The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, so goes the old adage. The Edmonton chapter of Amnesty International intends to prove it with a letter campaign next weekend in honour of International Human Rights Day.
Write for Rights is a worldwide event that works basically like a one-day marathon but with people’s lives and freedoms at its very heart. Amnesty International campaigns to end abuses of human rights anywhere, including Canada.
“It's by far our biggest event of the year,” explained member Kim Thorsen.
Every year, 10 international human rights cases are chosen and all Amnesty groups around the world spend the day writing letters to political leaders. The goal is to help people who are unjustly jailed see their lawyers, get medical treatment, or be set free.
Amnesty says change can be achieved when people come together, and the more people that come along to these events, the more the movement grows. The yearly concerted effort results in a substantial outpouring of pressure.
“All sections all around the world are working on these same 10 cases. Literally last year, we had 6.6 million messages from 200 countries that were sent on behalf of the 10 cases that we had,” Thorsen said.
Letter writing does work, she averred, offering the example of Phyoe Phyoe Aung, a young human rights defender who was arrested with a bunch of other students for peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar. In 2015, her case was part of Write for Rights. She was freed within three months after the campaign.
“It definitely does make a difference, and we're so happy about that.”
The people on this year’s list include journalists, poets, environmentalists, social advocates, students, protestors, and observers of religions not sanctioned by the state. Some of these people were jailed on false charges.
One such individual is Idris Khattak, Pakistan’s expert on enforced disappearances. He spent years documenting this for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. One year ago, he was returning home from Islamabad when his car was stopped. He has not been seen since.
In Pakistan, the authorities use enforced disappearance to silence human rights defenders and other critics as well. According to the non-profit group Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, there have been more than 5,000 reported cases of enforced disappearance in the country.
With Amnesty’s help, Khattak’s daughter began to campaign for his return, despite warnings against such action. In June, the Pakistani Ministry of Defence admitted they had Khattak in their custody and that he would be charged under the Official Secrets Act, though he still remains jailed in an unknown location. If convicted of espionage, he could be jailed for 14 years or sentenced to death.
That’s just one example. There are nearly 24,000 active campaigns listed on Amnesty’s website at amnesty.org.
Thorsen explained her involvement is not only good for enacting change. It’s good for her, too.
“I find there's a lot of people feeling hopeless about the world. I hear a lot of the sentiment ‘Let's burn it all down’ and stuff like that, and I understand their feeling, I really do. But that's why Amnesty International has always been really important to me. It allows me to engage in larger world events, and I don't have to feel helpless. I can take action and do something that might make a difference.”
Write for Rights starts at 12 p.m. on Dec. 12 and lasts for eight hours as a virtual gathering. The event will feature musical guests and speakers including Ava Homa, author of "Daughters of Smoke and Fire," Indigenous housing advocate Chevi Ray Rabbitt, former Iranian prisoner Dorsa Sobhani, Sudanese resistance members Hadya and Omar Osman, Two-Spirit activist Jennifer Lenny, Prisoners Abroad advocate Sarah Birch, and Sebastian Barrera, Chilean musician and activist.
People can join the virtual gathering by visiting act.writeathon.ca/events/write-for-rights-yeg-1. More details on the international effort can be found at writeathon.ca.
