Individuals at Risk

 

Working with and for individuals at risk of human rights abuses has been at the heart of Amnesty’s campaigning work since our founding in 1961.

 

Thanks to the actions of Amnesty supporters like you, more than 44,000 individuals have been freed from prison, saved from torture and protected from death threats.

 

Individuals are behind much of the human rights activism at grassroots and community level. People are the driving force behind positive change for themselves and for others. They can change lives by acting on their own or with other people making the same demand - an end to injustice in all its forms.

 

Individuals at risk of human rights violations are found throughout the world. They are people, just like you and I, whose human rights have been violated or are under threat of violation.

 

Some of our best known individuals at risk are called Prisoners of Conscience. They are people who have been detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights and who are illegally detained, such as Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

Not all individuals at risk are prisoners of conscience but when we take up campaigning for such people, it becomes known as an Amnesty International case. Cases can also be opened on behalf of a group or community of people.

 

Recognising that we cannot campaign for all the cases that are reported to our research headquarters the International Secretariat (IS), Amnesty NZ works closely with the IS to determine which cases we publicly campaign for in New Zealand. These cases tend to have local, regional or topical relevance.

 

Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are part of the individuals at risk that we campaign on behalf of. Click here for more information on Amnesty’s work on these individuals.