Work with others
Good things happen when you work together on human rights issues with friends, classmates and neighbours. New friendships. Shared support for values that you feel strongly about. Renewed energy. A stronger voice for human rights in your community or school.
Here are three ways that you can take action together. Choose the option that works best for you. Then tell us what you’d like to do and we’ll help you make things happen.
Option 1: Take action with a circle of Amnesty supporters.
Gather a few people together wherever there is interest - in your school or neighbourhood, in a seniors’ residence, in your workplace or place of worship.
Focus on what really interests you - like the Amnesty supporters who made “solidarity quilts” for human rights defenders in Colombia, or the social issues discussion group that decided to “adopt” for one year Amnesty’s campaign to stop torture.
There are lots of possibilities to fit your interests and time.
- Involve members of your reading, stitching or sports club in Amnesty’s upcoming campaign on the human rights of women. Include novels or poems with a human rights theme, create a patchwork quilt in celebration of women human rights defenders, or organize a “Run-For-Women’s Rights” fundraising event to support the campaign.
- Involve local writers or visual artists - or students in your classroom - in a creative human rights project, like our recent Artists’ Network project that invited people to create banners on the theme of “Imagine a world without torture.”
- Hold a “benefit” event in support of Amnesty’s human rights work - like a dance-a-thon or Amnesty music or theatre evening.
- Ask neighbours in your apartment block or students residence to “adopt” a person featured in an Amnesty appeal - then work with others to create petitions, posters and other publicity materials for your own human rights campaign.
Seek out opportunities near at hand. Build on what excites you. Look around for who can help and who you enjoy working with.
Option 2: Participate in the Amnesty group in your community or school.
There are Amnesty action groups and informal circles of Amnesty supporters in communities throughout Canada. There could be one in your community. >> Check here.
Get connected to the Amnesty group in your school by contacting youth@amnesty.ca or checking out our Youth and Student Program.
Option 3: Participate in one of Amnesty’s special interest networks
Respond to human rights emergencies through our Urgent Action Network.
Or join a network with a professional or other specific interest, such as our Medical Network, Women’s Action Network or Artists’ Network.
Across Canada, Amnesty network members participate as individuals or in small, informal circles - it’s your choice.