Washington High students join ‘Write for Rights’ campaign

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids high school students were some of thousands who penned letters to governments around the world last week on behalf of imprisoned human rights activists.

'This is our school's way of supporting these people,” said Elizabeth McDermott, 17, the president of Washington High School's Amnesty club. 'By gathering a bunch of students, and all getting together and writing letters to foreign dignitaries.”

After school Friday, McDermott and other students wrote letters about 10 cases highlighted by Amnesty International, an international human rights organization. The letters are part of the organization's Write for Rights campaign. On its website, Amnesty International says the event results in more than 750,000 letters, emails, social media posts and petitions.

Washington High School's event was scheduled just before Human Rights Day, which is Sunday.

Students' letters were addressed to authorities in Madagascar, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Finland, China, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Honduras and Turkey. The letters urged governments to take action to rectify what the international organization sees as human rights violations.

Some of the activists students advocated for have faced punishment for defending LGBT rights, investigating government corruption and speaking out against government policies.

Many letters were written on behalf of a group of Amnesty International activists who are facing terrorism charges in Turkey.

To McDermott, their situation feels personal.

'As someone who is so passionate about this organization, that definitely hits home a lot,” McDermott said. 'These people are essentially doing what we're doing, except they're in a different country. And they are still facing a prison sentence. They're out on bail, but they are still facing a prison sentence for advocating for human rights.”

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