Write for Rights - our December event
On Saturday 10th December 9am-1pm we will be writing messages of solidarity and friendship on greetings cards as part of Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign.
Our stall will be in the foyer of the Cheese and Grain.
Every December, Amnesty supporters from across the globe write millions of letters and cards. It is one of the world’s biggest human rights events. Since its inception, Amnesty’s Write for Rights has been phenomenally successful. People who were unfairly imprisoned have been freed; human rights defenders who have been threatened and harassed by authorities have been able to live freely without intimidation, and forced evictions have been halted. Sending a message of support to those whose rights are being abused and also to the authorities on that person’s behalf is so powerful. Imagine drowning in thousands of letters of encouragement and solidarity – in fact, imagine the officials who will see and deliver thousands of cards to the victims and their families.
It shows the authorities that the individual is not alone and that all over the world thousands of people are standing up with them, and for them.
Here are just two examples of people who released as a direct result of last year’s write for rights campaign… In April 2016, student leader Phyoe Phyoe Aung was released from prison in Myanmar after more than 394,000 Amnesty supporters took action for her and on his 69th birthday, 19 February 2016, Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox walked free – 44 years after he was first put into solitary confinement in the USA. More than 200,000 people took action.
Saturday 10th December is also Human Rights day so what better way to spend it than to join the global letter writing marathon!