Amnesty International USA

Overview

Founded in London in 1961, Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with over 1.8 million members in over 150 countries who campaign for human rights and against their abuse. Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Mission

Amnesty International works to expose and stop specific cases of human rights violations – discrimination, abduction, unjust imprisonment, torture, and executions. Amnesty also fights for the recognition and fulfillment of basic human rights like food, housing, education and adequate health care.

Program

Amnesty International employs a full-time staff of over 400 experts to monitor human rights conditions worldwide and design strategies to end abuses. Supported by specialists in law, medicine, media, and technology, this staff identifies perilous situations, individuals at risk of abuse and patterns of violence. To redress these wrongs, we organize letter-writing campaigns, lobby governments and ambassadors globally for change, publicize the conditions of human rights violations, and organize events advocating change. One of out best tools is the Urgent Action Network: some 80,000 dedicated volunteers in 85 countries who write, email, fax, or phone government authorities, urging them to end human rights violations immediately. Amnesty International’s Online Action Center brings together thousands of others to take action through the internet.

Amnesty International is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) accepts no funds from any government and is supported entirely by individuals like you. AIUSA is the U.S. Section of Amnesty International.

Impact

Upon awarding Amnesty the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee credited Amnesty with having “…contributed to securing ground for freedom, for justice, and thereby also for peace in the world."

Since its inception in 1961, Amnesty International has helped free over 45,000 prisoners of conscience worldwide, among them Vaclav Havel (Czech Republic) and Kim Dae-Jung (S. Korea), who went on to become leaders of their nations. Our actions have helped efforts to prosecute former heads of state like General Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic. Our campaign against torture led to UN adoption of the Convention Against Torture.

Countries of Operation

United States

States of Operation

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, Virgin Islands of the U.S.