On 28 May 1961, Peter Benenson’s article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ appeared in *The Observer*. The appeal helped begin Amnesty International.

Benenson was a British lawyer. His article focused on people jailed for their beliefs, politics or religion, provided they had not used or advocated violence. He called them ‘prisoners of conscience’, a phrase that gave the campaign its centre.

The article did more than complain about injustice. It asked readers to act. The method was practical: write letters, keep prisoners’ names in public view, press governments and make it harder for imprisonment to remain hidden. It gave readers a way to put pressure on states they could not vote in and officials they would never meet.

The British starting point is important. The appeal appeared in a British Sunday newspaper and came from Benenson’s work in London. Amnesty International later became a global organisation, but this date belongs to that first public appeal.

The idea was simple. A prisoner’s name could be made known. A government could be written to. A case could be watched. The point was not that a single letter would free a single prisoner. It was that silence that helped prison systems, while public attention made them less comfortable.

The movement that followed grew beyond the article. It needed organisers, supporters, local groups and casework. Benenson was central to the beginning, but the campaign grew beyond one man’s protest.

The date is worth recording because the origin is specific. A newspaper article on 28 May 1961 gave a name and method to a form of public pressure. From that came Amnesty International, an organisation built around prisoners of conscience and the idea that cases in other countries could still be made public.