Editing Peter Benenson

{{Short description|British lawyer and human rights activist (1921–2005)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Peter Benenson
|image         =
|image_size    = 
|caption       = 
|alt           = 
|birth_name    = Peter James Henry Solomon
|birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=yes|1921|7|31}}
|birth_place   = [[London]], England
|death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2005|2|25|1921|7|31}}
|death_place   = [[Oxford]], England
|alma mater    = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
|resting_place = [[Nuneham Courtenay]] graveyard
|resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|other_names   = 
|known_for     = Founding the global human rights organisation [[Amnesty International]]
|parents       = [[Flora Solomon|Flora Benenson]]<br />Harold Solomon
|spouse=Margaret Anderson (?–1972; divorced; 2 children)<br/>Susan Booth (1973<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benensonsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4|title=Peter Benenson|publisher=benensonsociety.org|access-date=17 February 2013|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331050004/https://www.benensonsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4|url-status=usurped}}</ref>–2005; his death; 2 children)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kMUvgWudvcC&pg=PA1961|title=Activists (20th century lives)|author=Philip Steele|year=2011|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-44-883292-7}}</ref>
}}

'''Peter Benenson''' (born '''Peter James Henry Solomon'''; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a [[British people|British]] [[barrister]], human rights activist and the founder of the human rights group [[Amnesty International]] (AI); a global movement of more than 10 million people, currently, and in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses on human rights and to secure the release of political prisoners. 

He refused all honours for most of his life, but in his 80s, largely to please his family, he accepted the [[Pride of Britain Award]] for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prideofbritain.com/contentpages/winners/2001/peter-benenson.aspx |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907100302/http://www.prideofbritain.com/contentpages/winners/2001/peter-benenson.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 September 2012 |title=Lifetime Achievement, Peter Benenson, Founder of Amnesty International |publisher=[[Pride of Britain Awards]] }}</ref> In the 1980s, he became the Chairman of Association of Christians Against Torture. Also, in the 1990s Peter Benenson organized aid for Romanian orphans. He also founded a group to aid victims of celiac disease which he had.

==Early life==
Benenson was born in [[London]] to a large Jewish family,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/benenson.html |title=Peter Benenson hero file |publisher=Moreorless : Heroes and killers of the 20th century |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060218073705/http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/benenson.html |archive-date=18 February 2006 }}</ref> the only son of British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born [[Flora Solomon|Flora Benenson]]; Peter Benenson adopted his mother's maiden name later in life. His father, an army officer, died from a long-term injury when Benenson was nine, and he was privately tutored by [[W. H. Auden]] before attending [[Eton College]]. At the age of sixteen, he helped to establish a relief fund with other schoolboys for children orphaned by the [[Spanish Civil War]]. He took his mother's maiden name of Benenson acceding to his dying grandfather’s wishes, the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] financier Grigori Benenson (1860–1939).

He enrolled for study at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], but [[World War II]] interrupted his education. He served in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] at the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]], where he met his first wife, Margaret Anderson. He worked at [[Bletchley Park]] during World War II in the [[Testery]]. He is listed as RSM Benenson in Room 41 as a cryptographer.<ref>COLOSSUS B.Jack Copeland and others. Page 253. Oxford University Press. Paperback edition 2010.</ref>

==Career==
After demobilisation in 1946, Benenson began practising as a barrister before joining the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and standing unsuccessfully for election at [[Streatham (UK Parliament constituency)|Streatham]] in 1950 and for [[Hitchin (UK Parliament constituency)|Hitchin]] in 1951, 1955, and 1959. He was one of a group of British lawyers who, in 1957, founded [[JUSTICE]], 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]].
 
===Activism===
Benenson had said he was shocked and angered by a newspaper report of two Portuguese people sentenced to prison for subversion during [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|the regime]] of [[António de Oliveira Salazar]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-shipsey/the-toast-to-freedom-that_b_976849.html|title=The "Toast to Freedom" That Led to Amnesty International|work=[[Huffington Post]]|first=Bill|last=Shipsey|date=22 September 2011}}</ref> At the time, Portugal was ruled by the authoritarian [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]] regime, and anti-regime conspiracies were vigorously repressed by the Portuguese state police and deemed anti-Portuguese. He wrote to [[David Astor]], editor of ''[[The Observer]]''. On 28 May 1961, Benenson's article, entitled "[[The Forgotten Prisoners]]", was published. The letter asked readers to write letters showing support for all those imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs. 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 Party (UK)|Conservative]], a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] and a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/29/amnesty-international-marks-50th-birthday|title=Amnesty International marks 50 years of fighting for free speech|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|date=29 May 2012|author=Tracy McVeigh}}</ref><ref>Childs, Peter; Storry, Mike, eds. (2002). "Amnesty International". ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture''. London: Routledge. pp. 22–23.</ref> The response was so overwhelming that within a year various groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries.

==Amnesty International==
Initially appointed general secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill health. By 1966, Amnesty International faced an [[Harry letters affair|internal crisis]]. The advisory position of president of the International Executive was then created for him. In 1966, after a controversial report alleging [[torture]] during the [[Aden Emergency]] went ultimately unpublished, he began to make allegations that the British government had infiltrated the governance of AI.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights Norms|last=Clark|first=Ann Marie|publisher=Princeton UP|year=2010|isbn=978-1400814183|location=Princeton, New Jersey|pages=15}}</ref> An inquiry was set up which reported at [[Elsinore]] in Denmark in 1967. The allegations were rejected and Benenson resigned from AI.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}   

While never again active in the organisation, Benenson was later personally reconciled with other executives, including [[Seán MacBride]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

==Personal life==
Benenson's marriage to his first wife Margaret Anderson ended in a divorce in 1972, he had two children to her, Natasha Benenson and Jilly Benenson. He married Susan Booth in 1973 and had two children, Manya Benenson and Joachim Benenson.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benensonsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4|title=Peter Benenson|publisher=benensonsociety.org|access-date=17 February 2013|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331050004/https://www.benensonsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kMUvgWudvcC&pg=PA1961|title=Activists (20th century lives)|author=Philip Steele|year=2011|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-44-883292-7}}</ref>

==Death==
Benenson died of [[pneumonia]] on 25 February 2005 at the [[John Radcliffe Hospital]], [[Oxford]], aged 83, having been a resident of the nearby village of [[Nuneham Courtenay]] where he was buried.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/international/europe/28benenson.html|title=Peter Benenson, Founder of Amnesty Group, Dies at 83|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=28 February 2005|last=McFadden|first=Robert D.}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*Pincock, S.: Peter James Henry Solomon Benenson (obituary). ''Lancet'', 2 April 2005; 365: 1224.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/peter-benenson-13233.html

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2005/03/03/peter-benenson


==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4300997.stm Obituary], [[BBC]] News
*[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1961/may/28/fromthearchive.theguardian "The forgotten Prisoners" 1961 article (abridged)]

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{{succession box|before=''None''|title=President of [[Amnesty International]]|after=[[Eric Baker (activist)|Eric Baker]]|years=1961–1966}}
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{{Navbox Gandhi Peace Award laureates}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Benenson, Peter}}
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Amnesty International people]]
[[Category:English human rights activists]]
[[Category:Bletchley Park people]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic activists]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism]]
[[Category:English Jews]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:1921 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]]
[[Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:British nonviolence advocates]]
[[Category:Activists from London]]
[[Category:English barristers]]