Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

Kicking off December 5, Amnesty International’s global write-a-thon is a week-long international letter-writing campaign to pressure international authorities to release journalists, politicians, activists, and other human rights defenders who have been unjustly imprisoned. The event is being held in honor of International Human Rights Day on December 10.

Last year, 7,000 people in the United States alone sent tens of thousands of letters on behalf of political prisoners everywhere. In the last two years, participants’ letters have contributed to the release of five individuals serving unjustified sentences. This year’s cases include Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Mansour Ossanlu of Iran, Rita Mahato of Nepal, and many more.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and the founder of the National League for Democracy (NLD), a democratic political party created to challenge the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962. Once the party swept the general election in 1990, the junta refused to transfer power to Suu Kyu, and jailed hundreds of political activists. Suu Kyu herself has spent 14 of the last 19 years in some form of detention. After her case went to trial last May, she was wrongfully sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest.

Mansour Ossanlu, head of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, has served several terms in prison for defending the human rights of workers against discrimination. He is currently serving a five year sentence for his contact with international trade organizations, which authorities ruled was a threat to national security and “propaganda against the system.” In addition, Ossanlu’s health is poor, and prison staff have not allowed him to seek medical care for pre-existing medical conditions and new ones that have arisen as a result of the prison’s poor conditions.

As a health adviser at the Women’s Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) in Nepal, Rita Mahato has spent her career helping women who have suffered acts of violence. As a result, Mahato has been threatened with death, rape, and kidnapping, and become a victim of violence herself – in June 2007, men threw bricks at her office, and then at her and her staff for two hours once they exited the building to confront the attackers. While the WOREC staff filed reports, police did not take action or offer protection. Mahato continues to be threatened and ostracized by her community because of the important work she does – and while most days she fears for her life, she refuses to quit.

This year, Amnesty International has set a new goal of 350,000 letters – and they need your help to call for the release of Suu Kyi and Ossanlu, to offer support to Mahato, and to advocate for other extraordinary individuals that Amnesty International considers prisoners of conscience.

Here’s how it works:

Register at http://www.amnestyusa.org. There, you’ll be able to search for a letter-writing event in your area or learn how to host your own. You can also download more information on each leader who needs your help, including a sample letter and an address to which you can send your completed letters.

If you aren’t able to write letters, check out other ways you can commemorate International Human Rights Day.

Photo by a.drian, flickr.