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Peter James Henry Solomon Benenson ( July 31 , 1921 – February 25 2005 ) was a British lawyer and the founder of Human Rights group Amnesty International (AI). BIOGRAPHY Born in London , his army officer father died while Benenson was still young, and he was tutored privately by W. H. Auden before going to Eton . He took his mother's maiden name of Benenson as a tribute to his grandfather, following his grandfather's death. He started university at before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election. He was one of a group of British lawyers who founded JUSTICE in 1957, the UK-based human rights and law reform organisation. In 1958 he converted to Roman Catholicism . The following year he fell ill and moved to Italy in order to convalesce. In 1961 Benenson was shocked and angered by a newspaper report of two Portuguese students from Coimbra sentenced to seven years in prison for raising their glasses in a toast to Freedom (this occurred during the autocratic regime of António De Oliveira Salazar ). He wrote to David Astor , editor of '' The Observer ''. On May 28 , Benenson's article, entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners", was published. The letter asked readers to write letters showing support for the students. To co-ordinate such letter-writing campaigns, AI was founded in Luxembourg in July at a meeting of Benenson and six other men. The response was so overwhelming that within a year groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries. Initially appointed general secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill-health. The advisory position of president of the International Executive was then created for him. In 1966 , he began to make allegations of improper conduct against other members of the executive. An inquiry was set up which reported at Elsinore in Denmark in 1967 . The allegations were rejected and Benenson resigned from AI. While never again active in the organisation, Benenson was later personally reconciled with other executives, including Seán MacBride . He died in 2005 at the John Radcliffe Hospital , Oxford , aged 83. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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