ABSTRACT
In November 1960, the British lawyer Peter Benenson read a newspaper report about two Portuguese students who had been arrested and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for raising their glasses in a public toast to freedom in a Lisbon restaurant. Benenson wondered how pressure could be brought on the Portuguese authorities to release these victims of oppression, and how public attention could be drawn to the fate of political and religious prisoners throughout the world. His friend, David Astor, then editor of The Observer newspaper, agreed to help and, on 28 May 1961, Trinity Sunday, the paper carried a full page, ‘Appeal for amnesty’, seeking freedom for prisoners of conscience throughout the world.
