Founded in 1961, Amnesty International is a grassroots
activist organization whose one-million strong members are dedicated to freeing
prisoners of conscience, to gaining fair trials for political prisoners, to
ending torture and "disappearances", and to abolishing the death penalty
throughout the world. In the past 40+ years 40,000+ Prisoners of Conscience have
been freed. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its human rights
work.
News and Announcements
The Tempe Local Group has adopted a group of 11 Prisoners of
Conscience emprisoned in Eritrea,
Africa. The group of former ministers, generals, members of Parliment wrote a
letter criticizing the President and he put them in jail. We will work to get
them released. The Tempe Local
Group has also adopted Aster Yohannes
the wife of Petros Solomon, one of those in our group of adopted Eritrean
POCs.
Ngawang
Sangdrol's Story Picture taken in Lhasa Tibet by John Kamm
on February 28, 2003. In 1996 the Tempe Local Group adopted Ngawang
Sangdrol, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, as our Prisoner of Conscience. She was
jailed for singing freedom songs at age 15. She was released from the Drap Chi
prison in Lhasa, Tibet in October 2002, after serving 10 years and placed
under house arrest. Ngawang Arrives in U.S.! On March 28,
2003 Ngawang arrived in the U.S. for medical treatment of "severe and
long-lasting headaches" from beatings in prison. 7-02-03
Thousands of people are in prison because of their beliefs. Many are held
without charge or trial. Torture and the death penalty are widespread. In many
countries men, women and children have "disappeared" after being taken into
official custody. Still others have been killed wihout any pretense of legality.
These human rights abuses occur in countries of widely differing ideologies.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people acting on the
conviction that governments must not deny individuals their basic human rights.
The organization was awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to
promote global observance of the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Picture taken in Lhasa Tibet by John Kamm
on February 28, 2003.
September 23, 2006