A candle entwined with barbed wire is the symbol of Amnesty International. This organization campaigns for the protection of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961. The organization now has over 2.2 million members in 160 countries and strives worldwide for full observance of the Universal Declaration. Amnesty works for the release of prisoners of conscience, the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time for other prisoners, the abolition of torture and the death penalty, to halt other serious human rights abuses such as excessive government force and attacks on civilians in war zones.

Since the past few years, social, economic and cultural rights have also come under the scope of Amnesty's work, for example in preventing discrimination in access to health care, education or housing.

Through unusual actions the organization focuses attention on people who are imprisoned because of their convictions. At the beginning of 2008, for instance, Amnesty organized a letter writing action for Tibetan monks who had been detained by the authorities because they refused to denounce the Dalai Lama. Because branches of Amnesty in various countries participate in these actions, governments which violate human rights are bombarded with protests from all corners of the world at the same time. It is mainly volunteers participating in these campaigns who have ensured that Amnesty has expanded to become a factor that governments have to reckon with.

As well as Amnesty International, organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Aim for Human Rights and the Red Cross are dedicated to protecting human rights. History shows that individuals can also have a big impact on the observance of human rights. This can be seen from the lives of human rights advocates like Martin Luther King (United States), Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma).

Violation of human rights does not only occur in dictatorships or war situations. In democracies too, human rights can be at issue for all kinds of reasons. The United States, for instance, has held terror suspects for years at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba without any form of trial. And in the Netherlands, security measures were taken after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which are sometimes at odds with civil liberties, such as the right to protection of personal details. Here we have a dilemma between individual rights and the interests of the society which wants to defend itself against the threat of terrorism.