As students passed through the George Sherman Union Link on Wednesday, many stopped to sign letters as part of a program run by the Boston University chapter of Amnesty International.
BU members decided the issues they felt the most strongly about were women’s rights and the treatment and freedom of prisoners in foreign countries, said Sarah Lopresti, the chapter’s Urgent Action Coordinator and a College of Arts and Sciences senior.
Many of the letters, which were spread out in rows on the Amnesty table, addressed the mistreatment of specific prisoners.
The letters reflected the organization’s outrage at foreign leaders holding people whose only crime is practicing free speech.
Lopresti said every letter-writing campaign is a success because ‘any little bit helps. We’re grateful.’
According to one letter, Oscar Espinosa Chepe is among Cuban citizens being held by the Cuban government ‘solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association.’
Thousands of copies of that signed letter will be sent to Fidel Castro in hopes that he will free Chepe.
The BU chapter of Amnesty is also troubled about the mistreatment of women in foreign countries.
‘I am writing to you to express my deep concern about allegations that members of the United Kingdom Army, posted to Kenya for training, raped hundreds of Kenyan women,’ began another letter.
The letters call for immediate inquiries and immediate justice. Lopresti said the goal of the letter-writing campaigns is to make an impact on the decisions of global leaders.
After nearly two decades of work, Amnesty has helped eradicate feminine genital mutilation from many sections of Africa, according to the organization’s website.
Several BU chapter leaders spent the afternoon in the Link hoping to have a similar effect of change with this year’s campaigns.
‘Sign letters to help human rights,’ they shouted.
Some students, like CAS junior Ethan Goldwater, listened. Though he said he had never seen the Amnesty International letter-writing campaigns before, he gave his support and signed all of the letters.
‘I’m passionate about BU students not succumbing to the national epidemic of boredom,’ he said.
Amnesty International chapters across the globe aim to protect human rights and regularly participate in letter-writing campaigns where members write to global leaders about various human rights concerns.
‘Letter writing is one of the primary tools Amnesty uses to reach their goals,’ said Sydney Roy, the group’s secretary and a CAS freshman.
Chapters of Amnesty International choose a human rights focus for letter-writing campaigns and then use the same set of letters about the topic drafted by the international organization, according to Amnesty’s website.
Lopresti said the 300 chapters in the Northeast get thousands of letters signed, although each chapter only contributes a small number.