In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

The world mourns the loss of Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International

LONDON (AP)—Peter Benenson, who founded Amnesty International more than four decades ago, has died. He was 83.

Benenson, who was educated in some of Britain’s top schools, began his own human rights campaigns as a boy in support of Spanish civil war orphans and Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany.

In 1961, he set up Amnesty after reading an article about the arrest and imprisonment of two students in a cafe in Lisbon, Portugal, who had drunk a toast to liberty.

He had been ill for several years and died Friday at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford from pneumonia, Amnesty spokesman Brendan Paddy said.

p. [ Full Story @ Associated Press ]

p(small). Source: Associated Press © 2005 Associated Press

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