Peter Benenson

Peter Benenson was a human rights activist and the founder of the human rights group Amnesty International, a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end human rights abuses and secure the release of political prisoners. On May 28, 1961, Benenson wrote an article entitled “The Forgotten Prisoners,” asking readers to write letters showing support for all those imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs. To coordinate such letter-writing campaigns, Amnesty International was founded. The response was so overwhelming that within a year various groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries.

Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its campaign against torture and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights the following year. In 2001, Benenson was awarded the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement.