Amnesty International. Canadian Section-English-Speaking : Amnesty International is one of the world's preeminent, internationally-recognized human rights organizations. It was founded in London in 1961 after Peter Benenson, a British lawyer wrote an article "The Forgotten Prisoners" which appeared in the "London Observer" on May 28 of that year. He and others launched an `Appeal for Amnesty 1961' campaign to protest the detention and call for the release of political prisoners by governments and for the protection of human rights worldwide. The protest rapidly gained international momentum as support for `prisoners of conscience' as Benenson called them, became a major political and social issue amongst human rights activists. The protest was soon transformed into an organization which quickly spread to other countries around the world. 1974 Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride served as AI's first chairman from 1961 to 1975. Headquartered in London, England, the research department of AI's International Secretariat provides reference and research service on prisoners of conscience, the infliction of torture, the death penalty and other human rights abuses to its constituent sections. AI operates with a worldwide movement of volunteers dedicated to preventing violations of people's fundamental civil and political human rights by governments and opposition groups. It promotes public awareness and understanding of human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international conventions and treaties. In 1977, Amnesty International received the Nobel Peace Prize. AI's International Secretariat records are preserved in the archives of Stichting IISG in Amsterdam.
AI was operating in Canada as early as 1963. For the next decade, there were several individual members and isolated adoption groups active across Canada. By 1973, with its ever-increasing membership and workload, the Canadian Section was formally constituted on May 12-13, when representatives of six active groups based in Toronto, Montreal, Sackville, Ottawa, Hamilton and Guelph gathered together in St. Lambert, Quebec. John Humphrey, of McGill University served as its first president and Robert Inch as its first executive director. With approximately 55,000 members in Canada by the end of 1999, AI is governed by its Executive Committee which sets out guidelines used by groups across the country in the course of planning their own local activities. The national office, based in Ottawa, was opened in January 1974. It engages in public media and lobbying campaigns to stop international human rights violations. Offices were opened in Toronto in 1981 and Vancouver in 1984. In Canada, AI has lobbied against the reinstatement of the death penalty in Canada and for the promotion of refugee legislation. It acts impartially and operates independently of any government support. It relies entirely on its membership base and public support for its funding.
