Write For Rights 2025!
Amnesty International’s Annual Writeathon
Amnesty International is most well known for our letter writing campaigns. It is a method we began with in the 1960s and continues to be one of our most powers means of applying pressure on those in power to protect human rights.
10 December each year is World Human Rights Day and to celebrate this, sections from around the world organise and promote efforts to write on a selection of cases. Often these are held as community events held close to 10 December.
This year, Amnesty International Toronto Organisation is holding the Write For Rights event today, 6 December at the Spadina location of the Centre for Social Innovation at 192 Spadina Avenue (just north of Queen St. W. on Spadina) from 11:00am to 5:30pm. This is a FREE event anyone can come to and write letters and take actions for human rights. Paper, cards and pens will be on hand and special guest speakers. There will be light refreshments as well as other supports!
More information on the Toronto event is available here: https://amnesty.ca/event/write-for-rights-aito-toronto-december-6/
What are the cases for this year’s focus?
The Canadian Section of Amnesty International is focusing on these cases https://amnesty.ca/write-for-rights/
Cambodia - Mother Nature Cambodia
Mother Nature Cambodia has courageously defended the Cambodian environment since 2013. But since 2016, the authorities have repeatedly targeted the group with arrests and prosecution, for nothing more than protecting the environment and exercising their right to freedom of expression. In June 2024, six members of the group were sentenced to between six and eight years in prison. One member fled Cambodia to continue their work, but the remaining five activists are enduring harsh conditions in prisons that are not compliant with international human rights standards.
Cambodia must immediately and unconditionally release the five detained activists and quash all convictions against Mother Nature Cambodia activists.
Nobody should face prison simply for protecting the planet.
Ecuador - Guerreras por la Amazonía
The Guerreras por la Amazonía are fighting alongside the Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations and the collective “Eliminen los Mecheros, Enciendan la Vida” (Remove the Flares, Ignite Life) to eliminate gas flares which are causing toxic fumes and environmental devastation in their communities. In 2021, a landmark ruling required the government to eliminate the use of gas flares, yet they continue to burn.
Young defenders are facing stigma and violent intimidation. Rather than investigating the threats against them, the authorities told the group that they will only provide them with protection if they stop their activism.
Demand that Ecuador uphold the ruling to eliminate gas flares and ensure the safety of climate defenders.
Honduras - Juan López
Juan López was a loving father and husband who tirelessly defended his local environment in northern Honduras from mining and energy projects which have threatened local rivers, forests and the Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. On 14 September 2024, he was shot dead in his car by a masked gunman as he left church.
Demand a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the killing of Juan López. All those suspected of being responsible for the crime must be brought to justice in fair trials, including those who ordered the murder.
Kyrgyzstan - Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy
Journalist Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy must be released immediately, a review of her case must be initiated, and Kyrgyzstan must ensure her full acquittal and guarantee that she can continue her professional activities in Kyrgyzstan without undue restrictions.
In October 2024, Makhabat was sentenced to six years in prison. The charges, “calls for violence against citizens” and “calls for active disobedience and mass riots” were baseless. There is no evidence for either.
Makhabat must be freed and allowed to return to her son who is growing up without his mother.
Madagascar - Damisoa
In 2021, Damisoa and his family fled drought-stricken Androy due to drought-induced famines. In Boeny, the government resettled them at a site where farming is unviable and access to food, water and sanitation is regularly and severely hindered by fast-moving, crocodile-infested waters.
People displaced by famine and now living in Boeny, including Damisoa and his fellow residents, urgently need humanitarian assistance. But aid is currently almost exclusively concentrated in drought-stricken southern Madagascar.
Call on Madagascar to take urgent steps to guarantee the human rights of people displaced and now living in Boeny and across Madagascar and urge Madagascar to actively seek the support of humanitarian agencies and other relevant actors to do this.
Myanmar - Sai Zaw Thaike
Sai Zaw has been persecuted for his work reporting on the devastation caused by Cyclone Mocha. In 2023, he was arrested and sentenced by a military tribunal to 20 years in prison. He has endured beatings by prison staff and periods of solitary confinement. Sai Zaw must be freed now.
Norway - Ellinor Guttorm Utsi, Sámi reindeer herders
Ellinor Guttorm Utsi is a Sámi Indigenous leader working tirelessly to protect her community’s ancient reindeer-herding way of life in northern Norway. In 2023, several hundred wind turbines were suddenly proposed directly on their summer grazing lands in Čorgaš, threatening to damage grazing land, break migration routes and destroy their culture. Despite fierce opposition, the authorities are rushing approvals.
Protect the rights of the Sámi reindeer-herding communities by demanding that industrial wind-power projects that threaten their lands and way of life do not proceed without the free, prior and informed consent of the affected Sámi people.
South Africa - Unecebo Mboteni
Demand justice for Unecebo Mboteni. In April 2024, three-year-old Unecebo died after falling into a pit toilet at his pre-school in the Eastern Cape.
More than one year on and the family has had no word from the Little Champions Day Care Centre or the department about whether the pit toilet that Unecebo fell into has been removed. They were also told it could be years before the investigation is completed.
Tunisia - Sonia Dahmani
Sonia Dahmani is a lawyer and media commentator who has dedicated her life to defending human rights. On 11 May 2024, security forces arrested Sonia. She was convicted and sentenced on unfounded charges of “spreading false news”, with additional politically motivated investigations still pending. Sonia was held in inhumane conditions and denied medical care, including essential medication, until her conditional release in November 2025.