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Year-Old, Non-Government Organization: Amnesty International

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Amnesty International (AI) is a 52 year old, non-government organization, which campaigns globally for human rights. That takes its mandate from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that all people have basic fundamental rights that goes beyond national, cultural, religious and ideological boundaries. Their vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights, irrespective of their religion, race, or gender. In pursuit of this vision, AI's mission is to conduct research and undertake actions, which primarily focus on preventing and ending all human rights abuses [1]. Today, AI is the biggest human-rights organisation in the world, 4.6 million supporters across 150 nations. In 1961, Peter Benenson, a British lawyer read a story about two Portuguese students who were arrested and jailed after raising a toast to freedom in public. Portugal was under the control of Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar at that time and the students received sentences ranging …show more content…

Since its foundation, AI activists have helped free tens of thousands of Prisoners of Conscience around the world. As a result of Stop Torture campaign, Moses Akatugba, a Nigerian death-row inmate, was pardoned after nearly 10 years in jail. He had been tortured to confess to a crime he says he never committed. Over 800,000 activists sent letters demanding justice for Moses. In 2013 AI used satellite imagery to show the scale of human rights abuses and trends in many countries as North Korea, Sudan, Sudan and Syria. These images served as important insight into some of the biggest human rights stories of the year. AI owes much of its success in promoting human rights to its focus on individuals. As per their website, they do not sought or accepted funds from governments and projects themselves as an independent democratic movement, funded by its membership and public

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