On December 10, 2017 – International Human Rights Day – Amnesty International supporters in Canada and around the world took part in Amnesty’s annual Write for Rights write-a-thon, the world’s largest letter-writing event, now in 80 countries.
From coast to coast across Canada more than 1,500 private and public Write for Rights events took place in support of human rights defenders! The global total is already at more than 1.9 million letters, with many, many more yet to be reported.
People took part in Write for Rights events of all kinds, indoors, outdoors, in homes, churches, community centres, pubs, cafes, at work, over lunch, over dinner or over coffee. Events were organised and attended by schools, universities, friends, family, community members, some were open to the public and some were more intimate settings. The one common thread connecting all of these events happening across every province in Canada and beyond – is the many letters that were written to authorities calling for justice and the many messages of solidarity that were sent to frontline human rights defenders.
Amnesty supporters got creative with their letter-writing events. Members in Stratford ON created beautiful solidarity messages for human rights defenders.
We are thinking about you #NiYulan and support your work. 我们记挂着你, 支持你的工作！#WeDefend #W4R2017 @AmnestyNow https://t.co/PbGyjkJYFx pic.twitter.com/qT7uGcw5A4
— Amnesty Stratford ON (@StratfordAI) November 25, 2017
Lots of creative solidarity cards at our #WriteForRights event today! #W4R17 #WeDefend #craftivism #humanrights pic.twitter.com/KC09HTyb8N
— Amnesty Stratford ON (@StratfordAI) December 9, 2017
Activists in St John’s kicked off their letter writing event with a musical performance in the Jumping bean cafe.
Choirs inpired letter-writers with musical performances in Stratford and Ottawa to keep the spirits up throughout the day.
A beautiful job by our #WriteForRights choir!
“Angel By Your Side. “
Join us… we’re here til 3pm…https://t.co/sCYizd9R3B @AmnestyNow pic.twitter.com/WcTVVIn9sX
— Amnesty Stratford ON (@StratfordAI) December 9, 2017
Just Voices Choir is here! Thanks for keeping us writing with your beautiful voices #w4r17 #WriteForRights #ottawa pic.twitter.com/SAVOeOfcYh
— AmnestyCanada (@AmnestyNow) December 10, 2017
Human rights defenders came out to engage people in Write for Rights events in big cities and small towns across Canada.
Woohoo! Amnesty supporters around the world did it again. Hundreds of thousands of letters have been written to human rights defenders at risk. #WriteForRights #W4R17 pic.twitter.com/QQBKvXu9Z4
— AmnestyCanada (@AmnestyNow) December 10, 2017
Many students and teachers in schools and universities took part in Write for Rights – using the opportunity to raise awareness about human rights and the risks that human rights defenders around the world take for freedom, justice and equity.
It’s been a busy week for @LHSAmnesty this week. Assemblies and our stall for #WriteForRights in the Max today and lunchtime. S1 and S6 assembly today was the biggest audience that we have had! @MrAuldLHS pic.twitter.com/JCDsRKUkLY
— Mrs Marshall (@MrsMarshallRMPS) December 15, 2017
A number of activists participated in an Instagram takeover to share some stories from the Write for Rights events they were participating in with us.
This is just a few of the highlights from this year’s Write for Rights campaign in Canada. We are still gathering information from participants and event organisers about the action letters and solidarity messages sent and people are still sending in pictures to us to share the ways they pariticpated in Write for Rights. We’ve started to put together a facebook album with photos from various events and letter writing happening in Canada and around the world.
If you haven’t taken time to report back to us about your event – please do take some time to do that via http://www.writeathon.ca/ and do share your favourite pictures with us at writeathon@amnesty.ca
