Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights organization, has died at the age of 83.

Benenson founded Amnesty in 1961 as a one-year campaign for the release of six Portuguese prisoners of conscience and, in the first few years of its existence, supplied much of the funding for the organization, went on research missions, and was involved in all aspects of the organization's affairs. Other activities he was involved in during his lifetime included adopting children orphaned by the Spanish Civil War, bringing Jews who had fled Hitler's Germany to Britain, monitoring trials as a member of the Society of Labour Lawyers, helping to set up the organization Justice, and establishing a society for people with coeliac disease.

"Peter Benenson's life was a courageous testament to his visionary commitment to fight injustice around the world," said Amnesty's secretary general, Irene Khan. "He brought light into the darkness of prisons, the horror of torture chambers, and tragedy of death camps around the world. This was a man whose conscience shone in a cruel and terrifying world, who believed in the power of ordinary people to bring about extraordinary change, and by creating Amnesty International he gave each of us the opportunity to make a difference."