Write For Rights

This week at school I wrote letters with some of my students for Amnesty International Write For Rights Day. Amnesty International is a non-governmental organisation focused on human rights. On December 10th each year people around the world write letters in support of people imprisoned for human rights violations.


My students and I chose to write on behalf of Raif Badawi who is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for his blog criticizing religious figures. He has been sentenced to ten years in prison, a thousand lashes and a fine of a million riyals, about $290,000 CDN. He is also banned from travelling for ten years after his release, which means it could be many years before he sees his wife and children who live in Montreal.

Raif Badawai, imprisoned blogger

My students were very moved by the video Amnesty put together of Badawi's son, who wishes he could see his father. One of my students has a dad who has been away with the Canadian Military, so she knows what it feels like to be seperated from a parent, but of course her dad is coming back soon.

So after a donut snack, we sat down to write letters, in this case, to the King of Saudi Arabia. My students were a little freaked out to be writing to a King! We also wrote cards for Badawi's family in Montreal. For most of my students it was their first introduction to human rights abuses around the world. I was happy that this introduction wasn't only misery, but some successes too, as we read about several people Amnesty has helped free.

For Write for Rights, Amnesty puts together a package of several cases. My goal before Christmas is to write letters for as many as I can. I value my freedom and the freedom I have to write what I believe in both my books and my blog.