Write for Rights

This Sunday, Dec 10^th, marks the 75^th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Canadian legal scholar John Peters Humphrey was the principal author of the first draft of the UDHR. The Social Justice Team will host our 7^th annual Amnesty International Write for Rights event in the Fireside Room from 12:30-1:30 p.m.  Snacks will be available.

Amnesty International (AI) has offices around the world and they are constantly hearing about human rights violations.  Each year, AI selects 10 cases that they believe are most likely to be influenced by public exposure. Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, well known to the UCV community, credits an international letter writing campaign with his release from jail after he was arrested and imprisoned in 2015.

Please stop by to write a letter.  You choose the case(s) which interests you the most.

This year’s cases from Canada, the U.S., and Australia include: 1) The Wet’suwet’en People who are surveilled, harassed, and criminalized for protecting their lands and water from the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, 2) Rocky Myers who has been on death row in Alabama for 30 years with flawed prosecution, 3) Maung Sawyeddollah who is taking on Facebook for its role in Myanmar atrocities, and 4)Indigenous activists who are fighting to save their ancestral lands, the Torres Strait Islands.  There are additional cases from Brazil, South Africa, Eswatini, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Background material and sample letters will be available for 10 cases.  Paper, pens and envelopes will be provided. We will affix postage and mail your letters.