Cause of The Month
By Linda J
Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization with the stated purpose of promoting all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. In particular, Amnesty International campaigns to free all prisoners of conscience; to ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners; to abolish the death penalty,
torture, and other treatment of prisoners held by international law to be cruel or inhumane; to end political killings and forced disappearances; and to oppose all human rights abuses, whether committed by governments or by other groups.
These are the website addressed for most countries – but a Google search will generally find what you are looking for.
Membership of Amnesty can involve as much involvement or as little as you have time to do – letter writing, signing petitions or just making your friends aware of the work.
"BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS"
Chinese Proverb
History
Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by a Roman Catholic British lawyer named Peter Benenson and a Quaker named Eric Baker. Benenson was reading his newspaper and was shocked and angered to come across the story of two Portuguese students sentenced to seven years in prison – for the crime of raising their glasses in a toast to freedom. Benenson wrote to David Astor, editor of The Observer newspaper, who, on May 28, published Benenson's article entitled The Forgotten Prisoners that asked readers to write letters showing support for the students. The response was so overwhelming that within a year groups of letter writers had formed in more than a dozen countries, writing to defend victims of injustice wherever they might be.
By mid-1962, Amnesty had groups working or forming in West Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Canada, Ceylon, Greece, Australia (Amnesty International Australia), the United States (Amnesty International USA), New Zealand (Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand), Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Jamaica, Malaya, Congo (Brazzaville), Ethiopia, Nigeria, Burma, and India. Later in that year, a member of one of these groups, Diana Redhouse, designed Amnesty's Candle and Barbed-Wire logo, based on a old Chinese phrase: “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
United States
http://www.amnestyusa.org/
Australia
http://www.amnesty.org.au
United Kingdom
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/
Canada
http://www.amnesty.ca/
New Zealand
http://www.amnesty.org.nz/
This article is to make you aware of the existance of Amnesty International and to invite you to join with other caring members of our community in expressing care and concern in a troubled world.
I am sure some Members of WOSIB are already members of Amnesty and it is something we can do from our homes to support others.
Please don’t curse the darkness – help the Amnesty Candle burn brightly.
