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About Us
Welcome to the Amnesty International student chapter at the University of Arkansas. Our purpose is to promote human rights around the world regardless of borders. We believe that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. It is a global voluntary activist movement working towards the observance of all human rights as oultined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as other international standards. Amnesty International is independent of ANY government, political ideology or religious creed. It does NOT support or oppose any government or political system, NOR does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. |
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A Brief History of Amnesty
In 1961, Peter Benenson read about the unfortunate arrest of two Portuguese students. Arrested for toasting to freedom, these two students were sentenced to seven years in jail. On May 28 1961, Benenson wrote a column- "Appeal for Amnesty, 1961"- asking readers to help lobby for the release of the students who were victims of injustice. Overwhelmingly, massive amounts of letters were sent by supporters from several countries appealing for the release of the two students as well as other "prisoners of conscience." From this Amnesty International was born. Amnesty International takes action against some of the gravest violations by governments of personal civil and political rights. Amnesty seeks to:
In the fall of 2001, graduate and undergraduate students founded the University of Arkansas Chapter of Amnesty International (AIUA) to promote awareness within the university community about human rights abuses occurring throughout the world. The AIUA chapter seeks to involve all students interested in current Amnesty campaigns by:
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