end the
recruitment and use of child soldiers, free all prisoners of conscience, promote economic, social and
cultural rights for marginalised communities, protect human rights defenders, promote religious
tolerance, protect LGBT rights,[52] stop torture and ill-treatment, stop unlawful killings in armed
conflict, uphold the rights of refugees,migrants, and asylum seekers, and protect human dignity.

Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the
human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other
international human rights standards.
In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's 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 its work to promote all human rights.

Amnesty reports disproportionately on relatively more democratic and open countries,[53] arguing
that its intention is not to produce a range of reports which statistically represents the world's
human rights abuses, but rather to apply the pressure of public opinion to encourage
improvements.

Funding
Amnesty International is financed largely by fees and donations from its worldwide membership. It
says that it does not accept donations from governments or governmental organisations. According
to the AI website, "these personal and unaffiliated donations allow AI to maintain full independence
from any and all governments, political ideologies, economic interests or religions. We neither seek
nor accept any funds for human rights research from governments or political parties and we
accept support only from businesses that have been carefully vetted. By way of ethical fundraising
leading to donations from individuals, we are able to stand firm and unwavering in our defence of
universal and indivisible human rights."[61]
However, AI did receive grants from the UK Department for International Development,
[62] the European Commission,[63] the United States State Department.[64][65] and other
governments[66][67]
In November 2012, the Amnesty staff in London went on strike to protest work conditions and
financial issues with the organisation. Gerald Steinberg, of NGO Monitor said, "They really are in
trouble. Theyve been in crisis for a number of years."[68]

Charitable Status

In the UK Amnesty International has two principal arms, Amnesty International UK and Amnesty
International Charity Ltd. Both are UK-based organisations but only the latter is a charity.[69]