Peter Benenson
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Peter James Henry Solomon Benenson (July 31, 1921 – February 25 2005) was a English lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI).
Born in London, his army officer father died while Benenson was still young, and he was tutored privately by W. H. Auden before going to Eton. He took his mother's maiden name of Benenson as a tribute to his grandfather, following his grandfather's death.
He started university at Balliol College, Oxford before World War II interrupted his education. From 1941 to 1945, Benenson worked at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre, in the "Testery", a section tasked with breaking German teleprinter ciphers [1] (http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/associates/permanent/good.htm). After demobilisation in 1946, Benenson began practising as a barrister before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election. In 1958 he converted to Roman Catholicism. The following year he fell ill and moved to Italy in order to convalesce.
In 1961 Benenson was shocked and angered by a newspaper report of two Portuguese students from Coimbra sentenced to seven years in prison for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom (this occurred during the autocratic regime of António de Oliveira Salazar). He wrote to David Astor, editor of The Observer. On May 28, Benenson's article, entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners", was published. The letter asked readers to write letters showing support for the students. To co-ordinate such letter-writing campaigns, AI was founded in Luxembourg in July at a meeting of Benenson and six other men. The response was so overwhelming that within a year groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries.
Initially appointed general secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill-health. The advisory position of president of the International Executive was then created for him. In 1966, he began to make allegations of improper conduct against other members of the executive. An inquiry was set up which reported at Elsinore in Denmark in 1967. The allegations were rejected and Benenson resigned from AI.
While never again active in the organisation, Benenson was later personally reconciled with other executives, including Seán MacBride. He died in 2005 at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, aged 83.
See also List of British Jews
External links
- Amnesty International biography (http://www.amnesty.org.uk/action/events/biography.shtml)
- Obituary (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4300997.stm) (BBC News)cy:Peter Benenson
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