What’s in a word? More precisely, what’s in a letter? Originally a way to express deeply personal thoughts and communicate with loved ones, the popularity of the letter fallen over the years.

And yet, every year, people around the world get together on 10 December, World Human Rights Day, to write letters. They write to people who are locked up unfairly – and to their family members. They write to the government leaders who put them there and demand they release them.

Last year, Amnesty supporters from around the world – like you – took an unprecedented 5.5 million actions as part of our global letter-writing marathon, Write for Rights. Your carefully crafted letters, drawings and postcards brought strength and comfort – and enough force to unlock prison doors. Their collective impact was undeniable.

1. Mahadine was freed

In April, Mahadine, an online activist in Chad, walked free after spending more than 18 months in prison on fabricated charges. He had been facing a life sentence for a Facebook post critical of the government. Supporters took more than 690,000 actions for him, including this solidarity card, read by his son.

“I want to express my gratitude to you all. I appreciate you, I love you, I respect you. Humanity.”

– Mahadine, online activist, Chad

2. Ni Yulan is safer

China’s Ni Yulan has braved decades of violent harassment for standing up for those evicted from their homes. Thanks to the hundreds of thousands who wrote in support of her, her situation has improved. “Due to the international attention [on my situation], the police have reduced their assaults, verbal abuse and violations of my rights,” she said.

“Thank you to those of you who wrote for me. Your generous support has not only helped me but also advanced China’s human rights.”

Ni Yulan

3. Hanan received urgent healthcare

Hanan Badr el-Din had been demanding answers from the authorities since her husband disappeared at their hands in July 2013. Her experience led her to co-found an association for families whose loved ones had similarly disappeared in Egypt. But her work was cut short in May 2017, when the authorities arrested her on false charges. Hanan’s health deteriorated in prison, but thanks to the more than half a million people who took action for her, she received the care she needed. Her family say this is a direct result of the international attention focused on Hanan through Write for Rights.

4. Clovis’ activism was rewarded

Clovis’ dedication to saving Madagascar’s precious rainforest put his life in grave danger. But with his inclusion in Write for Rights came global media attention which has changed his situation in his native country. Today, local organisations show open support for him, awarding him a prize for his environmental activism. “I don’t know how many letters I received, but it’s in the thousands,” he said.

“I have even received letters from school children from Canada, all the way to Amsterdam. It is incredibly touching, and really gives me courage. The Amnesty campaign has made a massive difference for me, because it has echoed my story worldwide. And now, I am on my way to receive the prize of 2017 Brave Malagasy. It makes me really proud, and it makes me want to continue the fight.”

5. Xulhas’ family felt supported

Xulhaz Mannan’s brave defence of LGBTIQ rights in Bangladesh, which ended in him being murdered in his own living room, touched people across the world. Hundreds of thousands of people demanded justice for him, while also sending words of friendship and support to his family. “I have just received the packs and opened one or two to find the cards and letters – amazing,” said his brother Minhaz.

“So much care and love for Xulhaz, can’t believe my eyes, thanks to all of you for this.”

6. MILPAH lives to fight another day

The MILPAH Indigenous Movement has braved threats and intimidation in Honduras as they defend their land against corporations bent on exploiting that land for profit. But with global support, members of the movement have said their safety has improved. “It is thanks to Amnesty International and other international organisations that we are still alive,” they told us.

“We haven’t been able to read all of the letters but they’ve come from so many countries around the world. We are happy and proud to have friends from all over the world: children, young people, adults. We thank you for the support. It gives us strength. We do not feel alone. It gives us more courage and with this we continue defending human rights and the environment.”

7. Sakris has the support of thousands

Sakris Kupila is a medical student, youth activist and defender of transgender rights in Finland. When he first started working with us, things weren’t easy. He was being harassed, feeling isolated, and was facing lots of hostility – even at university. But being part of Write for Rights gave him a platform and the respect he deserves. “I’m less of a token or strange object and more of an individual who happens to be trans, and other things besides that,” he said.

