Amnesty International Archives published by AM, charting the history of the global human rights movement in the twentieth century
Amnesty International Archives: A Global Movement for Human Rights, the newly-published primary source database from AM, invites students and researchers to explore the history of the leading human rights NGO, and how their activities intersected with other key events in the development of the idea of universal human rights.
Sourced from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, this digital collection covers the first thirty years of Amnesty International after its foundation in 1961, charting the development of the organisation as it grew and as its evolving campaign mandate.
Initially established with the aim of obtaining amnesty for prisoners of conscience around the world, the mandate expanded across the period to include the abolition of the death penalty and torture, the ending of disappearances and extrajudicial execution, and the support of women's, children's, indigenous, and refugee rights.
A series of organisational records, including reports, meeting agendas and minutes, conference proceedings, and correspondence provide unparalleled insights into top-level policy decision-making and campaign strategies. The papers of the influential founding member Eric Baker, best known for spearheading the campaign for the abolition of torture in the 1970s, provide additional context to some of the official records and documents. Meanwhile, the “Urgent Actions” series 1973-1991, which were produced for international prisoners in immediate danger to request rapid action on their behalf, forms a diverse and wide-ranging set of case studies for the study of the rise and fall of military regimes, humanitarian crises, and anthropological investigations into human atrocities.
Other collection highlights include an image gallery of Amnesty campaign posters and around 50 hours of oral histories, comprising interviews with founder Peter Benenson and Diana Redhouse, a local group member in the 1960s and designer of the iconic original “candle-in-barbed-wire” logo. Additional features such as a series of contextualising essays, an interactive chronology, map, and detailed document metadata make this a powerful and accessible resource for students of the global human rights movement.
Amnesty International Archives offers unparalleled access to the history and inner workings of this path-breaking NGO as it expanded its international reach and influence. The resource will provide a platform for students and researchers to study social change and global politics in the 20th century, with unique insights into a number of conflicts, crises, and key events in the global human rights movement. These include The Cold War, the Pinochet dictatorship, Civil Wars in Guatemala and El Salvador, the Greek Junta dictatorship, violations against Kurdish populations in Syria, Turkey, and Iran, the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, The Troubles, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Apartheid, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Due to its detailed and wide-ranging nature, we expect it to become an essential resource
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