Amnesty international

You have seen the candle wrapped in barbed wire on a campaign poster or a petition asking you to write a letter for someone you will never meet. That is Amnesty International. It has no army, no vote in the UN and no power to punish a government, yet it has shaped how the world talks about torture, disappearances and the death penalty. How does a private organisation count in a legal system made by States?

In two minutes

Amnesty International is a worldwide non-governmental human-rights movement, founded in London in 1961, that researches abuses, campaigns and lobbies for the release of prisoners of conscience and for observance of international human-rights standards; it has no legal power over States but has real influence through evidence and public pressure.

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