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Here are short letters that you can easily print and mail. Select the address and text; copy and paste them into Word or whatever you use for writing. Arrange on the page to your liking. Even better is to spend a few moments individualizing the text.
You could change words, add your own remarks, use different points
from the fuller information given. Get back to us if you have a question. Or if you have the luck to receive a reply—it could be important. We'd love to know that you've written. —Guy Ottewell and Tilly Lavenás, founder members of the Amnesty International groups of Greenville, South Carolina, and Lyme Regis, England. |
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The top letter on the home page is new.
Others are about some long-term cases on which we keep working.
More letters on them are always needed. If you don't see a "Join this group" link, or if you
have received an email about “Ready-made human rights letters”,
you are already a member. GET FRIENDS TO JOIN! |
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Postage for one sheet (mark envelope AIRMAIL): |
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You may submit a letter appeal for possible use. Please make it easy for us: Keep it short. Provide a summary of the fuller information (which we like to get in chronological order). Expect to be edited. Provide a web link if possible, or a citation of the authority for the information, e.g. for an Amnesty International Urgent Action, its number, date, and "write no later than" date. Send to guy@universalworkshop.com |
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Do letters do any good? Mostly they get no apparent response. But they bother the authorities and have been known to play a part in a prisoner's release. Often they cause atrocious conditions to be improved. If known about by a prisoner or other victim, they mightily ENCOURAGE. “When the first two hundred letters came, the guards gave me back my clothes. Then the next two hundred letters came, and the prison director came to see me. When the next pile of letters arrived, the director got in touch with his superior. The letters kept coming and coming: three thousand of them. The President was informed. The letters still kept arriving, and the President called the prison and told them to let me go.” —Julio de Peña Valdez, trade union leader, after his release in 1974 from underground solitary confinement in the Dominican Republic “I can't remember how many times I have been told by a prisoner of conscience or an organisation like Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise that our cards and letters bring real hope. They are a link to the outside world and give them knowledge that they're not struggling on their own.” —Kate Allenm director of Amnesty International UK |
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These “remhurls” have been sent by email to a list of friends at irregular intervals (monthly, sometimes less, sometimes more) since 1996. Since 2008 we have used this better method of distribution. We are responsible for them; they are not an official production of Amnesty International, Survival International, or any other of our sources. |
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Another resource for easily sending human-rights letters (it provides
individualized texts or printed letters, for small fees per year
or other period): |
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More on the case of the
Nueva Esperanza refugees Ing. Álvaro Colom Caballeros Dear President Colom, I strongly urge you to resolve your government's dispute with the Nueva Esperanza community. As you must know, the army and National Police evicted the residents on 23 August. There was no warning and no one was offered alternative housing. As a result, 300 people, including over 100 children and several pregnant women, were forced to seek refuge in Nuevo Progreso, Tabasco, Mexico. They are living in makeshift conditions, and winter and prolonged rain makes their situation precarious. I understand your government has offered the community a much smaller plot of land and has refused to compensate the community for their lost land and property. It is essential that they receive adequate alternative land and housing, food, water and healthcare in a permanent and safe location in their home country. I also urge you to launch a full investigation into this forced eviction.
Please send a copy of your Guatemala letter to the ambassador: You could send your Mexico letter also to: And a copy to the Nexican ambassador in your country: |