Peter Benenson

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Person.png Peter Benenson   WikiquoteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(lawyer, spook)
Peter Benenson.jpg
BornPeter James Henry Solomon
1921-07-31
London, England
Died2005-02-25 (Age 83)
Oxford, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materEton
Parents • Flora Benenson
• Harold Solomon
SpouseMargaret Anderson
Founder ofAmnesty International

Peter Benenson (31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a British lawyer and co-founder, with six others including Seán MacBride, of human rights group Amnesty International (AI) in 1961.

Large Jewish family

He was born in London as Peter James Henry Solomon, to a large Jewish family, the only son of Harold Solomon and Flora Benenson; Peter Benenson adopted his mother’s maiden name later in life. His army officer father died when Benenson was aged nine from a long-term injury, and he was tutored privately by W. H. Auden before going to Eton. He took his mother’s maiden name of Benenson as a tribute to his grandfather, the Russian gold tycoon Grigori Benenson, following his grandfather’s death.

Spooky mother

Flora Benenson was a long-time friend of British intelligence officer Kim Philby. She introduced him to his second wife Aileen. Whilst working in Spain as the Times correspondent on Franco’s side of the Civil War, Philby proposed that she become a Soviet agent. His friend from Cambridge Guy Burgess was simultaneously trying to recruit her into MI6. But the Soviet resident in Paris, Ozolin-Haskin (code-name Pierre) rejected this as a provocation. Had both moves succeeded she would have become a double agent. In 1962 when Philby was the correspondent of the London Observer in Beirut, she objected to the anti-Israeli tone of his articles. She related the details of the contact to Victor (later Lord) Rothschild, who had worked for MI5.[1]

Army intelligence

Peter Benenson enrolled for study at Balliol College, University of Oxford but World War II interrupted his education. He worked in Army Intelligence at the Ministry of Information where he met his first wife, Margaret Anderson. Benenson then worked at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre, in the "Testery", a section tasked with breaking German teleprinter ciphers.[2]

Writing for justice

After demobilisation in 1946, Benenson began practising as a barrister before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election at Streatham in the 1950 General Election. He was one of a group of British lawyers who founded Justice in 1957, the UK-based human rights and law reform organisation. In 1958, he fell ill and moved to Italy to convalesce. In the same year, he converted to the Roman Catholic Church.[3]

In 1961, Benenson was shocked and angered by a newspaper report of two Portuguese students from Coimbra, Portugal sentenced to seven years in prison for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom[4] during the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. He wrote to David Astor, editor of The Observer. On 28 May 1961, Benenson's article, entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners", was published.[5] The letter asked readers to write letters showing support for the students. To co-ordinate such letter-writing campaigns, Amnesty International was founded in London in July 1961 at a meeting of Benenson and six other men, who included a Conservative, a Liberal and a Labour MP.[6][7] The response was so overwhelming that within a year groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries.

Initially appointed General Secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill health. Two years later, Amnesty International faced an internal crisis and Benenson alleged that the organisation he co-founded was being infiltrated by British intelligence. The advisory position of president of the International Executive was then created for him. In 1966, he began making allegations of improper conduct against other members of the executive. An inquiry was set up which reported at Elsinore in Denmark in 1967. The allegations were rejected and Benenson resigned from AI. While never again active in the organisation, Benenson was later personally reconciled with other executives, including Seán MacBride.[8]

Award

In 2001, Benenson received the Pride of Britain award for Lifetime Achievement.

 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Amnesty International: Imperialist ToolArticle23 October 2012Francis BoyleEffectively, Amnesty International and AIUSA function as tools for the imperialist, colonial and genocidal policies of the United States, Britain, and Israel.
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References

  1. "IS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANOTHER ROTHSCHILD MI6 ZIONIST TOOL?"
  2. "GCHQ, Atlas and Virginia Tech: Jack Good". Computing at Chilton: 1961–2003. Retrieved 12 October 2011.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  3. "Peter Benenson" (PDF). Pax Christi.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  4. "Peter Benenson – Biography". Amnesty International.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  5. Benenson, Peter, "The Forgotten Prisoners", The Observer, 28 May 1961. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
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  7. Childs, Peter; Storry, Mike, eds. (2002). "Amnesty International". Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture. London: Routledge. pp. 22–23.
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