Success stories
As an organisation, we do not claim credit when a prisoner is released, when death sentences are commuted, or when a government changes its laws and practices. However, former prisoners, torture victims and others who have suffered human rights abuses often say that international pressure secured their freedom and saved their lives.
Every year, we receive messages of thanks and solidarity that inspire our members to keep working for human rights. Such messages show the positive effects of our work and that, together, we can make a difference. Find out what you can do
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After three years of campaigning around the world, the Control Arms campaign
achieved a massive victory when 139 governments voted in favour of a UN resolution
to start work towards an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). A Group of Governmental Experts
will now be set up to examine the basis of the Treaty.
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"Mirza is like a kid again - he just wants to feel the fresh air on his face. He's been cycling with his nephew and getting a multitude of new gadgets out there like high-tech mobile phones. There's so much for him to rediscover" Amjad Hussein, brother of Mirza Hussein who has been released after 18 years in Pakistani prisons |
"My family is indebted to the people who campaigned for Mirza's release, who
wrote letters and stood out in the rain with placards...Every life is so precious
- Mirza's release just proves how vital these campaigns really are."
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Political Cuban activist Néstor Rodriguez Lobaina |
"I would like to give my deepest thanks to Amnesty International [members] for
all the work that they have done to help in my release from prison, for having
adopted me as a prisoner of conscience, for all that they are doing for all the
other Cuban prisoners of conscience... I am deeply grateful for all of this, and
want to tell this prestigious organisation that it has here a volunteer, an activist
always at its service as well as my modest efforts to work and cooperate alongside
it in this altruistic and humanitarian work."
"Thank God, I am well, but just God that created us knows when I will come back." Murat Kurnaz Murat Kurnaz wrote these words to his family from Guantánamo in March 2002. His dreams of returning home to Germany have only now, finally, been realised. He was released from Guantánamo on the 24 August 2006. He had been held there for four years and eight months without charge or trial. It was only as a result of lobbying from his family, lawyers and Amnesty International members that the German government began making representations on his behalf and paving the way for his return. More on Guantánamo Bay |
"Just to know that the 'outside' world had not forgotten me and was continuing to work for my release was an immense source of encouragement during those dark days. I know that Amnesty International played a leading role in these efforts...I owe you my freedom." Thich Quang Do, Buddhist monk from Viet Nam |
"Never give up hope, no matter how bad it gets." - Ryan Matthews In 1999 Ryan was sentenced to death for a murder he had not committed. He was just 17 at the time of the crime. Amnesty members wrote appeals on his behalf and sent him greetings cards to boost his morale. After five years on death row in Louisiana, Ryan was granted a retrial. Four months later, he left court as a free man after his lawyers presented DNA evidence showing that another man had committed the murder. |
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"As an aside, a tribute to the power and reach of Amnesty International in this country is that I must have signed more letters to MPs about that report than about any other single issue. That is a good thing, which clearly shows that, as I said at the beginning, Amnesty has succeeded in producing a far-reaching public debate. I congratulate it for succeeding in such a positive step". Andy Burnham, Home Office Minister, refering to the report Seeking Asylum is not a Crime: detention of people who have sought asylum in the UK, during a parliamentary debate |
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Jenni Williams is a woman human rights defender with Women of Zimbabwe Arise,
WOZA. She has faced many arbitrary arrests for defending human rights. | Jenni Williams - Zimbabwe Listen to her own words |
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"We need organisations and people like you who will let the killers know that the entire world sees their actions... They fall under siege when organisations like Amnesty International take action." Bertha Oliva de Nativi, coordinator of the Committee of
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Ignatius Mahendra was sentenced for 3 years imprisonment for insulting the President
and Vice President in Indonesia. | Ignatus Mahendra - Indonesia Listen to his own words |
"I was beaten and verbally abused in detention. After a few days, the guards asked me: 'do you know that your name is all over the internet?'. After that, I was treated better by the guards before being released. The appeals sent by Amnesty members definitely had an affect on my case." Rehab Abdel Bagi Mohamed Ali, an X-ray technician from Sudan |
