THE Bendigo Amnesty Group is calling on residents to join them in writing hundreds of letters to challenge human rights injustices around the world.<\/p>\n
Dubbed the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re quite diverse, men and women, young people, older people, ordinary people on the street, journalists and human rights lawyers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people who stand up for human rights are targeted themselves; it\u2019s not necessarily people doing other things, it\u2019s just standing up and saying we have the right to speak out or sticking up for someone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re defending things we take for granted in Australia, that we can stand up and have a protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s sacred river.<\/p>\n
Ms Govett said the response to last year\u2019s Write for Rights event was good and this year\u2019s could be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we ended up with about 200 letters that we sent off even though we weren\u2019t able to get out in public, so we\u2019re hoping for at least that many this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s calling on the governments to reassess whether what they\u2019re claiming is accurate. It\u2019s asking the governments to take action for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n