Amnesty International: Write for RIghts Day

WRITE FOR RIGHTS IN SUPPORT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Halifax, NS. – December 10 is International Human Rights Day and the date of Amnesty International’s biggest letter writing event: Write for Rights. This year, the Halifax Action Circle, a chapter of AI, will host an event December 9, 2007 at Just Us! Café, 5896 Spring Garden Rd. from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It’s goal is to write 500 letters and raise money to pay for the postage required to mail the letters.

Write for Rights unites people from around the globe on Human Rights Day to use the power of letter-writing to help release those who have been wrongfully detained and to influence world leaders to protect individuals or people whose human rights have been denied.

“Letter writing can have a profound effect on the lives of real people,” says Nadine Barnes, Amnesty member and organizer of this year’s event in Halifax. “World leaders who think they are operating with impunity can have quite an awakening when the international spotlight hits them in the form of hundreds or thousands of letters landing on their desks. Prisoners can be released or receive needed medical attention or have their lives otherwise improved when the world shouts together.”

Here are a few examples of the power of letter writing. Thai authorities released Sok Yoeun, a Cambodian opposition party member following an Amnesty letter-writing campaign. Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, was released after six years in prison for political activities. Vietnamese authorities released Le Chi Quang who had been arrested by police in an Internet café and accused of distributing anti-government propaganda.

“We know that persistent letter writing helps to improve the lives of at least one-third of those we try to help,” says Barnes.

The focus of this year’s Write for Rights campaign includes, among others,:

• The Lubicon Cree of northern Alberta who have seen their their health, economy and traditional way of life devastated by logging and large-scale oil and gas exploitation. There is no treaty between the Lubicon and the Government of Canada despite promises dating back 70 years.
  
• Coquette Nsinga is a 25-year-old student. Police officers arrested and beat her, detained her in isolation, and raped her, all because she belongs to an opposition political party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC).
  
• Shi Tao is a freelance journalist, writer, and poet from Taiyuan, Shanxi province who has been imprisoned for sending an email regarding the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
  

Amnesty provides all the information needed to write a letter. Just Us! will provide a free coffee or tea for each donation to Amnesty International. The goal of the Halifax event is to write 500 letters and raise money to cover postage.

Can't make it to Just Us!? You can access case files on the Amnesty website. (http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/)

As well, Amnesty has created a 30-minute video loop with clips that interlaces comments from people who have been helped by the power of letter writing with information pieces. This can be found at Right for Writes T.V. at: http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/w4rtv.php. Examples of good news stories can be found here: http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/good_news/.

For Write for Rights television, please tune into: http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/w4rtv.php.

Colleen