Activists honour Amnesty founder

HUMAN rights campaigners yesterday paid tribute to Amnesty International founder Peter Benenson, who has died aged 83.

Mr Benenson, who started the organisation in 1961, succumbed to a long illness at an Oxford hospital on Friday.

The Eton-educated lawyer has been praised as a “father of human rights” by key figures in the movement.

“He was an extraordinary and a great man,” said Stephen Jakobi, early Amnesty member and founder of Fair Trials Abroad.

“His contribution to the human rights movement was incomparable, but he has remained something of an unsung hero.

“When you think of the organisation that he started, he has done more for human welfare than peace prize winners like Nelson Mandela and Ghandi.

“He founded Amnesty International during the bad old days of Stalinism, when human rights had retreated across half the globe.

“He was the father of human rights - the one who made a stand.

“As a result of Amnesty’s work, we now have international conventions, enforcement and an International Criminal Court.”

Mr Benenson founded Amnesty after reading about the jailing of two Portuguese students who were caught drinking a toast to liberty in a Lisbon cafe.

Helen Bamber, founder of The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, campaigned with him during the 1960s.

“He was a very kind man, and had an enormous passion for justice,” she said.

“It is unbelievable the achievement (of) that one man, that he could spark off a worldwide human rights movement that has saved thousands of people and helped establish human rights law and instruments.”

Amnesty International are organising a public memorial service for Mr Benenson, at a date to be fixed.