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Amnesty International

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Amnesty International is known throughout the world for its relentless education about, and work to secure, human rights for all persons. Amnesty undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave human rights abuses, and works for freedom of conscience, expression, and from discrimination. Amnesty International (also known as “AI”) has fulfilled this mission, on a global scale, without peer. Amnesty is an independent, global movement, primarily funded by membership dues and private donations, with more than three million supporters, more than 2.2 million members, and activists in more than 150 countries. It conducts research and generates action to prevent grave abuses of human rights, and demands justice for those whose rights have been violated. AI works to end violence against women, abolish the death penalty, stop torture, free prisoners of conscience, and protect the rights of refugees and migrants.

Amnesty International was founded by a British Lawyer, Peter...

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Amnesty International (2009) Freedom: stories celebrating the universal declaration of human rights. Broadway, New York

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Amnesty International (2010a) Amnesty International report: the state of the world’s human rights. Amnesty International Publications, London

Amnesty International (2010b) Free?: stories about human rights. Candlewick Press, Somerville

Clarke A (2001) Diplomacy of conscience: Amnesty International and changing human rights norms. Princeton University Press, Princeton

Hopgood S (2006) Keepers of the flame: understanding Amnesty International. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

Power J (2001) Like water on stone: the story of Amnesty International. Northeastern University Press, Boston

Ronand J et al (2005) Transnational information politics: NGO human rights reporting, 1986–2000. Int Stud Q 49:557–587

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Department of Philosophy/Humanities, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT, USA

Michael Minch

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Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Deen K. Chatterjee

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Minch, M. (2011). Amnesty International. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_514

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_514

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3 Amnesty International: The NGO That Made Human Rights Important

• Published: July 2012
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This chapter focuses on Amnesty International, the classic case of an NGO which has a centralized system for proposal and enforcement powers and a decentralized system for implementation. Amnesty forged a structure and a technique that led to its political salience as an important agenda setter in terms of both ideas and organizational salience during the Cold War. While previous transnational organizations had largely struggled with centralized agenda setting, Amnesty was the first to have a strong central office—the International Secretariat—which controls proposal and enforcement powers of the agenda despite strong national sections throughout Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, this body has gone through some changes, which have solidified the Secretariat's agenda-setting powers.

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Articles on Amnesty International

Displaying 1 - 20 of 27 articles.

After 50 years of global effort to abolish torture, much work remains

Christopher Justin Einolf , Northern Illinois University

Why is Canada rejecting evidence of Israeli apartheid against Palestinians?

Michael Lynk , Western University and Alex Neve , L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Is there a ‘right to disobey’? From the Vietnam War to today’s climate protests

Jon Piccini , Australian Catholic University

Unequal power relations driven by poverty fuel sexual violence in Lake Chad region

Emeka T. Njoku , University of Birmingham

War devastates the lives of children: what the research tells us, and what can be done

Roos van der Haer , Leiden University

Campaign shows that political tectonic plates are shifting in Mozambique

David Matsinhe , Carleton University

Human rights 70 years on: important victories as well as major misses

Henning Melber , University of Pretoria

Marikana: it’s time Ramaphosa moved on accountability and reparations

Mia Swart , Human Sciences Research Council

When the poor sponsor the rich: Rwanda and Arsenal FC

Filip Reyntjens , University of Antwerp

Despite a reduction in executions, progress towards the abolition of the death penalty is slow

Amy Maguire , University of Newcastle

Why the election of a black senator won’t make a dent on racism in Italy

Cristiano d'Orsi , University of Johannesburg

What Oxfam can learn from charities that survived scandals

Mark Hurst , Lancaster University

Accusations of deliberate, cruel abuse of refugee children must prompt a more humane approach

Amnesty-Human Rights Watch investigation reports medical neglect and assaults on Nauru

Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra

Should prostitution be decriminalized?

Kari Lerum , University of Washington, Bothell

Heavy-handed police tactics raise concerns about democracy in Uganda

Sophie Nakueira , WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

Vila Autódromo: the favela fighting back against Rio’s Olympic development

Adam Talbot , University of Brighton

Amnesty accuses Australia of violating international law – but any prosecutions are unlikely

Amnesty alleges criminal activity in border control

Scientists score one over celebrities in battle to decriminalize sex work

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