Ten Years of Advocacy

Amnesty International’s “Write for Rights” is an activity during Advent that the Sisters of St. Joseph have embraced for ten years - 10 years!!

Each December 10th we join with global citizens to write letters to plead with leaders of countries to free people unjustly incarcerated for working on behalf of social justice and peace. We come together as a group of women armed with pen and paper as well as the names and stories of people around the world who have been apprehended on false and unjust premises.

Sisters Ann & Kitty pens ready!

This year our letters include calls for freedom and justice for a Chinese citizen journalist jailed in 2020 for reporting on the unfolding of the COVID-19 outbreaks in Wuhan. We also advocate for a Guatemalan man jailed seven years now for being a courageous defender of the rights of his people. Another case involves a young woman who was arrested at the Sudan border in 2012 and has never been heard from since that time.

Our letters of advocacy, joined to thousands of others around the world do make a difference. The diligent workers and volunteers of Amnesty International keep us abreast of people who have been freed from their unjust situations. Regardless of age or circumstance, one letter written with love and compassion can make a huge difference - it changes the life of one who we will never meet.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Pictured above, the Sisters hard at work, letter-writing.

We wrote 100 letters so far this year! #W4R21

We Write for Rights - #Write4Rights #W4R20

Sister Olga, faithfully writing at 97 years of age

The Sisters of St. Joseph have been friends of Amnesty International for decades.  We’ve delighted in the annual visit of its well-known former Secretary General for Canada, Alex Neve, and his workers throughout the last fifteen years. Besides contributing monetary donations, Amnesty’s yearly Write for Rights initiative is an advocacy opportunity we’ve embraced since 2012.  This year was no different.

On the appointed December 10th, a group of our senior Sisters armed with pen and paper wrote 140 letters to various leaders throughout the world, pleading for amnesty and justice for their people who have been illegally incarcerated for standing up for human rights and justice in their countries.

140letters~ in the mail!

We read the cases of six specific men and women whose lives have been disrupted due to their support of others whose water, lands, and forests have been devastated and razed by companies seeking to advance their own financial largesse. The fact that our letters matter is evidenced by the success that has resulted for victims through the pressures our writing has exerted on various countries’ leaders.

I sensed a blessing descend upon our home as Sisters wrote impassioned pleas to repressive governments to right the wrongs of advocates unjustly treated for working on behalf of humanity.  There is no better way to live these Advent weeks than to raise our voices against injustices.  It is a powerful practice in preparing the way of the Lord.

-Sister Jean Moylan

Write for Rights #W4R19

Every year the Sisters gather together, take pen to paper, and participate in the Write for Rights.  Next Tuesday the Sisters of St Joseph will gather once again. We feel great action happens when people gather together. This is such an important and wonderful way to talk about serious issues - and take ACTION! 

Every year around   International Human Rights Day on December 10th, hundreds of thousands of people around the world send a letter or an e-mail on behalf of someone they’ve never met. 

Join Amnesty International for Write for Rights.

This year, all 10 global cases will focus on young people under the age of 25 who are a leading force for change. 

Justice for Grassy Narrows

This year, Amnesty International is highlighting a case right here in Canada, of youth from Asubpeeschoseewagong (“Grassy Narrows First Nation”) who are fighting for justice in the face of 50 years of mercury poisoning in their community.

Because of government inaction, generations of young Indigenous people have grown up with devastating health problems and the loss of their cultural traditions. It’s time for the government to keep its promise to deal with the mercury crisis “once and for all” so that young people can grow up in a healthy and thriving community.

Get to know some of the youth from Grassy Narrows and hear what makes their community special to them. 

Learn more at www.writeathon.ca/grassynarrows.

Taken from the Amnesty International website    https://writeathon.ca/

Write for Rights!

On December 10, 2014, the Sisters of St. Joseph in London gathered to trim the Christmas tree and join in a world-wide letter writing marathon.

Every year, for the past three years, the Sisters in London have participated in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights. This event is always held on December 10, which is International Human Rights Day. This day marks the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948.

This year is the 66^th anniversary of this ground-breaking document which has been translated into almost 500 languages and which is the foundation of human rights world-wide. Interestingly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted by a Canadian, John Peters Humphrey. The United Nations Commission which saw the document signed by the nations of the world to become international law included Eleanor Roosevelt.

This year, the Sisters of St. Joseph wrote 47 letters for human rights. The letters demanded a national plan of action to stop violence against indigenous women in Canada; the release of a Chinese woman Liu Ping who was imprisoned this year for organizing a protest against corruption; and the opening of Canada’s borders to more Syrian refugees.

The Sisters also signed a petition demanding the end to torture. You can learn more about how to join in the campaign to stop torture here http://www.amnesty.ca/stoptorture

To read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, visit http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Mary Kosta