Write for Rights: World’s biggest human rights event returns for Human Rights Day 2022 – Amnesty International

Activists across the globe will mark this year’s Human Legal rights Day by taking part in the world’s greatest human legal rights event: Amnesty International’s Create for Rights campaign. Held annually since 2001, Compose for Legal rights sees people in more than 200 countries and territories take millions of actions in support of individuals whose human rights are under attack.

Reflecting the growing global threat to the right to protest—and tying in with Amnesty’s new global Protect the Protest campaign —Write for Rights 2022 is campaigning for 13 individuals who have paid a great price for speaking out. This year’s campaign includes the lawyer from Hong Kong jailed for encouraging people to light candles in order to commemorate the particular Tiananmen Square crackdown; an Iranian man jailed plus tortured with regard to peacefully protesting against inequality and political repression who has been held in solitary confinement for a lot more than two years; and three Zimbabwean activists who were abducted, beaten, sexually assaulted and jailed because of their activism.

“Year after year, Write for Rights offers a reminder associated with the enduring power of collective action. The strategy has shown time and again that when enough people come together and challenge injustice along with one voice, authorities do listen plus lives can be transformed, ” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Everywhere you look across the world, the right to protest is coming under assault. Over the particular last 12 months alone, through Iran to Cuba and beyond, we’ve seen a host of protest movements met with repressive government responses. It’s only fitting that regarding Write intended for Rights 2022, activists are usually speaking up in solidarity with those who are paying a heavy price to get speaking out. ”

This particular Human Legal rights Day, a number of Write pertaining to Rights events will be taking place across all regions of the world. These include a concert in Cote D’Ivoire, the half-marathon within Zimbabwe, plus public letter writing occasions in Belgium, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Mali, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. Further events will take place globally throughout December.  

Every December, people around the world write millions of letters, emails, tweets, Facebook posts and postcards in support of those people who are unjustly persecuted. Write meant for Rights has helped transform the lives of more than 100 people given that 2001, freeing them from torture, harassment, or unjust imprisonment. In 2021, more than 4. 5 million actions were taken.

Last year’s campaign featured Guatemalan teacher and environmental activist, Bernardo Caal Xol , who had been sentenced in order to more than seven years in prison on bogus charges aimed at preventing his work to protect his people’s land plus resources. Create for Rights 2021 saw more than half a million activities taken on his behalf and, in March 2022, he was released. In a video message to Amnesty Worldwide activists, he said:  

“I, Bernardo Caal Xol, a member associated with the Maya Q’eqchi’ people of Guatemala, am grateful to each and every one of you. You possess given me hope for the justice, liberty and equality that must prevail in every individuals and nation. ” 

Across all areas of the entire world, state authorities are implementing an expanding array of measures in order to suppress dissent. Protesters throughout the globe are facing a potent mix of restrictions, with a growing number of laws and other measures to limit the best to protest. These include avoiding, forbidding, plus criminalising protests, excessive and unnecessary use of force, the particular unlawful utilization of law enforcement equipment, unlawful arrests plus detentions, the expansion associated with unlawful mass and targeted surveillance, internet shutdowns and online censorship, and nuisance and stigmatization.

People who face inequality plus discrimination, whether based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, occupation, social, economic or migratory status are also a lot more affected by limitations on their right to protest and encounter harsher repression.

This year, Write designed for Rights is featuring thirteen people whose lives have got been negatively impacted by governments’ crackdown on the correct to demonstration:

• Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer from Hk who will be serving 22 months in jail just for encouraging people on interpersonal media in order to light candles to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown.
• Vahid Afkari, who  was sentenced to decades in jail and 74 lashes for  joining  protests against inequality and politics repression within Iran, and whose family  have  been  repeatedly  targeted  for seeking truth plus justice, including through  the  arbitrary detention  last month  of Vahid’s sister Elham. According to state media, she was arrested in connection along with the current wave of protests sweeping the particular country.
• Zimbabwean activists Joanah Mamombe, Netsai Marova and Cecillia Chimbiri, who were abducted, defeated, sexually attacked and jailed for protesting, then charged with faking their ordeal.
• Shahnewaz Chowdhury, who faces prison within Bangladesh for writing the Facebook post raising concerns about the potential negative environment impact of a new power plant.
• Dorgelesse Nguessan, a hairdresser from Cameroon, sentenced in order to five many years in prison after she attended her first ever protest.  
• Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was sentenced to five years in prison within a maximum-security jail in Cuba right after posting a video in which he said he would attend a protest.
• Zineb Redouane, an 80-year-old woman who was killed by the reckless use of a tear gas grenade within France. Police officers were using tear gas to disperse protesters within the streets below the girl apartment when a police officer fired a tear gas grenade in Zineb’s direction. It hit her in the face plus she died from the girl injuries. No one has already been charged or even suspended over her tragic death.
• Nasser Zefzafi, who is serving 20 yrs in jail in Morocco for his involvement in a peaceful protest movement demanding improvement to healthcare, education and employment opportunities in his region.
• Yren Rotela and Mariana Sepulveda, 2 trans women from Paraguay who have been barred from legally changing their names simply by the authorities.
• Aleksandra Skochilenko from Russia, who encounters up in order to 10 years within prison with regard to opposing Russia’s invasion associated with Ukraine.

Background

Compose for Legal rights began 21 years ago in Warsaw, Belgium, when a group of friends decided to celebrate Human being Rights Day time with a 24-hour letter-writing marathon. From 2, 326 characters in  2001  to 4. 5 million letters, twitter posts and petition signatures within 2021, Write for Rights has grown into the world’s biggest human being rights event. For more information about Write regarding Rights, see here . For a lot more information regarding Amnesty International’s Protect the particular Protest marketing campaign, see here .