We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.
Historically our campaigning has focused on prisoners, but we have responded to the changing patterns of human rights violations in the world. Today people are more likely to become victims of abuse because of who they are, rather than for what they think, say or do -- the biggest threat to human rights are the mass violations committed during armed conflicts.
We have two main ways of working to achieve human rights for everyone:
Promoting general awareness of human rights
We carry out a wide range of educational activities, promoting the values contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreed human rights standards.
Opposing specific abuses of human rights
We undertake research and action focused on stopping abuses of the following rights:
We have over three million supporters worldwide who are passionate about our beliefs and not afraid to take unpopular stands to realise our vision and mission.
Our vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.
In pursuit of this vision, our mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of these rights.
Our core values are international solidarity, effective action for the individual victim, global coverage, the universality and indivisibility of human rights, impartiality and independence, and democracy and mutual respect.