Your Voice Has Power: Writing For Human Rights

Every year, Amnesty International holds a two-week event during this time of the year (it’s to coincide with Human Rights Day on Dec. 10) called Write for Rights. Also known as the Letter Writing Marathon, Amnesty chooses 12 people or communities for activists to take action on by writing letters on their behalf. The idea started 12 years ago in Poland, when a local group coordinator was organizing an event at a festival when an attendee told him that, in Africa, they stage 24-hour letter-writing events crafting protests letters to the government. That local group coordinator ended up doing a 24-hour letter writing marathon, told others about it, and from there turned it into an annual international tradition known as Write for Rights.

Although you don’t have to do it “Polish-style” and write letters for a full day, you can participate in the marathon by writing letters for this year’s Write for Rights, which started Dec 2 and runs until Dec 17. Ordinary people all over the world face human rights abuses on a daily basis, and your voice has the power to protect these people and to ensure that justice is upheld.

Writing a Letter Really Does Work

It’s easy to say that events like Write for Rights won’t make any difference because foreign governments won’t bother reading these letters, or that governments don’t care about the thoughts and opinions of foreigners. However, during last year’s Write for Rights, 77 countries took a record 1.9 million actions and some of that action helped to free Shi Tao in China.

Chinese journalist Shi Tao wrote an email in April 2004 summarizing a government order directing media organizations within the country to downplay the upcoming 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists. The email was sent from his Yahoo account to a pro-democracy website in the United States. In November 2004, Tao was arrested and charged with “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending this information, for sending this one email.

Hundreds of thousands of people, in response to his arrest, wrote letters to call for his release. Shi Tao’s case was one of the 12 cases during the Write for Rights in 2006 and during Amnesty’s Beijing Olympics campaign, where over 100,000 signatures were collected on a petition demanding his release. Finally, Shi Tao was released on August 23, 2013. Granted, it took much more than one letter to free Shi Tao. It also took many more letters and much more persistence than the two weeks of last year’s Write for Rights event to get out of jail, when all Tao did was peacefully exercise is right to freedom of expression. But, when many people come together for a common goal, such as providing justice for Shi Tao, great things can happen.

Write a Letter for People like Dhondup Wangchen

Shi Tao may have been the latest success of writing for rights, but he doesn’t have to be the last! The Letter Writing Marathon begins again, this time you can start by writing a letter on behalf of Dhondup Wangchen, who is currently serving a six-year sentence for “inciting separatism.” He was sentenced in December 2009, and prior to his sentencing, Wangchen was held without charge for over a year where he was beaten and deprived of sleep and food. Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker who chronicled and called for Tibetan human rights in his films. Wangchen also has Hepatitis B and has not received medical treatment for the condition. His current status is unclear at this time.

Take action now for Dhondup Wangchen and demand that he is released immediately and unconditionally. He is one of the 12 cases for this year’s Write for Rights. Every marathon begins with a single step, and the single step for this Letter Writing Marathon can be taken by writing a letter on behalf of Dhondup Wangchen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3u-ZTB_cY