Over 5 million actions for Write for Rights were collected world wide last year with Australians adding over 160,000 actions. 32,000 of these people were signing an Amnesty action for the very first time.
Across our communities, more than 90 of our groups organised over 200 events and collected almost 14,000 actions and letters. All this within three months! We didn’t reach our target of 20,000 actions by groups but we did see some impressive activities.
Some of the highlights include:
- The NSW Schools network collecting 1,258 actions through their schools conference and one school leading a street blitz action
- The Amnesty Pop Culture Network at the Melbourne #Madman Anime Festival, collected 744 petition signatures over the two days.
- The establishment of a new Individuals at Risk Network based in Melbourne as well as a pop up stalls group in Hobart
- Activists Blitzing at the Dogs day out in Canberra with #HumanRightsarePawesome #W4Rs17 @Amnestyoz
- Local media articles and mentions including local TV in Perth interviewing one of our activists on her work on Write for Rights
WINNERS! TEN lucky people who took offline actions for write for rights last year will be receiving an email letting them know they have won the Pet Bandana! So keep an eye out in your inbox! We will ask for the size of the pet you want the bandana made for and where you’d like it posted. Hopefully we’ll be sent back a pic or two to share with you all later.
What we learned
You told us that you found it difficult to find the off-line actions. Our Individuals at Risk work continues with our key campaign focused on BRAVE human rights defenders.
What we’ve done: Brave cases have one landing page for all offline resources:
st1.amnesty.org.au/Brave_activist
This landing page will not move throughout the year so you’ll always know where to go to find the things you need for your activities. We will add new information and resources here so keep checking for updates and new exciting materials!
What’s next?
Missed the Brave launch? Wanna know what it’s all about? You can find the Brave Launch video with the key information
9th April Brave catch up RSVP: Find out the latest, hear from others around the country on what they’re planning and get excited about your events!
Save the Date for Brave in 2018
6th June marks one year of imprisonment for Taner Kilic.
Taner Kılıç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, was thrown into prison on 6 June last year in an effort to silence critics and crackdown on freedoms in Turkey.
6 June is the key date for the 2018
Plan your big events to coincide with or around this date. Take it to the streets, festivals and markets in your areas, tell everyone about what is happening to Taner and that we need him to be released. His court appearance is scheduled for 21st June so we are aiming for mass actions in the lead up to his court date. Please plan your events and collect as many actions as you can around 6th June, send them back to us as quickly as possible for they can be sent to the authorities before his court appearance.
