Amnesty International USA is mounting a campaign to recruit 10,000 new members during September to help it carry out its biggest ever Global Write-a-thon. Through the Write-a-thon — the world’s largest annual grassroots human rights event — thousands of Amnesty International members come together for one great purpose: to free prisoners of conscience from jail and bring brutal human rights abuses to an end.
The 2008 Write-a-thon helped secure the release of Ma Khin Khin Leh, a young mother accused of helping to plan a demonstration in Myanmar and sentenced to life in prison. Amnesty members wrote tens of thousands of letters seeking her release
Other recent successes through pressure from Amnesty International and its members have been the release from prison of American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who was given an eight-year prison sentence on trumped up charges of espionage and the release on bail in July of Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Shadi Sadr who was beaten and abducted in the streets of Iran; targeted for her work as a human rights defender. AI has also contributed to getting a stay of execution for Troy Davis, who was sentenced to death in Georgia for a crime he says he didn’t commit. In August, following public pressure, the Supreme Court of the United States granted him the chance to present his strong claims of innocence.
Amnesty remains one of the world’s strongest grass-roots movements and protector of human rights. With groups all over the world, its work is vital in a world where human rights are continually threatened, not just by South American, Asian and African dictatorships but, increasingly, by western governments such as America and the UK.
Sadly, it seems that Amnesty’s work – and that of other human rights groups – will be required throughout the world for a very long time to come.
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