Innovating for impact: How Amnesty is leveraging WordPress for change

Amnesty International share the story of humanity at this year’s WordCamp US

Women's Day protest in Mexico

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After launching its open source WordPress theme earlier this year, developed in partnership with Big Bite, Amnesty International took to the stage at WordCamp US 2024 to highlight how the world’s leading CMS is amplifying its mission for human rights.

Held in Portland, Oregon, this year’s WordCamp US introduced Showcase Day – a new addition designed to spotlight the most innovative uses of the open source platform – so we were delighted to see Amnesty International share its WordPress journey at the inaugural event.  

Delivering an engaging talk, the organisation’s product owner, Austin, gave valuable insights into Amnesty’s history and how WordPress is playing a pivotal role in its current and future campaigns. A leader in combating discrimination, advocating for those facing injustice and ending human rights violations, Amnesty has evolved into a global movement of 10 million people since it was founded in 1961, acting as the voice of those who need it the most. Today operating across five continents with offices in 19 countries, its international reach is greater than ever, and as a result its digital presence plays a key role in mobilising the movement, with its WordPress platform powering both global and regional activism.

Charting Amnesty’s digital transformation

In his talk, Austin shared an overview of Amnesty’s WordPress transformation, which began in 2018 when the organisation was managing just two websites with separate codebases – neither of which were reusable. As demand for microsites and support with web pages increased for various campaigns, creating new sites and pages from scratch became incredibly inefficient, leading Amnesty to seek a unified digital solution that it could easily share throughout the movement. This prompted Amnesty to choose WordPress as its CMS due to its speed, security and interoperability, and also to partner with Big Bite thanks to our ISO accreditations, commitment to accessibility, shared values, and extensive experience of building scalable publishing solutions for global brands. 

Within the same year, we launched the first WordPress-based site for Amnesty, marking a turning point in how the organisation manages its web presence. During the talk, Austin recounted how the project rapidly expanded from there, allowing multiple country sections to manage their digital presence independently but with a consistent framework. In 2021, we also went on to transition Amnesty’s primary website, Amnesty.org, across to WordPress, integrating custom blocks and multilingual support for English, French, Spanish, and Arabic content. Today, over 45 regional sites operate on the same WordPress infrastructure, showcasing how this evolution has improved the organisation’s ability to mobilise activists globally.

Powering local activism with a global theme

Austin also showcased Humanity – the organisation’s latest open source WordPress theme. Released in 2024 and built by Big Bite, this theme was another major step in Amnesty’s digital transformation. By providing a suite of custom blocks that allow for various content types, the theme empowers regional sections to quickly and easily build web pages and microsites. Importantly, it also gives users complete roadmap and production transparency, as well as the flexibility to produce content and build on top of the theme without compromising on the organisation’s established brand identity.

In addition, Humanity offers robust multilingual support, enabling content to be created and published in 17 languages. This means teams can effectively manage localised content while using the shared infrastructure to customise their digital presence, all while supporting Amnesty’s global mission. 

Austin further highlighted how the Humanity theme empowers sections to respond quickly to local developments, giving teams the autonomy to manage their sites efficiently while enabling Amnesty to remain agile in its advocacy efforts worldwide.

47 sites launched using Humanity

Deployed in 28 countries

17 languages supported

28 bespoke Gutenberg blocks



Calling for collaboration and contributions

Looking ahead, Austin shared details about the future of Amnesty’s digital platform, focusing on how the organisation is shifting from custom-built blocks to core WordPress blocks and patterns. This move aims to reduce development complexity and maintenance time, and enable Amnesty to take advantage of the latest innovations now available within WordPress, including full site editing capabilities. 

As part of Amnesty’s commitment to open source development, Austin also took the opportunity to extend an invitation to the WordCamp audience, encouraging developers, activists, and tech enthusiasts to contribute to the Humanity theme and its associated plugins – all of which are open to the public. In his closing remarks, he stressed that whether someone is a seasoned developer or simply passionate about human rights, there are many ways to get involved in the movement. Contributors can test the theme, report issues, suggest new features, or localise content for different languages via GitHub, where the Humanity theme is hosted. External organisations can also lend support through corporate social responsibility programmes, offering both technical and non-technical contributions to further Amnesty’s cause. 

By continuing to partner with Big Bite while encouraging collective involvement, Amnesty aims to continuously enhance its digital tools and ensure that its global movement for human rights is equipped to respond to the challenges ahead. Together, these efforts will play a crucial role in furthering Amnesty’s mission and adapting to the ever-evolving landscape of advocacy.


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