"The Forgotten Prisoners" is an

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

Peter Benenson Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a British barrister, human rights activist and the founder of the human rights group Amnesty International (AI). He refused all honours for most of his life, ...

published in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' on 28 May 1961.Peter Benenson.
The Forgotten Prisoners
(abridged), ''

'', 28 May 1961. Retrieved 28 May 2011. Citing the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal De ...

articles 18 and 19, it announced a campaign on "Appeal for Amnesty, 1961" and called for "common action". The article also launched the book '' Persecution 1961'' and its stories of doctor

Agostinho Neto António Agostinho da Silva Neto (17 September 1922 – 10 September 1979) was an Angolan politician and poet. He served as the first president of Angola from 1975 to 1979, having led the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) i ...

, philosopher

Constantin Noica Constantin Noica (; – 4 December 1987) was a Romanian philosopher, essayist and poet. His preoccupations were throughout all philosophy, from epistemology, philosophy of culture, axiology and philosophic anthropology to ontology and logics, ...

, lawyer Antonio Amat and

Ashton Jones Ashton Bryan Jones (1896–1979) was an American Quaker minister active from the 1930s to 1970s as an advocate of "human brotherhood" during the civil rights movement. Jones was arrested dozens of times throughout the American South for preaching ...

and

Patrick Duncan Patrick Duncan may refer to: *Sir Patrick Duncan (South African politician) (1870–1943), Governor-General of South Africa * Patrick Sheane Duncan (born 1947), American writer, film producer and director *Paddy Duncan (1894–1949), Irish footbal ...

. Benenson reputedly wrote his article after having learnt that two Portuguese students from

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

were imprisoned in Portugal for raising a toast to freedom.Tracy McVeigh.
Amnesty International marks 50 years of fighting for free speech
, ''

'', 29 May 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2011. The article was reprinted in newspapers across the world and provoked a flood of responses from the readers, marshalling groups in several countries to examine

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

abuses.Gemma Kappala-Ramsamy.
The fight for human rights: Amnesty and the Observer
, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 29 May 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2011. While, in 2015, the original story still remains to be verified, the appeal marks the beginning of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, founded in London the same year following the publicationThe History of Amnesty International
, amnesty.org. Retrieved 28 May 2011. after Benenson enlisted a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

, a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP.

References

Newspaper articles Human rights 1961 in the United Kingdom {{UK-newspaper-stub