Christmas Shopping

When I buy Christmas presents I keep the following quotation in mind: "Approach gift shopping as an opportunity to honour the people you really love." I enjoy attempting to buy the perfect gift for the people on my list. The item may or may not be on their Christmas list but it is something I know that they will love it. This is the challenge of my holiday shopping.

As we get older Christmas becomes less about getting and more about giving. I count down to the big day, but this is for the excitement of seeing others open my gifts to them. I watch anxiously as they unwrap their gifts to see if I was correct in my gift selection. I hope I am accurate this year!

Merry Christmas!!

Human Rights Day - Part 2

In just fifteen minutes I can save a life, release a prisoner of conscience, or reverse a government policy. This is the power of letter writing. I will validate this by providing some information on the letters I have written this past year.

I wrote ten letters during the 2009 Write-a-thon and four resulted in action:

In Nepal, workers and clients at the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre were encountering abuse and violence for their work in supporting women victims of violence. They now have an improved relationship with police and better police response as a result of pressure from last year’s Write-a-thon.

In Greece, the Minister of Citizen Protection of the Hellenic Republic promised a swift, impartial investigation into the assault on Konstantina Kouneva, a trade union secretary.

In the Ukraine, Belarusian opposition activist, Igor Koktysh was released and sent home after being detained for two and a half years.

Kareem Amer was released from prison in Egypt just weeks ago. He had been jailed for criticizing the president’s religious views on his blog.

Of the 28 letters I wrote this year three resulted in action: the release of Abdollah Sadoughi in Iran, the release of six doctors in Sudan, and President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso committing to lifting all financial barriers to emergency obstetric care and access to family planning, as part of a strategy to fight maternal mortality in the country. In addition, Yusak Pakage was released from prison in Indonesia, a case from the 2005 Write-a-thon.

This represents only the cases I have undertaken. Dozens of others prisoners have been released this year, countries have taken steps toward abolition of the death penalty, and governments have improved human rights because of the pressure created by thousands of other AI members worldwide.

My success rate usually averages around 15%. However, during Write-a-thons this increases to 30 or even 40 percent. The power of the pen!!

Please take time to write a letter. Cases and letter writing tips can be found here.

Human Rights Day - Part 1

December 10^th is a celebration of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International commemorates this occasion by engaging in an annual Write-a-thon. Amnesty members take action to stop the abuse of human rights outlined in the declaration, by appealing to governments (and others) for these violations to cease. We campaign to free prisoners of conscience, abolish the death penalty, protect refugees, and to end political killings, "disappearances", and torture.

Tens of thousands of people from over fifty countries take part in this event. In 2009, participants sent 730,000 letters and online signatures to stop human rights abuses.

On Friday, December 10th the Regina Amnesty International Community Group is hosting a Write-a-thon evening at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre - 2900 13th Avenue - beginning at 7pm. We invite you to listen to free local musicians Ink Road, Devon Floyd, Regan Hinchliffe, and the Local Onlyz and write a letter or two for those in need. We look forward to seeing you there!

Regina Amnesty International Community Group 91 website

Regina AI Write-a-thon event Facebook page

AI Canada Write for Rights website