Amnesty International-the biggest organisation working in the field of human rights.

In the year 1961, the government of Portugal sentenced seven years imprisonment for two youths when they made a toast in the name of  'Democracy of Portugal'. This news got published in the newspapers of Britain and a British lawyer Peter Benenson  read the news which turned him really sad. 'It is the right of an individual to express his feelings/speech peacefully' and for this reason the government had declared punishment against them. He felt the government had done injustice to them and further nobody drew their concern in imparting them the justice instead they were forgotten by everyone. As a result Peter Benenson wrote an article,'The Forgotten Prisoners' in a newspaper,'The Observer' published from Britain on May 28, 1961 with an appeal to raise voice against the unjust to the Portuguese youth and thousands of similar cases who were the victim of punishment only for the speech they made.  From the day, the article published in the newspaper a campaign called ,'Appeal for Amnesty 1961' begin and to coordinate the campaigns  an office was established at London, Britain. Today, may 28 when the article was published in the newspaper and "appeal for amnesty 1961" campaign started is celebrated as birthday of Amnesty International and Peter Benenson as its founder.

In the beginning, Amnesty International campaigned to free those who were imprisoned just for the speech they made or expressing their views in a peaceful way. Today Amnesty International is the largest organisation working transparently and in a democratic way in the field of human rights and campaigns worldwide to safeguard the fundamental rights of an individual without any biasness. 

And for the works done throughout the world Amnesty International owns a Consultative Status from UNO and many other organisations. Similarly  the organisation was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 and also decorated with the United Nations Award for outstanding achievements in the field of Human Rights in the year 1978.

At present there are more then 32 lakhs member and volunteers of AI in 150 countries throughout the world. More than 150 countries have thousands of  local groups and members and around 50 countries have Section eg., Nepal Section while 8 countries have Coordinating Structure.

Amnesty International