A "Disappearance" in Honduras
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Imagine what it would be like if your husband -- or wife -- left the house one morning, for work, and simply...disappeared. Let that word burn into your brain just for a second. Disappeared. It usually means murdered. I want you to meet Nora Lopez and hear her story."
-Leonard Nimoy
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"I think human rights are everybody's business, not just the business of people who are being persecuted or killed or disappeared. It affects us, one way or the other it affects us."
-Nora Lopez
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Ken Saro-Wiwa: "The Struggle Continues" Nigeria
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"This next story takes us through a sequence of events that began years ago when oil was discovered in the southern part of Nigeria, and North American and European oil companies realized that they stood to make a lot of money. But this is also the story of one man who had the courage to say, "this is not right." His name, Ken Saro-Wiwa."
-Levar Burton
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"Oppression is wrong, whether it is done by whites on blacks or blacks upon blacks. The military governments of Nigeria have sat on other Nigerians in a way that is just as evil and bad as what was done in South Africa and it must stop."
-Ken Saro-Wiwa
For more information about Amnesty's work on business and human rights
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Prisoner of Conscience Cuba
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"Does it really work? A lot of people ask that about what Amnesty International does. And sadly, not always. But when it does -- it's a beautiful thing to watch."
-Peri Gilpin
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"I am happy because my son is finally free, in this country, but at the same time I am suffering because other political prisoners are in jail because they express freely their ideas."
-Ishmael Sambra, whose son was imprisoned for five years for expressing his political beliefs.
Act Now for human rights
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Child Soldiers Sierra Leone
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"When you're a soldier, and part of the military, you get to carry a gun. And in times of war it's your job to kill people. But what happens when the soldiers...are ten years old. A decade ago most people had never even heard of a place called Sierra Leone, today we're all too familiar with the name, and sadly we know it as a place where children are forced to kill."
-Richard Gere
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In most countries mistaking this little boy for a sniper would be unthinkable, but not here, where young children are forced into the line of fire. He's beaten and taken away in the back of a truck to almost certain execution.
For more information on Child Soldiers
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Honour Killings: Please Call it Murder
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"She was a young bride who decided to marry the man she loved. But her family had other ideas. They attacked her and beat her with machetes and left her for dead. But she didn't die. When the family found out she survived they took her to court and had her thrown in prison for marrying a man they didn't approve of."
-Susan Sarandon
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Women in Pakistan are being killed in alarming numbers, many of them burned to death. In this one hospital 7 or 8 are wheeled in every week. The doctors say most are deliberate attacks. Only one in ten survive.
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"How can you not feel the pain when you see a person living a violation, when you see a person, you know absolutely absolutely gasping in a way to survive. In a society that is violent, that is brutal and that is totally insensitive to women's plight."
-Hina Jilani
For more information on the practice of honour killings
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Children in Prison Nicaragua
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They say unless you've actually been there, it's impossible to understand what prison does to you. And it's got to be even harder to understand what it's like for someone put in prison when they're only fourteen years old...What belongs to Lionel and Nancy, belongs to all of us. Basic human rights. Which no-one has the right to take away."
-Martin Sheen
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Children in Nicaragua are held in adult prisons, often without being charged or tried. They are the victims of the police, who beat them in order to extract confessions. They are also victimized by adult prisoners, with whom they share overcrowded cells.
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"Nobody, whether in a developing country or in a poor country, whether a rich kid or a poor kid should be treated in that unfair manner, and ultimately that's what our organization is about. It's being able to rectify injustices - to make unfairness fair and to give hope to those who have lost it. And that's why we have to work harder and continue to do what we do, what we can do so well - which is to work with other people to try to ensure that more people like Lionel and Nancy find the sort of justice and fairness that they not just deserve but that belongs to them as human beings."
-Roger Clark
Former Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada
Tell us why you support Amnesty International
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"Absolutely, Amnesty saves lives. We know of thousands of men, women and children who have been released from prison cells from which they would never have been released. We know of killings which have been prevented."
-Alex Neve, Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada
Lives have been changed thanks to Amnesty supporters like you
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Amnesty gets this kind of letter all the time:
"...my son disappeared two years ago. Night after night I used to cry myself to sleep, but I don't do that any more. I used to sit and wait by the door and picture him coming through it, and holding him in my arms once again. I don't do that any more. I guess I really know he's never coming home. God help me."
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We live in a world that is full of cries for justice but it's a world that we can change, with your help. Please call to become a member of Amnesty International -- right now. Just do it.
-Richard Gere
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1-800-AMNESTY (266-3789)
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"I know that lives will be saved, the struggle for human rights will continue, and prisoners of conscience will be set free. Please join me and all the others who've come together to bring this message to you."
-Dini Petty
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"I hope every story you have seen and heard has convinced you...to step forward, and offer to help and say 'Yes, I will join Amnesty in the fight for human rights'. We need that support from you - financial support and support that comes from your heart".
-Susan Sarandon
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Support Amnesty International
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