December 07, 2016

Write like someone's life depends on it

editor:	Vanessa Ellingham

Ever December Amnesty International runs its Write for Rights letter-writing campaign.

Their millions of community members write letters and sign petitions in support of those wrongly imprisoned, to halt human rise abuses, to work to prevent climate change.

In the case of letter writing, they ask people to write two letters. "One is to the person in authority – it could be a king, president or head of police – who can help make change happen. And the other letter is to the person (or group of people) we are fighting for, so they know we will never forget them."

On this year's Christmas letter list: Edward Snowden, defenders of indigenous rights, graffiti protestors in Azerbaijan, among other human rights defenders.

The Amnesty campaign has a track record of success. This year four human rights defenders were freed following the Write for Rights campaign last year. They include a student leader in Myanmar, a torture victim in Mexico, and two youth activists in the DRC.

They list more successes, as well as this year's letter subjects, on their website. This year each imprisoned subject has been illustrated by Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident artist who was previously imprisoned himself for opposing China's regime.