A few years ago a group of students at my school decided something was missing and that was an Amnesty International society at our school. They took up the responsibility of performing powerful campaigns, raising vital funds and representing Amnesty within our school community. Now, only a few years on, Amnesty is the biggest youth group at my school, with charity days being dedicated to raise both money and awareness and membership numbers growing every year.
Amnesty International is, as described on their website, a global movement of over 7 million people; working together to protect men, women and children where they are denied of freedom, justice or dignity. It is currently the largest grassroots human rights organisation, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for their life-saving work.
Last year, the school’s Amnesteam took part in the Write for Rights Campaign, where groups write directly to embassies and officials in order to grant amnesty to innocent individuals victim to a dismissal of their human rights. We helped Zunar, a Malaysian artist who faced 9 charges for his tweets and artwork speaking out about the Malaysian government, demonstrating how people everyone lack the freedom of speech. Additionally, we wrote El Salvador regarding Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, who was sentenced to a 30-year imprisonment for having a purely medical stillbirth, on terms of murder through abortion. As imaginable, this method of direct action and lobbying cuts out any middle man and works effectively to actually transform people’s lives, making it easy for us to see the reality of the impacts we have on helping. Furthermore, we chose to also focus our work on the refugee crisis, donating our fundraising money to L’Auberge des Migrants.
Amnesty choose to tackle a large range of issues at once, only possible due to the extensive support they receive by people like you and me. Amongst these are the death penalty, freedom of speech and torture. To get behind Amnesty and support their cause, you can become a member free of charge and take part in campaigns, petitions and more. Another option is to show your support my donating once, or a monthly amount, and if you feel others in your area may also be interested, there’s a whole section on their webpage on how to start your own local Amnesty group. However, there may be a group in your neighborhood, school or university up and running anyway! Find out here.
