its creation. However, there is no doubt that Benenson was one of the first to consider forming an international organization which, at first, delved into the problems of political prisoners throughout the world. Actually, he and a Quaker friend, Eric Baker, who headed the Friends Home Service Committee in London, collaborated on a book on cases of political prisoners, entitled Persecution, '61, which received attention and began a means of soliciting donations to be used, impartially, to fund campaigns to free or at least defend political prisoners. To raise initial funds Benenson and others created what they called The Appeal for Amnesty. This Appeal had four aims: "to work impartially for the release of those imprisoned for their opinions; to seek for them a fair and public trial, to enlarge the right of asylum for political refugees, and to advocate for effective international machinery to guarantee freedom of opinion" (Rabben 3). As these goals were fine-tuned, the term "prisoners of conscience" replaced the generic "political prisoner" term.
Amnesty International tends to be bound by some specific international "rules", the primary one being the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other international declarations. It is important to emphasize, as one goes through the international organization, that it is non-political and truly impartial, and does not advocate any national "side" in current or recent conflicts. For example, the 2000 Annual Report of AI states, in the foreword written by the current Secretary General, Pierre Sane, "AI has long refused to take a position on whether or not foreign armed forces should be deployed in human rights crises. We neither support nor oppose such interventions. Instead, we argue that human rights crises can, and should be prevented. They are never inevitable" (Sane 1).
There are those Amnesty International critics who claim that AI is a left-wing ...