Against a backdrop of the spread of authoritarian practices, climate collapse and the erosion of international law, Amnesty International is launching its annual Write for Rights campaign on Human Rights Day (10 December) to support the victims of human rights violations and show that humanity can win.
Sonia is a lawyer who has dedicated her life to defending human rights in Tunisia. In 2024, she was arrested and unjustly imprisoned for 18 months. Her crime? Speaking out against racism and inhumane prison conditions. Sign the petition and demand that her convictions are quashed and all other charges against her are dropped.
Since 2015, Juan tirelessly defended his local environment in northern Honduras from mining and energy projects which have threatened local rivers, forests and the Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. Local communities fear that the projects put the surrounding ecosystem and water quality at serious risk.
Journalism is an extremely dangerous profession in Myanmar. More than 200 journalists have been imprisoned by the military since they took power in 2021. At least seven have been reportedly killed. Media outlets have been banned and forced into exile.
In 2021, Damisoa and his family were forced to leave their home in the Androy region, southern Madagascar. Droughts worsened by climate change meant there wasn’t enough food to survive.
The Guerreras por la Amazonía (Warriors for the Amazon) are a group of activists aged 10 to 20 years. They are fighting alongside the Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT) and the Eliminen los Mecheros, Enciendan la Vida (Remove the Flares, Ignite Life) collective, to protect their communities from the toxic fumes and physical devastation caused by gas flares. Used in the process of extracting oil, gas flares are one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis.
Responding to the release of Dorgelesse Nguessan, a single mother and hairdresser arbitrarily arrested in 2020 for participating in a peaceful protest, Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s interim Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said:
“Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture, are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to protect our ways of life for our babies unborn.” These are the words of Sleydo’, a member of the Indigenous Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation, who lives on land inhabited by her ancestors for thousands of years.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia’s authorities have claimed they are advancing women’s rights in the Kingdom. Thirty-year-old Manahel al-Otaibi believed these promises and felt freer to express her views and wear what she liked. Now, facing over a decade behind bars, these promises are utterly hollow.
Before Kyung Seok Park developed paraplegia following a hang-gliding accident in August 1983, he never thought about the lives of people with disabilities. He was 22 years old and busy studying at university, playing guitar and having fun with friends. When Kyung Seok attempted to live as a person with a disability, he soon found daily life for people with disabilities in South Korea was unacceptably difficult, even dangerous. His life as an activist began.
Twenty-nine-year-old ceramicist Joel Paredes lives in Humahuaca, a small town in Jujuy, a northern Argentine province. In June 2023 the local government pushed through changes to the province’s constitution, including restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly, as well as measures that may cause damage to the environment, and risk violating Indigenous Peoples’ land rights. The changes were approved without consultation with Indigenous Peoples or the wider population.
Environmental justice lawyer Dang Dinh Bach has dedicated his life to improving the health and livelihoods of people in Viet Nam and protecting them from the threats of pollution and climate change.