“It is unbelievable to see how many people took action and cared.”

8. Shackelia’s message has gone global

More than half a million people echoed Shackelia’s calls for justice in the killing of her brother Nakiea. Reflecting on her long-standing campaign and the impact Write for Rights has had, she said:

“It is no longer a national outpouring of solidarity but a global one. Just the commitment towards writing letters to the Prime Minister and the things that are achievable as a result of that, it made me feel that I was in the best position in pursuit of justice…I saw the kind of resources that this activism takes and I was happy that Amnesty International was able to support me in this.”

9. Farid and Issa feel protected

Human rights defenders Issa Amro and Farid al-Atrash have taken a peaceful stand against Israel’s illegal settlements in the city of Hebron and other places in the occupied West Bank for years. And for years they have faced harassment and repeated arrests for their activism. But with Write for Rights turning the world’s attention to the authorities, the two men say they feel protected. “We never knew how much support we had from all over the world,” said Farid.

“People stood with us in order to pressure the Israeli authorities to drop all the charges against us and to stop harassing human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We thank Amnesty and its supporters for standing with us and for highlighting our case in the Write for Rights campaign.”

10. Taner and the Istanbul 10 know the world is with them

Nearly 875,000 people wrote for the freedom of Amnesty Turkey’s chair Taner Kiliç and the Istanbul 10. Although the Istanbul 10 are no longer in prison, their freedom is still at risk, and Taner remains locked up. All are under threat simply for defending human rights. We continue to fight on until Taner is free and the charges against all are finally dropped. Günal Kurşun, one of the Istanbul 10, told us he kept the very first solidarity letter he received in his back pocket for good luck at his hearing in January.

“I was writing postcards and letters 15, 20 years ago, for different AI [Amnesty International] campaigns to Colombia to Egypt to Myanmar, I remember. Twenty years later I have now received letters…Thank you very much for sending, this is very valuable for me.”

Thanks for being a part of our campaigns in 2018. We have so much work to do and your support makes us strong. Here’s what’s coming up for the rest of the year…

BRAVE

“Without the kind of people who create a vibrant civil society, there is a greater inequality. This is something our Amnesty community will continue to fight for in 2018.”

It can feel like the world has never been more dangerous for people willing to fight for justice.

Governments around the world, and here at home, are enacting laws and policies which impinge on freedoms of association, assembly, and expression. This means that those individuals brave enough to speak out in support of human rights are being threatened, imprisoned and silenced.

They may be journalists, community workers or people just like us who’ve decided that enough is enough. And when they speak out, we speak out. We want to stand in solidarity with these people and their communities. We will do this by recognising and sharing their struggles and doing everything we can as a worldwide movement of over 7 million people, to keep them safe.

We will continue to ask you to show your support by signing our petitions, speaking with your local MPs and sharing the brave stories of human rights defenders with your friends and family.

Find out more

Indigenous Rights

“Let’s make 2018 the year in which this country takes large strides towards finally showing Indigenous people the respect they deserve.”

Indigenous children are being locked up across Australia at rates 25 times higher than non-Indigenous children. We want to end this disgraceful situation within a generation.

The entire justice system is stacked against these kids. Indigenous children are significantly more likely to be arrested, placed before the Children’s Court, refused bail and incarcerated than non-Indigenous children.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

This year, through our Community is Everything campaign, we will continue building national support to create lasting solutions to this injustice.

We will be working directly with Indigenous organisations and community leaders, so that they make the decisions which affect their own communities.

We will approach every level of Government and work with elements of the justice system to research, educate and eliminate practices which contribute to Indigenous youth incarceration.

And of course, we will be there to call out instances of abuse wherever they may occur within the justice system.

Finally, our team will also be pushing to change the date of Australia Day so that all Australians can celebrate together.

Find out more

Refugees

“The world’s system for protecting refugees is broken – both here in Australia and around the world. Locking up people in open-air prisons on Manus Island and Nauru has only resulted in immense suffering and deaths.”

