ABSTRACT
Amnesty appropriated the language of ‘human rights’ in a way that clearly associated it with fundamental freedoms – the freedom of speech and religion, for example – which distinguished the West from its ‘totalitarian’ rivals. During the 1970s, Amnesty’s early anti-communism diminished as a larger number of people started to influence the organisation’s decision-making processes. Amnesty’s assistance to ‘prisoners of conscience’ undoubtedly constituted crucial acts of international solidarity. Regarding the assistance to Brazilian political prisoners, Amnesty had to come to terms with its own principle of non-violence since many of these prisoners had previously belonged to armed groups. The Brazilian Communist Party was openly against the use of violence, and this political decision made its members more likely to be adopted by Amnesty. The plight of Brazilian political prisoners was a distant concern for most people in Europe and in the United States.
