Human Rights Club
In September Hailey, Melanie and I were discussing reviving the Human Rights Club we ran two years ago. Inspired by our sessions in the Amnesty International Zurich Gruppe we wanted to find more time to write letters and get people involved. We wanted to put together weekly sessions where people could drop by and write letter to current human rights prisinors globally. We have been doing this for a couple of weeks and have really been enjoying this chance to research human rights victims and take some action writing letters to the Saudi Arabian Government, the Chinese ambassador to Switzerland as well as Human rights prisinors in Iran. One particular prisinor I have been writing for is Ales Bialiatski a prisinor of conscience currently being held in prision in Belarus. After hearing about the horrific human rights abuses in Belarus last year from a activitst at the Amnesty International Zurich Gruppe I have been reading a lot about the political situation there. Ales came to my attention when he won the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Award last september for his bravery and courage human rights work in Belarus which is serving a four year sentence for.
Writing letters to governments can a intimidating task but luckily I have had a lot of experience with it, participating and organizing Amnesty Internationals Annual letter writing campaign at ICS in previous years. Writing these letters is a skill, you must maintain an appropriate resister throughout no matter how passionate or angry about the situation you may feel. It has to be heartfelt, professional and pressuring while being polite. Writing letters to prisoners congratulating them on their bravery it a lot easier and more enjoyable. What is difficult is sometimes the sense that nothing is happening from the letter writing, probably only 1 out of 10 letters we send ever even get opening. It is important to realize even a small effort is still important. If through our letter writing we can get one politician, prosecutor or official to thing twice about a particular prisoner or case we have been successful.
