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Amnesty International

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Organization

The Resume

    (July 1961- )
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Non-governmental organization (NGO)
    Founded by Peter Benenson
    Deals with five key areas: women's rights, children's rights, ending torture and execution, rights of refugees and rights of prisoners of conscience
    Approximately 2.2 million members in 150 countries

Why they might be annoying:

    Historians found that Benenson's claim that he founded the organization after reading about two students in Portugal who were imprisoned for toasting freedom was a myth.
    Benenson originally founded the group to lobby for amnesty for Communist prisoners in Spain.
    The group would not support Nelson Mandela because he would not denounce violence, but they lobby for the release of convicted murderer Leonard Peltier.
    They have been accused of a selection bias in which they are more likely to report on human rights violations by countries with a free press (such as Israel) than violations in closed societies (such as North Korea).
    Its Secretary General, Irene Khan, controversially referred to Guantanamo Bay as 'the gulag of our times.'

Why they might not be annoying:

    Despite its founder's Communist sympathies, it is a critic of left and right wing dictatorships alike.
    They accept no government funding.
    Two thirds of the prisoners of conscience whose plights they publicized have been released.
    Endumd McWilliams, a US Foreign Service officer who monitored the Soviet gulags, defended Khan's comments, saying 'I note that abuses that I reported on in those inhumane systems parallel abuses reported in Guantanamo.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 9 Votes: 22.22% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 36 Votes: 8.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 23 Votes: 56.52% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 28 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 21 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 69 Votes: 78.26% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 35 Votes: 68.57% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 48 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 30 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 50 Votes: 64.00% Annoying