AMSTERDAM — Amnesty International gave the former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick its Ambassador of Conscience Award on Saturday for his kneeling protest of racial injustice, which began a sports movement and might have cost him his job.

Eric Reid, one of Kaepernick’s former San Francisco 49ers teammates, presented him with the award. In his acceptance speech, Kaepernick described police killings of African-Americans and Latinos in the United States as lawful lynchings.

“Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation — the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex,” Kaepernick said.

Kaepernick first took a knee during the pregame playing of the American national anthem when he was with the 49ers in 2016 to protest police brutality.