Amnesty International Media Release
For immediate release
23 May 2011

Wellington to Shine a Light on 50 years of Amnesty international

Hundreds of New Zealand’s leading human rights activists will converge in Wellington this weekend to launch a year of celebrations marking Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary.

Members the world’s largest human rights organisation will gather at Civic Square on the evening of 28 May, Amnesty’s global birthday, to illuminate the Town Hall in yellow with Amnesty’s candle logo – representing a beacon of hope to those denied justice all over the world.

Following this, members will proceed in a candle-lit silent march through the streets of Wellington to Cuba Mall, wearing masks illuminating the faces of prisoners of conscience the organisation has helped to release over the past 50 years.

“50 years ago, one man outraged by injustice, had the simple idea to bring to life the old proverb, ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’. His appeal for others to join him turned into the worldwide movement of over 3 million people that is Amnesty International,” says Patrick Holmes, CEO of Amnesty International Aotearoa NZ.

“For 50 years, Amnesty has been shining a light on the darkest of places, so that human rights abuses no longer go unseen and unpunished. We have shown that the power of ordinary people mobilised in collective action can achieve extraordinary change.”

Amnesty was founded in 1961 after British lawyer Peter Benenson heard about two Portuguese students who were arrested for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom. Outraged by this injustice, Benenson appealed to others to join him in a campaign on behalf of people imprisoned for their beliefs. The response was immense, and within weeks Amnesty International, a co-ordinated movement of ordinary people standing up for justice, had been born.

Amnesty International has now grown to be a movement of over 3 million supporters, members and activists working at the forefront of human rights issues in more than 150 countries and territories across the globe. Amnesty’s purpose is to protect people when their human rights are denied, calling for an end to the discrimination, persecution and harassment that individuals face.

“We are thrilled to be back in Wellington, the birthplace of Amnesty NZ, to celebrate our successes and thank all those who have stood with us. And we’re inviting more New Zealanders to join us in this milestone year.”

“The strength behind Amnesty is our people – if we are to release more prisoners of conscience and hold more governments to account for war crimes, we need many more actions to be taken by many individuals. If every Amnesty supporter in New Zealand were to call on one more person to join us, we would be almost 25,000 people standing together to protect human rights,” says Holmes.

Members of the public are invited to join the Illumination and candle-lit march from Civic Square beginning at 6:30pm, Saturday 28 May.

For more about Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary, please visit www.amnestyis50.org.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media