Peter Benenson, Amnesty International founder, passed away

On February 25, 2005, the founder of Amnesty International Peter Benenson died in Oxford, Great Britain at 84.
Peter Benenson was born on July 31, 1921 in a Jewish family migrating in Russia. The idea for Amnesty International was born when British lawyer Peter Benenson and other political activists launched Appeal for Amnesty 1961, a one-year worldwide campaign calling for the release of all prisoners of conscience. Benenson started the campaign in response to the imprisonment of two students in Portugal who had made a toast to freedom in a public restaurant. The toast was considered a form of political opposition to Portugal’s dictator Antonio Salazar, and the students both received seven-year prison sentences in 1960. Benenson published an article titled “The Forgotten Prisoners” in the London Observer in May 1961 urging people to write letters to government officials around the world to protest the imprisonment of all prisoners of conscience. The campaign gained much attention and the article was reprinted in numerous newspapers in many countries. By the end of 1961, more than 1,000 people had pledged their support to the campaign. Amnesty International was established that year. AI seeks to inform the public about violations of human rights, especially abridgments of freedom of speech and religion and the imprisonment and torture of political dissidents. It actively seeks the release of political prisoners and support of their families when necessary. Its first director, Sean MacBride, won the 1974 Nobel Prize for Peace; AI itself won the award in 1977.