About Groups and Action Circles
There are approximately 100 local and regional Amnesty Groups and Action Circles in communities across the Canada. Groups work on our current campaigns, participate in letter-writing appeals, take positions on current Amnesty voting issues, and participate in special projects. Some take on long-standing appeal cases or campaign on specific regions in the world. Each group is different. They range in size from only a few members to up to a hundred members. Many have their own web site and do fundraising in their own communities.
Official Amnesty Groups are registered formally within the international movement of Amnesty International. Action Circles are much like Groups, but operate less formally. In some centres such as Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal, there are numerous active Amnesty groups or regional bodies that coordinate local activity, such as AITO in Toronto.
There are also hundreds of Youth & Student groups in high schools, colleges and university campuses. For more information, please visit: http://www.amnesty.ca/youth/index.html.
The work of all of these groups is part of what makes Amnesty an effective grassroots organization and ensures that Canada is a country that speaks out for the human rights of everyone.