Amnesty International Celebrates 50th Anniversary in London

Fifty years ago in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields church in London, the founder of Amnesty International Peter Benenson came up with the idea of bringing people together to work on defending human rights.

Members of the non-governmental rights group celebrated their 50th anniversary in that same church on Saturday.

Romanian soprano Eliana Pretorian opened the celebration with a performance.

[Eliana Pretorian, Soprano]:

“And today it brought back a lot of memories for me. It touches me in a very deep way.

Because I have seen the lack of liberty and lack of dignity that you have in the middle of a communist regime, you have nothing.”

Peter Benenson’s daughter was there to celebrate as well.

[Manya Benenson, Daughter of AI Founder]:

“The event was very beautiful, and very moving, and I feel very proud, and it’s an amazing day. I just hope it motivates a lot of people to do their small part.”

Secretary General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty commented on the human rights situation in China.

[Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International]:

“I think the Chinese government has no choice but to start playing by the international human rights rules, not by their own rules.”

Palestinian musician, Reem Kelani emphasized the importance of human rights for all.

[Reem Kelani, Musician]:

“It’s important to support human rights because can you live without the oxygen? It’s very simple, there’s no other explanation.”

Amnesty International was established in the UK in 1961 to challenge human rights abuses. Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was released last year after having spent 15 years under house arrest, paid tribute to the work that Amnesty has done over the last half a century. She expressed how happy she would be if there would no longer be any need for such an organization.

Foto: NTD