Amnesty International USA. National Office.

Amnesty International (AI), an international human rights non-governmental organization (NGO), was founded in London by Peter Benenson in 1961.

Benenson, a lawyer, had become concerned about the case of two students imprisoned in Portugal for toasting to freedom in a bar. He published an article in the London Observer on the case on May 28, 1961, and advocated the writing of letters to the Portuguese government demanding the release of the students. The response was extraordinary. The article was translated and reprinted internationally, and readers began sending letters and support not only to Benenson, but also to prisons and labor camps worldwide.

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