amnesty.org (Amnesty International)

Advantages: make a difference in the world
Disadvantages: can be overwhelming

...online 'Stop Torture Campaign.' Amnesty.org is the base page for the entire Amnesty organisation, but you can click the link on the right side of the home page to find the website for your specific country. The main page has campaigns that groups worldwide are working on, but amnesty.org.uk has some cases and campaigns that have been especially designed for British groups to work on. Also, this site is much easier to navigate than the main page ...
...place to find online actions is through the American site, since, apparently, Americans are too lazy to write proper letters. Check out this link for eight online actions including a woman in northern Nigeria who was sentenced to DEATH BY STONING for having a baby out of wedlock: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/ ---UK WEBSITE FEATURES--- 'News' gives you updates on cases that Amnesty has been following. You can see how successful Amnesty ... Read review

Advantages: You do good.
Disadvantages: Pity that the organisation has no reason yet to close down.

When I had settled down in my job and the town I had been sent to (I didn’t know of its existence before I was, Germany is a large country, you know!) and didn’t have to think about myself all the time any longer, I thought it would be a good idea to do something for other people. There are many possibilities even in a small town, clubs, organisations and the like; the reasons why I chose to become a member of amnesty international (ai) ...
...to be in too close contact with the locals as I couldn’t understand their dialect very well at that time - I can now - and that the internationality of ai appealed to me. I knew that I would be able to use my knowledge of English, I liked the idea of being in contact with the big world outside the boundaries of the dump I had landed in. What IS ai? I’m quoting the official definition: „Amnesty International is a worldwide campaigning ... Read review

Advantages: Comprehensive
Disadvantages: A little clumsy

I should come clean right now and say that I have been a member of Amnesty for years, so from that perspective I'm probably a little biased. But give me a pint and an evening in a pub with someone who is foolish enough to bring up the topic and I'll defend them to the death, or at least until last orders. They were started 40 years ago by a British lawyer, Peter Benenson, who opened his paper one morning to find a small article about a group of Portuguese ...
...public bar in Lisbon. Most of us would have tutted a bit and turned the page. Not Peter. He started a campaign to free them through a local paper, and wrote a piece asking members of the public to write letters to the Portuguese authorities requesting the student's freedom. The response was overwhelming: the letters poured in. Peter decided to apply the same principle to other people imprisoned soley on the basis of their religion, ethnicity or political ... Read review

Advantages: You can make a difference.
Disadvantages: None

Every now and then a news article will come along that has the power to make most people in this country angry - around the world there are all kinds of injustices, and many of them do make you want to stand up and do something. As an ordinary person, there doesn't seem to be much scope for this. Whatever you might think, you can help to make a difference. Amnesty International is an organisation that challenges injustice and campaigns for human ...
...imprisonned, tortured and executed because they have said things their government didn't like, of those at the mercy of barbaric laws, of those 'dissapeared' by regeims that don't even bother to enshrine their violence in law. The Amnesty website gives you full information on who Amnesty is and what it is doing at the moment - news from around the world occupies the front page, and at the end of each news bite are the words 'take action'(click on ... Read review

Advantages: Fast, easy to navigate, and large database of information.
Disadvantages: None

Amnesty International’s UK operations are detailed at length on their impressive web site www.amnesty.org.uk. Visitors can learn about AI-UK’s scope of activities and campaign news. There is a wealth of back-up information for each particular campaign; two major campaigns at the moment are a campaign for tougher arms controls and a campaign to halt human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. All the facts and case studies are clearly presented, and addresses ... Read review