In 2018 we are going to push harder than ever for the right solutions. We want a vastly improved
community sponsorship program here in Australia, one which allows safe access for additional
numbers of refugees.

This model harnesses the goodwill and knowledge of the community in order to provide the solutions this country so desperately needs.

We’re asking our supporters to approach their local government/councils, businesses, faith and
community groups to share our Better Plan for refugees – with revamped community sponsorship
being a key component of this comprehensive plan.

Canada’s community sponsorship model has worked, where over 275,000 people have been safely resettled since the late 1970s.

Australia’s current version of community sponsorship is failing, but we know it can work. We’ll tell you more about it throughout the year, and what you can do to help us make it happen. Let’s create real change together.

To complement this, as always, Amnesty will expose what is occurring on Manus Island and Nauru. We will hold our Government accountable. We will amplify the voices of those being held there, and demand these innocent people are brought to safety.

Find out more

Crisis Response

“This year we will continue to carefully monitor conflicts across the globe, and be at the ready for any escalating situation which may arise. No matter how complex or hopeless a situation may appear, will be there.”

 

When crises and conflicts erupt around the world, Amnesty is there.

We know that it is the disproportionate suffering of innocent civilians which so often accompanies violent conflicts. This is particularly the case for women and children caught in the middle.

Someone needs to be there on the ground as it happens, and ensure these people are not forgotten. Our work concentrates on documenting the violations of human rights that are
committed. We’re on the side of the survivors of these abuses, as well as those who sadly
never make it.

We listen, and we act.

Through research and firsthand accounts, we protect the most vulnerable people, and build pressure to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice. You ensure our research teams are equipped with everything they need to react as soon as a crisis occurs.

Find out more

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in 2018 before the US Senate, after admitting that up to 87 million people may have had their data improperly shared with the company Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica’s ties to the Trump campaign have made data harvesting headline news, but this story is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

The scandal engulfing Facebook has forced many of us to face up to the reality of how our personal data is collected and shared online, and highlighted new human rights challenges that have arisen in the digital age.

So if you’re concerned about how your personal data is being used, what can you do about it?

Sadly, it’s virtually impossible to avoid data harvesting completely. Many of us depend on social media and even if you have been outraged by Facebook’s failure to safeguard your data you may not want to delete it.

But it is possible to limit how much companies can track you. Here’s our three-step guide to the basics:

Understand the risks

Firstly, it’s important to understand who is collecting your data and why.

Google, Facebook and Twitter are the companies that track you most online, and if you use their services they also have detailed individual profiles on you. They use these profiles to deliver targeted ads, and to personalise their services so you want to keep using them.

Although most of the information that you share privately on these platforms can only be accessed by your friends and the companies themselves, weak and confusing default settings can result in some information being made public or shared with third parties. This is where “data brokers” and data analytics companies come in.

Cambridge Analytica is just one of many companies whose whole business is amassing and selling people’s data.  These companies collect and combine both the data we make public, such as what we “like” on Facebook, with the huge amounts of data we produce unknowingly, from our voter registration records to our online browsing behaviour. This allows them to create increasingly detailed profiles of people.

Online data tracking and profiling can be perfectly legitimate, but it also bears human rights risks. It can threaten users’ rights to privacy, as well as freedom of expression, since people’s fears of being tracked can lead them to change their behaviour online. It also poses a risk of discrimination, as companies – and governments – could easily abuse data analytics to target people based on their race, religion, gender, or other protected characteristics.

Control your privacy settings

Now you know the risks, decide what information you want to share on the main platforms in future. This is the time to check your privacy settings on your social media platforms – reviewing the amount of data that’s been amassed can be eye opening!

Many platforms have the means to limit tracking, they just don’t make this the default. The trick is finding the setting and switching it off, where possible.

