The Illinois Wesleyan University campus chapter of Amnesty International recently organized a Write for Rights event. By the end of the evening, students — joined by a few faculty and administrators — wrote more than 100 letters on behalf of people who they believe are wrongfully imprisoned or being denied their rights.
“What we hope to accomplish is to add our voices to those around the world in this global Amnesty International event,” said Emily Haas, a junior who is co-president of the IWU chaper.
The event is part of a commemoration of Human Rights Day, marked each year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. That falls in the middle of IWU's final exams, so the campus campaign took place a week early.
Letting authorities know “we're watching what they're doing” can lead to improved conditions for prisoners, said IWU senior Nicole Jovicevic of Des Plaines, but “the ultimate goal is their freedom.”
Jovicevic, a regional student activist coordinator for Amnesty International-Illinois, will graduate this month with a bachelor's degree in political science. She has been involved since her freshman year in the international organization that describes itself as “a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights.”
Amnesty International developed profiles of 12 people for this year's Write for Rights campaign and the IWU chapter chose to focus on four cases:
- An inmate in Louisiana who has been in prison for 40 years and whose release is being fought by the state's attorney general although his conviction on a charge of murdering a guard has been overturned.
- A woman in Syria who was taken into custody, along with her six children, by government forces in 2013 and hasn't been heard from since.
- A student leader in Myanmar who was among more than 100 students arrested earlier this year at a march against a law limiting academic freedom. She remains imprisoned.
- Girls as young as 11 forced into marriages in Burkina Faso, even though the nation's constitution forbids such marriages.
In addition to letters directed to government officials, letters also were written to the imprisoned individuals, or those working on their behalfs, to show support and let them know others are thinking of them.