Amnesty International Founder Dies

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Sun, 27 Feb 2005 06:35:50 -0000

[Air_America_Radio] Amnesty International Founder Dies

 

News Sat, Feb 26, 2005

 

Europe - AP

 

 

Founder of Amnesty International Dies

 

Sat Feb 26, 6:00 PM ET Europe - AP

 

 

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

 

LONDON - Peter Benenson, who founded Amnesty International more than

four decades ago, has died. He was 83.

 

 

AP Photo

 

 

 

Benenson, who was educated in some of Britain's top schools, began

his own human rights campaigns as a boy in support of Spanish civil

war orphans and Jews fleeing Hitler's Germany.

 

 

In 1961, he set up Amnesty after reading an article about the arrest

and imprisonment of two students in a cafe in Lisbon, Portugal, who

had drunk a toast to liberty.

 

 

He had been ill for several years and died Friday at John Radcliffe

Hospital in Oxford from pneumonia, Amnesty spokesman Brendan Paddy

said.

 

 

Benenson initially envisioned Amnesty as a one-year campaign, but it

went on to become the world's largest independent human rights

organization. Amnesty, which is based in London, has more than 1.8

million members and supporters worldwide. It considers itself a

citizens' movement to expose and confront government injustice.

 

 

" Once the concentration camps and the hellholes of the world were in

darkness, " Benenson said. " Now they are lit by the light of the

Amnesty candle; the candle in barbed wire. When I first lit the

Amnesty candle, I had in mind the old Chinese proverb: `Better light

a candle than curse the darkness.' "

 

 

Benenson's life " was a courageous testament to his visionary

commitment to fight injustice around the world, " Irene Khan,

Amnesty's secretary-general, said in a statement.

 

 

" This was a man whose conscience shone in a cruel and terrifying

world, who believed in the power of ordinary people to bring about

extraordinary change and, by creating Amnesty International, he gave

each of us the opportunity to make a difference, " Khan added. " In

1961 his vision gave birth to human rights activism. In 2005, his

legacy is a worldwide movement for human rights which will never

die. "

 

 

Born July 31, 1921, Benenson was the grandson of Grigori Benenson, a

Russian-Jewish banker, and the son of Flora Solomon, who raised him

alone after the death of her husband, British army Col. John

Solomon.

 

 

After being tutored privately by poet W.H. Auden, Benenson went to

Eton and Oxford University, where he studied history.

 

 

At Eton, a prestigious prep school, Benenson showed early signs of a

flair for controversy by complaining to the headmaster about the

poor quality of the food there. That prompted a letter to his mother

warning of her son's " revolutionary tendencies. "

 

 

At age 16, he launched his first campaign: to win school support

during the Spanish Civil War for the newly formed Spanish Relief

Committee, which was helping Republican war orphans. He " adopted "

one of the babies himself, paying for the child's support.

 

 

Benenson then helped Jews who had fled from Hitler's Germany.

Despite some opposition, he succeeded in getting his school friends

and their families to raise the money needed to bring two young

German Jews to Britain.

 

 

After leaving Eton, he helped his politically committed mother find

homes for refugee children who had arrived in London.

 

 

Following his graduation from Oxford, Benenson joined the British

army, where he worked in the Ministry of Information press office.

After World War II, he studied law as a soldier, then left the

military to become a practicing lawyer.

 

 

In the 1950s, his human rights activism included efforts in fascist

Spain, British-ruled Cyprus, Hungary and South Africa.

 

 

Benenson stepped down as Amnesty's leader in the mid-1960s after an

independent investigation did not support his claim that Amnesty was

being infiltrated by British intelligence.

 

 

 

 

 

However, Benenson, who became a devout convert to Catholicism,

maintained an active interest in Amnesty. He also worked with other

activist groups, including one helping victims of an illness he

suffered himself: coeliac disease, a lifelong inflammatory condition

of the gastrointestinal tract.

 

He is survived by his wife, Susan Benenson, their son and daughter,

and two daughters from a previous marriage.

 

Amnesty planned to hold a public memorial service for him, but the

time and location were still being discussed.

 

___

 

On the Net:

 

Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org