The Amnesty International Group in Prince George is standing up for human rights laws in a global letter writing campaign on December 10th.

Peruvian human rights defender Máxima Acuña receives 150,000 supportive messages from all over the world | Photo Courtesy of Amnesty International

The writing initiative, called ‘Write a Letter, Change a Life, is a way for people around the world to call on Leaders, Prime Ministers, and Generals to respect and uphold human rights laws.

Volunteer for Amnesty International Roy Keery says the letters and pictures young activists send have a significant impact in the world.

“People we’ve been writing campaign letters on, for a long time, are suddenly released or they get better treatment or they get due process of trial rather than just being incarcerated without cause.”

Last year 4.6 million messages were sent from 200 countries, most were to support indigenous people in Peace River, BC whose lands were under threat by the site C dam.

This year they are calling on the federal government to ensure human rights are never pushed aside in decisions about resource development projects.

Anyone who wants to participate can choose any region in the world they want to send a message to says Keery.

“Amnesty is pretty good about presenting the case and also giving you suggestions on who to write to. So there’s more than one case or more than one destination. There would be the country where it was happening where we may hope to leverage some human rights.”

The Amnesty International Write for Rights campaign will take place from 3pm-5pm at Art Space on December 10th.