Moose Jaw’s arm of Amnesty International has been dormant for the last two years, but member and founder Lorna Arnold is ready to revive the group once again.
Arnold and the two remaining members have been hard at work organizing a reboot of the Moose Jaw club, which will begin by taking part in Amnesty International’s annual Write for Rights campaign on Dec. 10.
Write for Rights is an international letter-writing campaign that is purposely planned to take place on Human Rights Day every year, to address human rights violations internationally.
Amnesty International selects 10 human rights cases to highlight, all of which are from countries that have signed the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and encourages people to write letters, share Tweets, and sign petitions supporting these actions.
This year, one of the cases featured is someplace close to home: Grassy Narrows, Ont. The campaign will collect letters to send to the Government of Canada calling for action on the continued issue of mercury poisoning in the English-Wabigoon River, which has seriously affected the health and traditions of the community for decades.
Other cases include 15-year-old Magai Matiop, who has been sentenced to death in South Sudan, and José Adrián, a deaf teen who was wrongly brutalized by police in Mexico over vandalism he didn’t do.
The influx of messages and publicity from Amnesty International can make an incredible difference in every case. For many, the support has secured release from imprisonment and stopped torture practices, among other things. For other cases, letters written to the individuals have bolstered their hope.
While writing a letter may seem like a small action to offer, Arnold emphasized that every word can make an incredible difference.
“Even the actions that supposedly were not successful, the people who are released from prison however many years down the road look back and can see that, at the time of the action, all of a sudden they got better food, they got health care, there was less abuse of the prisoners in their cell,” said Arnold.
In Moose Jaw, the Amnesty International group will be set up at St. Andrew’s United Church on Dec. 10 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., with a number of pre-written letters and letter templates for those wanting to take part in the Write for Rights campaign.
Arnold invites anyone from the community to come write a letter and also encourages people to look through Amnesty International’s campaign website, where the option to sign up for updates or participate online is also available.
Although it’s possible to be involved with Amnesty International purely through the web, Arnold finds that activism deserves to have a community of support.
“If it wasn't for the support of the groups, how they helped me process these stories about the things that have happened to these people,” said Arnold, “I probably would have dropped it years ago because it was emotionally too draining.”
Currently, around 2.8 million people are a part of Amnesty International, working to protect human rights around the world, and Arnold hopes that Moose Jaw will join the cause.
“We will see how many people come out to support us, but the main purpose of it is to make people aware,” said Arnold.
She welcomes anyone to join the Amnesty International Facebook group, and to stop by at the meetings that will begin after the Write for Rights event, every month on the second Tuesday at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew’s.