A good place to start is the Facebook “Privacy Checkup” (on any Facebook page, click on the ? symbol and go to Privacy Checkup) which will walk you through who can see your posts and profile, as well as showing any third party apps that have access to your data.

Check the list of apps carefully and remove any you don’t recognise. The Cambridge Analytica scandal stemmed from the ability of third party apps on Facebook to access and share users’ data.

Facebook has since been forced to limit the extent to which these apps can access your data, but it’s possible these rules may change to be more permissive again in the future.

There’s now also a specific tool to check if your data was shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Google also provides a “Privacy Checkup” at https://myaccount.google.com/privacycheckup. Here you’ll be given the option to delete information that’s already been collected and stop Google from saving information on things like your search activity, location history and your voice and audio history going forwards.

Twitter doesn’t yet have a Privacy Checkup but you can access the main Privacy and Safety page at: https://twitter.com/settings/safety and also check the list of applications that can access your account at: https://twitter.com/settings/applications.

Use easy privacy protecting tools

Controlling the amount of data that Facebook, Google and Twitter hold about you is important, but it won’t stop them and other companies tracking you behind the scenes. So the next step is to start switching to online services that have privacy features built in.

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that allows you to search the internet anonymously. You may not think your search history counts as personal data, but companies could use it to understand many things about you, from your medical concerns to your daily commute.

DuckDuckGo does not collect or share any personal information when you use it. When you click on a link through DuckDuckGo, the site you are directed to does not know what words you entered to find it.

Privacy Badger is an app developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that stops third parties from tracking you when you browse the internet. It can stop Facebook and Google from tracking you when you’re not on their websites, and also blocks many of the advertisers and data brokers that are tracking you in secret online.

You could also consider switching your web browser. Two alternatives worth considering are Brave and Firefox. Brave does a good job of blocking ads and trackers by default whereas for Firefox you have to turn on “Tracking Protection” manually.

If you want to dive into the technical detail on how tracking works and what you can do about it, Tactical Tech’s Me and My Shadow project has loads of detailed advice on how to find out what personal data is being collected and how to control your data.

Finally, these tips only relate to managing online data – you should also follow these 6 basic good practices for protecting your privacy online.

5 April 2018 marked a sad anniversary. The Honorary Chair of Amnesty Turkey, Taner Kılıç, has spent the last 300 days wrongfully behind bars. But our fight for his freedom continues.

Amnesty activists around the world took to the streets, all conveying the same strong message: No one should be imprisoned for defending human rights. Our colleague, friend and human rights defender Taner Kılıç is innocent but he’s been in jail for 300 days. That’s 300 days too many.

Guerrilla stunt in Belgium

In Brussels activists drew tally marks on a board in a guerrilla stunt outside the Turkish Embassy, while Amnesty Portugal handed out chalk sticks in a public action. Their activities show the whole Amnesty movement is counting the days until Taner Kılıç is free.

“For 300 days activists around the world have campaigned relentlessly for Taner’s release. Today, we are out in the streets showing Turkey that we continue to keep count.”

Fotis Filippou, Amnesty Campaigns Director, Europe

Protests from Benin to South Korea

In Seoul, Amnesty held a silent protest outside the Turkish Embassy. Closely watched by the local police, activists took turns holding placards demanding the release of Taner.

Amnesty in Benin protested wearing T-shirts with the same call.

Importance of solidarity

People all over the world have sent messages of solidarity to Taner and his family. In a letter written from his prison cell, Taner explains the importance of such support.

“Photographs taken from the actions organised under the hot sun, rain, and the freezing cold have lifted my spirits and reminded me of the importance of international solidarity in the struggle for human rights.”

Taner Kılıç, Honorary Chair of Amnesty Turkey

More than a million people have signed Amnesty’s global petition calling for Taner’s release. The hashtag #FreeTaner has been used tens of thousands of times since he was wrongfully imprisoned in June last year.

Countdown continues

In addition to this week’s global action, countless protests have taken place all over the world – and they will continue. We won’t rest until our colleague and friend Taner is free.