Write for Rights

We're still celebrating the release of scores of prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, including student leader Phyoe Phyoe Aung, on April 8!

And now we get to take a moment to reflect on how amazing March was for human rights – activists were released, unfair laws were changed, and people who committed serious human rights abuses were brought to justice. We’ve picked out 15 successes, wins and pieces of good news, and they were all made possible thanks to your support.

>> For the latest good news stories, click here!

 

To mark the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Edward Snowden talks to Amnesty about how governments are watching everything we do online, and why we must bring mass surveillance back under control. Follow Ed on Twitter @Snowden

Today, the government is granting itself the power to police every citizen’s private life. Every man, woman, child, boy, girl. It doesn’t matter who you are, how innocent or not innocent you are, they are watching everything you’re doing. They’re intercepting it, analyzing it and storing it for increasing periods of time.

The fact that we’ve got agencies like the GCHQ looking through webcams into people’s bedrooms, into the four walls of their homes, is terrifying. The NSA is collecting billions of phone location records a day, so they know where you got on the bus, where you went to work, where you slept and what other cell phones slept with you. We have to ask: “Do we want to live in a society where we live totally naked in front of government, and they are totally opaque to us?”

 

THANK YOU to all Write for Rights participants for creating amazing momentum on December 10th, International Human Rights Day! 

We could actually feel the wave of energy from east to west as thousands of Canadians gathered from coast to coast to write letters, tweet and even draw pictures for our annual global letter-writing marathon.

Supporters of all ages organized a record-breaking 1,700 public and private events in homes, schools, cafes, workplaces and more to send strong human rights messages to world leaders and to stand in solidarity with people facing human rights abuses. 

FIND AN EVENT NEAR YOU

Hundreds of Write for Rights events have been organized in communities across Canada in the days leading up to International Human Rights Day, 2015.

See the map of all public events on the Write for Rights webpage, or check out some of the major events here:

 

City

Location

Date

Time

Organizer

Aurora

The Rectory, Trinity Anglican Church
79 Victoria St
 

Did You Know That Your Social Media Has the Power to End Human Rights Abuses?  

These days, many government bodies and heads of states have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Some of these state authorities are the same once who have the power to end the human rights abuses at hand in this year’s Write for Rights cases.

Amnesty International is asking activists from all around the world to use their social media channels for human rights. Below you’ll find sample social media posts that you can use to #Write4Rights:
 

 

 

Albert Woodfox

Facebook:

Albert Woodfox has spent over 40 years in solitary confinement- 23 hours a day alone in a small cell even though no physical evidence links him to the crime the state says he committed 43 years ago. Demand his release NOW: http://bit.ly/1m04yFS

Twitter:

By Catherine Brunelle, Write for Rights Support Team

Have you ever wanted to make a difference, but then felt totally overwhelmed by that massive idea? We all have the potential to impact our world for good, often by simply supporting a cause already in motion. 

Amnesty International is inviting you to help change lives on December 10, International Human Rights Day, with the world's biggest grassroots event for human rights: Write for Rights! Last year we sent 3.2 million letters and messages for human rights from 143 countries. Here's a list of 10 ways you can get involved:

 

1. Start with the simple stuff

My name is Moses Akatugba. For 10 years I was on death row in Nigeria.
 

I was arrested, tortured and imprisoned when I was just 16 years old. I was sentenced to death.

Police officers beat me with machetes and batons. The pain I went through was unimaginable. 

This May, my execution was halted and I walked free. Your Write for Rights letters saved my life. Thank you.

Please, help others who are being subjected to human rights abuses, as I was. Sign up for the 2015 Write for Rights campaign.

I am proof your Write for Rights letters work.

Without the thousands of letters sent in support of my case, I might never have been granted my freedom. Three other people were pardoned with me.

Amnesty International activists like you are my heroes. You’ve inspired me to become a human rights activist – to fight for others.

Will you join me? Will you fight to free the unjustly imprisoned as a participant in this year’s Write for Rights?