- by Kaitlyn Dickinson

Would you write a letter to help a stranger?

December 10th is Human Rights day. Every year Amnesty International marks this day with the world-wide letter writing campaign, Write for Rights. “Our messages help convince government officials to release people imprisoned for expressing their opinion, stop the use of torture, and end other human rights abuses. Letter writing has always been at the heart of Amnesty International’s work, and 59 years of activism shows us that words have power.” -writeathon.ca

Write for Rights participants can choose to send letters to government officials, as well encouraging messages to those fighting for human rights and those suffering from, or imprisoned due to human rights abuses.

This year the cases chosen by Amnesty International include:
Khaled Drareni, Algeria - Jailed for his journalism
Jani Silva, Columbia - Protecting the Amazon could get her killed
Paing Phyo Min, Myanmar - Locked up for performing slam poetry for the military
Metu Pride Defenders, Turkey - Prosecuted for celebrating LGBTI rights.

To register for the Write for Rights campaign and learn more about this year’s cases, please follow this link, or head to writeathon.ca. You may also e-mail [email protected] for more information.