The story behind Amnesty International

In 2011, Amnesty International will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. It has almost 3 million members worldwide, the vast majority of whom are in the Western world. To understand Amnesty, one must follow its development history, and with it that of human rights. The story behind Amnesty International is about the rise and growth of the largest and most influential private human rights organization in the world to date, but also about the ups and downs it has experienced. Much had to do with the circumstances of the time, but also with the origins and characters of those who were at the helm of Amnesty. Former leaders such as Peter Benenson (English, founder), Sean McBride (Irish freedom fighter), Mümtaz Soysal (former head of government of Turkey), José Zalaquett (Chilean, professor of human rights), Thomas Hammarberg (Swede, now Commissioner for Human Rights of the European Council), Irene Khan (Bangladesh, Secretary-General of Amnesty International 2001-2010) talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization: the fact that it has less and less control over Asia and the Middle East, the 'competition' of new human rights organizations, and that it is dismissed by critics as white, wealthy and worried. Menno Kamminga (former Amnesty employee in London and New York, now professor of human rights at the University of Maastricht) and former Minister for Development Cooperation Jan Pronk also talk about their experiences with Amnesty.

Bert Breij (1943) is a sociologist, entrepreneur and publicist. Tom van Oosterhout (1953) is a thoroughbred researcher. Both have been fascinated their entire lives by people who stand on the barricades for their ideals. In 2008, Breij and Van Oosterhout wrote Twee miljoen leden, over 200 jaar vakbeweging in Nederland (Two million members, about 200 years of trade union movement in the Netherlands).