Daedalus escaping from the labyrinthReady-Made
Human Rights Letters

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.
A short letter in simple language is most likely to be understood. Stay polite.

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.

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.
YOU CAN RECEIVE NEW APPEALS BY EMAIL. Please go to http://groups.google.com/group/humanrightsletters
By clicking "Join this group" (at the right) you can become a member of our “Google Group” and will receive sample letters whenever we have them ready.

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Updates on past cases

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

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

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.

Another resource for easily sending human-rights letters (it provides individualized texts or printed letters, for small fees per year or other period):
Appeals Worldwide, www.appealsww.com

Universal Workshop home page

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Exmo. Ministro José Eduardo Cardozo
Ministro da Justiça
Ministério da Justiça
Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco T
70064-900, DF
Brasilia
Brazil

Dear Minister Cardozo,
     I am concerned about the Awá Indians in Maranhão state.
     Their land is being invaded by loggers, ranchers, and settlers.
     These kill the fish and other animals on which the Awá depend for food.
     Gunmen have killed dozens of the Awá themselves.
     About 31% of the forest has been cut or burnt, and the rate is increasing.
     Previously uncontacted Awá are vulnerable to diseases transmitted by outsiders.
     The Awá indigenous territory has been demarcated, and Judge Madeira ruled that all invaders must be removed. But this ruling has been suspended.
     I desperately urge that Judge Madeira's ruling must be reinstated. All illegal occupants must be removed from Awá land.
     Yours very sincerely,
#

You might just select among the above points. This is Survival International's most urgent campaign at present

Myo Min Zaw is free, but Ko Aye Aung is not

These two students were arrested in September 1998, for being leaders in the struggle for democracy, and were sentenced to very long prison terms. For many years we have sent appeals for Myo Min Zaw, and were overjoyed to learn that he was among the several hundred prisoners released by the Burmese regime on January 13.

U Win Mra
Chairman, Human Rights Commission
27 Pyay Road
Hline Township
Yangon
Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma)

Dear Chairman,
        I congratulate your government on the release of Myo Min Zaw and other political prisoners on January 13.
        However, we have had no news about Ko Aye Aung, who was arrested at the same time as Myo Min Zaw and is considered to be a prisoner of conscience.
Please inform me whether he too will soon be released.

Information about Ko Aye Aung

Pa Fue Khang Thao MouaThongsing Thammavong, Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Office
Lane Xang Avenue
Vientiane
Lao People's Democratic Republic

Dear Prime Minister,
    I am concerned about Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang, ethnic Hmong men now serving sentences of 12 and 15 years in Samkhe Prison.
    They were arrested in June 2003 for working as guides to two foreign journalists. They were shackled, and beaten with sticks and bicycle chains. They had a clearly unfair trial, with no legal representation, and a sentence written beforehand.
    I urge you to:
—Review the cases of Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang.
—Ensure that they are subjected to no further ill-treatment.
—Release them, if there is no credible evidence of any crime committed by them.
    I look forward to the honor of an early reply from you about this important matter.

The running genocide of the Hmong, and another address to which you could send your letter

Chairman Ba Te Er
People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Hohhot City
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
People's Republic of China

Dear Chairman,
    It is now known that Hada is in a prison in Hohhot.
    He was brought there from Chifeng Prison on 10 December 2010— which was supposed to be the end of his 15 years of imprisonment. Another year has passed
    It is shocking that Hada not only was imprisoned so long for upholding the human rights of Mongolians, but was re-imprisoned at the end of his sentence.
    Please act justly and release Hada.

For the latest twist in the far-too-long story of the scholar Hada, see the end of this page.