History: How it all began

Amnesty International (AI) was founded in 1961 by British lawyer Peter Benenson. He became angry after reading a newspaper report about two Portuguese students who had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Their crime: raising their glasses in a toast to freedom.

Benenson began to think of ways to persuade the Portuguese government - and other oppressive governments- to release such victims of injustice. His idea was to bombard the authorities with letters of protest.

To draw public attention to the fate of political prisoners, Benenson and several other activists organized a one-year campaign. They called it "Appeal for Amnesty, 1961".Forgotten Prisoners article

The campaign was launched in a newspaper article printed internationally on May 28 1961. The article "The Forgotten Prisoners" called on people everywhere to protest - impartially and peacefully - the imprisonment of men and women around the world for their political and religious beliefs.

These detainees were called "Prisoners of Conscience". With that, a new phrase entered the vocabulary of world affairs.

The article received a tremendous response. Within a month, more than a thousand readers had sent letters of support and offers of practical help. They also sent details of the cases of many more prisoners of conscience.

Here was the driving force behind AI: popular action by many "ordinary" people worldwide.

As a result of the support it received, six months after the publication of the "Forgotten Prisoners" article, Benenson announced another step in the campaign: the conversion of a brief publicity effort into a permanent international movement.

Amnesty International had begun.

Today, almost forty years later, Amnesty International has grown into a worldwide human rights movement with over a million members in over 150 countries and territories. The United States section of Amnesty International (AIUSA) has over 350,000 members, including students, community activists, freedom writers... "ordinary" people coming together to fight for human rights for all.