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  • 4 - The Early Years of Amnesty International, 1961–1964

  • Tom Buchanan, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    Amnesty International and Human Rights Activism in Postwar Britain, 1945–1977
    Published online:
    10 April 2020
    Print publication:
    30 April 2020, pp 104-127

  • Summary

    Chapter 4 shows how Peter Benenson’s initial idea for a one-year campaign on behalf of ‘prisoners of conscience‘ in May 1961 swiftly turned into a permanent organisation with the title Amnesty International. The chapter begins with a detailed account of how Benenson, in association with Eric Baker, launched the ‘Appeal for Amnesty‘, and explores the reasons for its remarkable success. There is then a discussion of the consolidation, in the period 1961-1964, of key elements of Amnesty’s practice – such as the archive of political prisoners, and the formation of local campaigning in ‘Groups of Three‘. A separate section analyses the role of religion in the early phase of Amnesty. The concluding part of the chapter shows how Amnesty also, from the very beginning, developed as an international campaigning organisation, even though the initial national sections were often extremely fragile.