Write for the right to justice

THE Bendigo Amnesty Group is calling on residents to join them in writing hundreds of letters to challenge human rights injustices around the world.

Dubbed the world’s largest human rights event by Amnesty International, Write for Rights will take place at 10am on 4 December at Bendigo Library, six days before Human Rights Day.

Co-convener of Bendigo Amnesty, Jan Govett, said there are 10 cases to be prosecuted this year for people in 10 different countries, including Guatemala, China, Ukraine and Nigeria.

“They’re quite diverse, men and women, young people, older people, ordinary people on the street, journalists and human rights lawyers,” she said.

“A lot of people who stand up for human rights are targeted themselves; it’s not necessarily people doing other things, it’s just standing up and saying we have the right to speak out or sticking up for someone else.

“They’re defending things we take for granted in Australia, that we can stand up and have a protest.”

Cases include a Palestinian teenage journalist being targeted with death threats for exposing human rights abuses by the Israeli military, and Guatemalan man Bernardo Caal Xol put in jail for seven years for protesting the construction of two power plants on his people’s sacred river.

Ms Govett said the response to last year’s Write for Rights event was good and this year’s could be better.

“Last year we ended up with about 200 letters that we sent off even though we weren’t able to get out in public, so we’re hoping for at least that many this year,” she said.

“It’s calling on the governments to reassess whether what they’re claiming is accurate. It’s asking the governments to take action for justice.”