Amnesty International Essay 1

A mnesty International is established in 1961, the story of two Portuguese students sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for raising a toast to freedom horrified British lawyer Peter Benenson. He wrote to the British newspaper, The Observer, calling for an international campaign to bombard authorities around the world with protests about the "forgotten prisoners". Today Amnesty has grown to become a global non-governmental organization with more than 2.8 million members in more than 150 countries and regions. It was awarded in 1977 with the Nobel Peace Prize of ‘having contributed to securing the ground for freedom, for justice and thereby also for peace in the world. They send researches around the globe to document cases of human rights violations. They stop human rights abuses by mobilizing the public to put pressure on governments, armed political groups, companies and intergovernmental bodies by; public demonstrations, vigils, letter-writing campaigns, human rights education, awareness-raising concerts, direct lobbing etc.
The UN and its human rights-related bodies have always played a key role in Amnesty’s activities in the international sphere. As Amnesty International perceives interaction with IGOs as highly important for promoting human rights standards, co-operation with them forms part of its mandate. Laid out in its statutes, Amnesty seeks to ‘encourage intergovernmental organizations to support and respect human rights’. Amnesty drives a large programme of activities with the UN. It also works together with specialized agencies of the UN such as the International Labour Organization and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Amnesty has maintained relations with the UN since the 1960s when it recognized it could use the UN to achieve its objectives. Over the years, it has established a leading position among internationally operating human rights NGOs. Today, it is one of the largest and most active human rights organizations