Every year to mark Human Rights Day on 10 December, hundreds of thousands of people around the world send a letter and sign an online petition on behalf of someone they have never met, as part of Write for Rights. Our messages help convince government officials to release people imprisoned for expressing their opinion (called “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty), support human rights defenders, stop torture, commute death sentences, and end other human rights abuses.
Volume matters. This year, with your help, we want to surpass 4 million actions and make a difference in the lives of all 12 cases. To join Write for Rights, please sign up now*!
3 Reasons to Join Write For Rights
- It Works. Your words can make a difference—we hear over and over from former Write for Rights cases that letters from people like you helped change their lives. View Recent Successes
- It’s Easy. After you sign up, you’ll receive all the materials you need to write letters on this year’s cases. Then simply send your letters, and let us know how many you wrote! If you’re a teacher, you can Write for Rights in the classroom with your students.
- It’s Powerful. You’ll be joining the biggest grassroots human rights event in the world. From now through December, hundreds of thousands of people in over 100 countries will sit down to write letters on behalf of someone they have never met. They bring their friends, family, school and community together to advocate for human rights around the world, and here at home.
*They have built different sites for the campaign, according to the country: Canada, The Netherlands, Mexico, the UK, the USA...
I undertook a similar exercise way back in 1968. Anthony Grey OBE (born 5 July 1938), a British journalist for Reuters was imprisoned by the Chinese government for 27 months from 1967 to 1969. Ostensibly he was jailed for spying, but really in retaliation for the colonial British government jailing eight pro-Chinese media journalists who had violated emergency regulations during the Leftist riots in British Hong Kong. China demanded the release of the eight before Grey would be released. While the eight were eventually released, China then demanded the release of a further 13 Chinese jailed in British Hong Kong. The British Hong Kong government refused. Grey was able to communicate by mail with his mother and girlfriend back in England, but was only allowed two 20-minute visits by British consular officials in the first 17 months of his confinement, and was never formally charged. He was released in October 1969 after 27 months of captivity and after thousands of people wrote to the Chinese government on his behalf.
ReplyDeleteGlad to read it. These letters are a drop in the ocean, I know. But if sometimes, for someone, it works...
DeleteHow good to attract our attention, thank you Eva!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, John, for sharing your experience.
The Dutch website for the 'writing marathon' is http://schrijfmarathon.amnesty.nl/
I'm glad that I inspired you! Now I've seen on your IG that you wrote some letters too :DDDD
Delete(I added the link, just in case someone else needs it.)