December is Write For Rights month!
Every year, during the week of Human Rights Day (10 December), Amnesty International invites its members and the general public to participate in the Write for Rights event, where you write letters on a variety of human rights issues, supporting human rights defenders or protesting prison conditions throughout the world.
We will be writing letters to government officials protesting the abuses to which these people have been subjected. And we will also be sending cards to the prisoners of conscience and activists directly, to encourage them in their struggle! Bring some non-demoninational greeting cards with you if you can.
Join in one of Amnesty International’s public events
Participate in our Write For Rights event
Please join us for one of the public events listed on this page! If you are unavailable on those dates, you can also sign up to Write For Rights as an individual (write letters on your own), or come to one of the events hosted by someone else. See here for more details!
Join us in Irvine
Irvine, Sunday 8 December 2019
and others listed on the Amnesty International website. You can find our event on the Amnesty Internatinal map by searching for zipcode 92604.
Write For Rights: Irvine, Sunday 8 December
When
Sunday 8 December 2019
10:30 – 13:00 (10:30 AM to 1:00 PM)
Where
Irvine United Congregational Church
4915 Alton Parkway, Irvine, California 92604
Who
Sponsored by Amnesty International Group 178 (Irvine) and the Irvine United Congregational Church.
What
Write For Rights! Write a letter to help a prisoner of conscience.
How much
Free
An RSVP is appreciated but not required. You can RSVP with an e-mail to ai_irvine@aiusaoc.org.
Google Map to the Irvine United Congregational church
This year we will be writing for
Belarus Jailed teenager yearns for freedom Emil Ostrovko was 17 when he was arrested and badly beaten by police officers. Now 19, he is serving an eight-year prison sentence for a minor drug offense, crushing his plans to go to university. He is one of thousands of children and young people serving long prison sentences in Belarus for petty drug offenses. They are forced to do hard labor for long hours and treated more harshly than other offenders. | |
Canada Growing up with mercury poisoning Over the past 50 years, toxic mercury has poisoned rivers and fish vital to the Indigenous Anishinaabe community of Grassy Narrows. Because of government inaction, generations of young people have grown up with devastating health problems and the loss of their cultural traditions. In 2017, the government promised to deal with the mercury crisis “once and for all” – the community’s youth are determined to get them to keep their promises. | |
China Taken from his family Yiliyasijiang Reheman and his wife Mairinisha Abuduaini were expecting their second baby when Yiliyasijiang went missing. Both were studying in Egypt when in July 2017, the government rounded up about 200 Uyghurs – a predominantly Muslim ethnic group from China’s Xinjiang region – forcing some back to China. Mairinisha believes her husband is now among up to 1 million mainly Muslim people locked up in secret camps in China. Help her find him. | |
Egypt Disappeared from the streets of Cairo Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested on 11 June 2019 near his home in Cairo. But the police say they don’t have him, and his family have no information about where he is or what has happened to him. It gets worse: he’s the fifth person linked to his organization, which documents and campaigns against human rights violations in Egypt, to have been arrested. Across Egypt, hundreds of people are being disappeared by the state simply because they or their families oppose or criticize the government. | |
Greece Facing jail for saving lives In Greece, you can go to jail for saving lives. It happened to rescue workers Sarah Mardini, 24, and Seán Binder, 25, because they volunteered for a sea search and rescue organization in Lesvos. They helped people in danger at sea, many of whom were fleeing abuses in their countries. But they ended up in prison charged with spying, people smuggling and belonging to a criminal organization. | |
Iran 16 years in prison for standing up for women's rights Yasaman Aryani, an actor who loves climbing mountains, dared to defy Iran’s forced veiling laws in Iran. With her hair boldly uncovered, she handed out flowers to women passengers. A video of her brave act of defiance went viral in March 2019, prompting Iran’s authorities to arrest her. Now Yasaman has been sentenced to a shocking 16-year prison term – all because she believes women should have the freedom to choose what they wear. | |
Mexico Arrested and beaten by police José Adrián was minding his own business, walking home from school, when police jumped him and threw him against their car. Adrián had stumbled onto the aftermath of a clash between a group of youths that ended up damaging a police car. Police arrested only Adrián, a Mayan boy, with no explanation. They strung him up and beat him, then released him after making his parents pay a fine and the cost of damage to the police car. | |
Nigeria Shot while defending his home Nasu Abdulaziz loves football and cycling – normal pastimes for a young person in Nigeria. Except that Nasu’s circumstances are nowhere near normal. Between November 2016 and April 2017, Nasu and his community in Lagos were evicted without warning from their century-old settlement. Men came with guns and bulldozers, and razed their homes to the ground, leaving 30,000 people homeless, including Nasu. Today, Nasu and his peers are demanding to live in dignity. | |
Philippines Fighting to save her community from climate change Marinel Sumook Ubaldo was 16 when she knew she had to fight to find a way to protect herself and her community from the disastrous effects of climate change. She survived the deadly Ty- phoon Yolanda in 2013 to become a leading youth activist, dedicated to ensuring governments around the world confront climate change and tackle its effects on her community, and others like them. Support Marinel. | |
South Sudan Sentenced to death at 15 Magai Matiop Ngong was a schoolboy when he was sentenced to death for murder in an inci- dent which, he told the judge, was an accident. Only 15 years old, he did not have a lawyer to help him until after his trial. Two years later, at 17, he is on death row in Juba central prison, surviving on the hope that he will win his appeal against his execution and get back to school. |
To read more about this year’s cases, see the Amnesty International website.