The Olympic Peninsula chapter of Amnesty International invites you to join us in writing letters to free prisoners of conscience from prisons around the world with the Write for Rights campaign, the world’s largest human rights letter writing event. 

Every year around Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders and others at risk of human rights violations.

This year’s cases include Nassima al-Sada, placed in solitary confinement in Saudi Arabia for one year for trying to improve women’s freedoms; Jani Silva, a Colombian environmental rights defender who has faced intimidation for her role in defending the Amazon; and Melike Balkan and Özgür Gür who face charges for participating in an LGBTI+ Pride event at their University.

If you have written letters with us in the past, you will remember our adopted Prisoner of Conscience Azimjan Askarov, who was imprisoned for life in Kyrgyzstan. We were devastated to learn he died in prison in July. Our chapter has now adopted a group of women human rights defenders in prison in Saudi Arabia who have been subjected to torture, sexual abuse and other forms of ill-treatment.

Letters have the power to change lives, and throughout Amnesty International’s 59 years of human rights activism, many people have been freed because of the action taken by activists who participate in Write for Rights. 

Please sign up to write at write.amnestyusa.org and join our Olympic Peninsula chapter by emailing Cheryl Bentley at cbentley@cruzio.com.

Wendy Feltham
PORT TOWNSEND