Human Rights Day (December 10) was the 75th anniversary of one of the world’s most groundbreaking global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This landmark document enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948 and sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.
If you dropped into the Arlington Five coffee house on Sunday, December 10, Amnesty Ottawa-Gatineau members were there to greet you while you waited for your coffee. We introduced Amnesty International and the Write-for-Rights campaign. It was a great day, people were very receptive, many discussions were had and over 300 people signed petitions in support of the 11 human rights defenders featured this year.
Meanwhile, over at the Amnesty Canada National Office, people from the community dropped in to sit and write letters to demand human rights. Amnesty Ottawa-Gatineau members were there to greet people, provide materials, discuss cases and to simply chat as friends. There was food and entertainment to make the day complete. Over 250 letters were written, and many signatures were gathered on petitions.
Write for Rights events are a reminder that you can make a “big” difference by doing something “little”. Writing a letter, sending a tweet, signing a petition. Since Write for Rights started in 2001, millions of people have changed the lives of those whose human rights had been stripped from them. In fact, since 2001, more than 50 million actions have been taken, while over 100 people featured in our campaign have seen a positive outcome to their case! Taking just a little bit of time to send, post or write a letter really does make the world of difference to the people we have supported through the campaign.
And it’s not too late to participate!! Write for Rights actions can be taken into mid-January, so there is lots of time to act.
- You can sign petitions here: https://join.amnesty.org/page/135292/petition/1.
- You can find all the resources you need to write letters and take other actions here: https://amnesty.ca/write-for-rights/
Please join thousands of other Canadians supporting human rights around the world.
