Eric Baker (activist)

Eric Baker (22 September 1920 – 11 July 1976) was a British activist and one of the founders of the human rights group Amnesty International, and the second general secretary of the organization. He was also a founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Baker was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and served as head of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness, an organization of Quakers in Britain working to promote and practise the Quaker testimonies of peace, equality, simplicity and truth.

His resting place is the Quaker Meeting House in Maldon, Essex, England where he attended Meeting For Worship on a Sunday. Men, women and children still attend this meeting today.

A pacifist, Baker was registered as a conscientious objector during World War II. His description of justifying this to his tribunal remains in the current revision of the British Quaker Faith and Practice. During the war, Baker worked on the "Famine Relief" campaign, raising funds to send food to the war-torn European continent, educate the British public, and pressure the government. From 1946 to 1948 he ran a Quaker centre in Delhi, India.

Baker was general secretary of the National Peace Council from 1954 to 1959. In this role he wrote an article entitled 'Psychological warfare a challenge to democracy', and a policy statement on a 'Campaign to secure international agreement on the prohibition of nuclear weapons', Dec 1959.

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