Petition to free prisoners of conscience presented by Amnesty International.

/A petition signed by more than one million people who called for the release of all prisoners of conscience held in any country was presented on 8 December by Amnesty International to General Assembly President Jorge E. Illueca and United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Perez de Cuellar. /The Secretary-General said he accepted the appeal with great concern. "In our day and age people should not have to suffer for their conscience, their beliefs or their opinions", he said. /President Illueca said that worldwide appeal was in harmony with the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the General Assembly Declaration on the protection of all persons from being subjected to torture or other degrading treatment and other human rights instruments proclaimed by the United Nations. /The appeal was presented at United Nations Headquarters, in connection with the observance of Human Rights Day, by Suriya Hammarberg of Amnesty International. The non-governmental organization said it had collected over 1,311,854 signatures to the appeal, circulated in 29 languages in 120 countries. /The Secretary-General said it was distressing that there were still many thousands of political prisoners in the world today. In drawing attention to the issue, Amnesty International had once again rendered a valuable service to the entire international community. The organization's previous campaigns against torture, the death penalty, arbitrary and summary executions and now against political imprisonment had served to focus world public opinion on those problems in a special way. /"I want you to know that we at the United Nations are grateful for the work which you are doing with such dedication and skill", the Secretary-General said. "The world owes you a debt of gratitude for your efforts."