Skip to content

Amnesty International Yellowknife joins Write For Rights campaign

Volunteers with the Yellowknife chapter of Amnesty International are hoping that millions of letters written around the world in support of people wrongly imprisoned will shine a light on human rights abuses that occur in many countries.
31283089_web1_221214-YEL-WriteForRights-Amnesty_2
Joyce Gilcrest, left, a volunteer with the Yellowknife chapter of Amnesty International, holds the story of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen and a Uyghur human rights activist who was unjustly sentenced to life in prison in China. The volunteers were raising awareness about the Write for Rights campaign on Dec. 10 at the Javaroma coffee shop. Joining Gilcrest were Lois Little, Nancy Trotter and Nancy Cymbalisty. Jill Westerman/NNSL photo

Volunteers with the Yellowknife chapter of Amnesty International are hoping that millions of letters written around the world in support of people wrongly imprisoned will shine a light on human rights abuses that occur in many countries.

“It is a way to try and speak up and defend human rights around the world,” said Lois Little, Amnesty International volunteer, during a Write for Rights awareness campaign held at the Javaroma coffee shop Saturday.

During the campaign, stories and photos were displayed of several victims of injustice who have been either oppressed through detention or who have disappeared: a woman in Russia who spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine; a woman from Cameroon who was imprisoned for attending her first protest; a man in Morocco protesting appalling economic and social conditions in his community — all different situations, but all voicing concern and pleading for positive change.

“Every year, we feature different cases — around five or six — although there are hundreds of cases,” Little said of the examples provided of those whose human rights are being violated.

Dec. 10, 1948 was the United Nations’ (UN) first designated Human Rights Day — the day when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly.

To stand up for the human rights of citizens across the globe, Amnesty International developed the Write for Rights campaign, that, for 25 years, has helped create an impetus for change by giving voice to oppressed and innocent people who dared to express dissent or opposition to corruption, human rights abuses or untenable living conditions.

Although Amnesty International’s Yellowknife chapter consists of a small corps of volunteers, they have mighty intentions.

They explained to people stopping in for their daily coffee how writing letters to various governments that have jailed innocent citizens can make a difference in how the detained are treated or how those letters may facilitate their release from jail.

“It’s amazing. When you get people around the world writing, saying, ‘This is wrong, release this person,’ it happens. Not always, but you never know when that pressure point is going to result in what we are trying to achieve,” Little said.

One instance of a successful outcome was for a water protector in Guatemala who was wrongly imprisoned for defending the water for his people, Little said.

“A half-million people around the world wrote letters. He was released in March. That is an example of what we are trying to do,” she said. “If we educate people, we bring awareness to wrongful convictions and we put pressure on governments and embassies. We write in solidarity to individuals who are wrongly convicted as well.”

Canada no exception

Little said human rights abuses are everywhere, including in Canada.

“We also wrote in support of Grassy Narrows in Northern Ontario, which has decades of abuses from industry and people have suffered from mercury poison. We were writing in solidarity for them, and it did influence the decisions about Grassy Narrows that the government has since taken,” she said. “Solidarity does work.”

No country is immune to human rights abuses, Little said, adding that it’s difficult to determine how many people are actually imprisoned across the world.

“People are disappearing in every country in the world.”

Countries must uphold democratic and human rights for their citizens, she asserted.

“We are moving towards these authoritarian, right-wing times and democracies are fragile and human rights are fragile and we can’t take anything for granted,” said Little.

Volunteer Nancy Trotter said the campaign means a lot to her on a personal level, as she has witnessed first-hand human rights abuses while volunteering in Africa.

“I saw people who were disadvantaged and whose human rights were so fragile. There were people fleeing from persecution related to war in West Africa and Liberia and who didn’t have a voice,” Trotter said. “There is nobody to hear how things are for them, and I feel anything we can do to give people a voice to shine a light on their situation will improve things.

“It doesn’t always mean that people will be freed or released from prison, but their situation can improve by shining a light on their difficulties from the persecution that they received.”

It can get frustrating when human rights advocates are aware that someone suffers while sitting in a very difficult and horrendous situation in a prison for something that would be inconsequential for citizens in Canada, she added.

“I think anything we can do to alleviate that situation goes a long way,” Trotter said, adding that it’s imperative to write letters of support to the family members of those detained to provide support and hope — something very much appreciated by those not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

While, on occasion, the organization receives a reply from other countries in response to their letters, it doesn’t happen often, she acknowledged, adding that letters written to Canada’s prime minister almost always garner a response, however.

Because Amnesty International has a long history of being involved in researching and investigating human rights abuses, Trotter said the organization is aware when effective change occurs and people are released from prison.

“They know what is happening. With social media, we know that much faster than in the past, but we definitely get updates on what is happening with people,” she said.

Amnesty International estimates that since the inception of the Write for Rights campaign, more than 100 people have been freed from various human rights violations.

-By Jill Westerman, Northern News Services