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Over the past month, the story of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and subsequent death inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, grabbed headlines around the world.  Renowned journalists have paid tribute to Khashoggi and his work, and Amnesty International is calling on UN Secretary General António Guterres to set up an independent investigation so that we may know the truth of what took place. Canadians from coast to coast have rightfully expressed their outrage over this brutal act, which is only the latest in series of troublesome developments coming out of the Saudi kingdom. Think of Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, a fine, a travel ban, and 1,000 lashes for exercising his freedom of expression. Think of Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan, and Aziza al-Yousef, three women’s rights activists who remain imprisoned without charge.

People often assume that the world is divided neatly into two groups of people, male and female, and that everyone’s biological and genetic characteristics fit into one of these two categories.

But this is not always the case. There are millions of people around the world who have sexual characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Many, though not all, of these people identify as intersex.

Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural variations that affect genitals, gonads, hormones, chromosomes or reproductive organs. Sometimes these characteristics are visible at birth, sometimes they appear at puberty, and sometimes they are not physically apparent at all.

According to experts, around 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits - comparable to the number of people born with red hair.

Our global letter-writing marathon is  now more than 15 years old, and bigger and better than ever before.

It started in Poland with a young man trying to impress a young woman. He met her at a festival and she told him about 24-hour events she’d been to in Africa, where people wrote letters of protest to governments. Inspired by her story – and wanting to see her again – he invited her to his local Amnesty group where they decided to do the same thing.

The idea caught on and within a year, Write for Rights grew into a global letter-writing phenomenon. That was 2002. Today, Write for Rights is the world’s biggest human rights event, and with good cause. Over the years, the campaign has helped free at least 48 people from wrongful imprisonment. That’s 48 lives renewed and transformed – thanks to millions of actions by people like you in almost every part of the world.

Here are just 15 highlights from the last 15 years – reason, if any, to get writing for rights this year.

It was a day of expectation, emotion and drama. The long awaited first day of the trial of 8 men charged with involvement in the murder of iconic indigenous rights and environment defender Berta Cáceres.

The case has attracted considerable attention, in part because Berta was so well known and the recipient of a prestigious Goldman Environmental prize for her efforts to oppose a controversial hydroelectric dam and its impact on the territory and rights of marginalized Indigenous communities.

Police in riot gear were ominously present as I arrived at the court house in my yellow Amnesty vest, making visible to all that our global movement of 7 million supporters will be observing the trial in the hope of ensuring impartial justice, while respecting the independence of the Honduran judiciary.