Amnesty Info
1. Amnesty International has more than 1.8 million members in over 150 countries. Nearly one-third of those members are in the US, many of them belonging to one of 1,850 local and student groups that are actively fighting for human rights.
2. Every day, people turn to Amnesty International to protect their human rights. And for more than 40 years, Amnesty International has made a difference.
3. Pressure from letters, faxes and emails written by our members has helped free more than 40,000 political prisoners worldwide.
4. In 1977, Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize for having “contributed
to securing ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in
the world.”
1. Amnesty International members mobilize public pressure on governments
to stop human rights abuses. They conduct campaigns on specific issues and
countries by writing letters, lobbying government officials, publicizing abuses,
and organizing events.
2. Members also take action to protect individuals at risk of human rights abuses such as arbitrary detention, torture and ill treatment, death threats, and execution. When Amnesty International learns that someone is in danger, it mobilizes its Urgent Action Network of more than 80,000 volunteers in 85 countries to write, email or fax government authorities to pressure them to prevent the abuse.
3. Amnesty International campaigns get the job done. Our campaign against torture led to the UN’s adoption of the Convention Against Torture. Our pursuit of international justice spurred the arrests of Chile’s General Pinochet and the former Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic. Our Saudi Arabia campaign led the Saudi government to institute unprecedented human rights measures.
4. During 2002 and 2003, Amnesty International conducted an intensive and far-reaching analysis of human rights in the world. Amnesty International releases it’s findings to the international community to publicize its concerns, to advocate for change and to hold human rights violators accountable for their crimes.
5. In hundreds of communities across the country, Amnesty International’s
local and student groups meet regularly to write letters and organize actions
on behalf of victims of human rights violations.
In New York, Kate Allen’s 8th grade social studies class sends letters to leaders around the world urging them to stop torture in prisons; an Italian Amnesty International group organizes demonstrations to publicize Laotian prisoners of conscience they have “adopted;” Amnesty International Paraguay boasts a youth group that works to insert human rights activism into local and national cultural events. These are just some examples of the many techniques Amnesty Internationalmembers use to defend human rights.
Turkish security officers told five political detainees that, quote, “Amnesty International is making a big fuss about you; we won’t do anything to you,” after Amnesty mobilized members to send Urgent Action appeals to the Turkish authorities. Unlike many other prisoners in Turkey held in similar circumstances, the five, arrested in March 2000, were not tortured.
Syrian human rights defender Nizar Nayyuf was imprisoned in 1992 after an unfair trial for his involvement with the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights. He was tortured severely during detention, and now suffers from chronic back pain. Medical reports indicate that he has a disease of the lower spine, apparently caused by torture on the "German Chair" (a metal chair with moving parts that stretches the spine and causes severe pressure on the victim’s neck and limbs). More than 35 Amnesty International groups in the Midwest campaigned intensely for Nayyuf’s release, which he won on May 6, 2001.
Katie, age 12, from Minneapolis, wrote to Amnesty International to sign up for our Children’s Edition of the Urgent Action Network that mobilizes to protect individuals from human rights abuses. Amnesty International sends its young activists information about children in danger, writing about cases in simple language and removing graphic descriptions of torture and mistreatment. As Katie wrote, "I just love to save lives!” Amnesty International will help her do just that.
