Free Republic

(CNN) -- Peter Benenson, the founder of the trailblazing human rights group Amnesty International, has died, the group has announced. Benenson, who was 83, started the human rights group in 1961. He died Friday night. At first, the group was started "a one-year campaign for the release of six prisoners of conscience," according to a news released on the Amnesty Web site. Benenson had been a lawyer at the time. It started in a May 28, 1961 Observer article called "The Forgotten Prisoners." "That appeal attracted thousands of supporters, and started a worldwide human rights movement. "The catalyst for the...

The founder of human rights organisation Amnesty International Peter Benenson has died aged 83. He died on Friday at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, after a long illness. The British lawyer set up the group in 1961, after reading an article about the imprisonment of two students in Portugal who drank a toast to liberty. "Peter Benenson's life was a courageous testament to his visionary commitment to fight injustice around the world," said Amnesty's Irene Khan. 'People power' "He brought light into the darkness of prisons, the horror of torture chambers and tragedy or death camps around the world. "This...