Abstract
After being founded as an organisation for the protection of political prisoners in 1961, Amnesty International moved into the fight against torture after the Greek Coup of 1967. This change was gradual, and part of the organisation’s evolution was its advocacy against torture in early 1970s Northern Ireland. After the outbreak of crisis in the late 1960s and lasting up until the ‘Good Friday’ Agreement of 1998, ‘the Troubles’ of Northern Ireland were a period of violence, terrorism and political unrest. The 1970s were a crucial time in the international history of human rights and the fight against torture, and during these years several allegations were made of ill-treatment and torture in Northern Irish prison facilities. This master thesis presents the key aspects of Amnesty International’s work against torture in Northern Ireland from 1971 to 1975. In doing so, it explores the political circumstances of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ and how these effected key members of the Amnesty leadership. Amnesty’s International Secretariat was based in London, and this thesis tells a story of Amnesty’s internal conflicts of political impartiality. The aim is to shed light on the prominence of Northern Ireland in Amnesty’s global fight against torture, and to show how the evolution of the organisation’s international advocacy is mirrored in its continuing advocacy for ‘Prisoners of Conscience’ in Northern Ireland.