Summary Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for human rights. Their work is based on careful research and on the standards agreed upon by the international community as contained in the "United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights" and other international covenants. The main focus of Amnesty International's campaigning is:
Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote human rights.
The Brother Rice/Marian chapter is an Urgent Action group. Each month we "adopt" two prisoners of conscience, who are persons imprisoned anywhere in the world on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, political stance or way of thinking. They are prisoners who have not committed a recognizable crime nor advocated the use of violence. The Urgent Action Sheets sent by Amnesty International present background information on the cases, and students write letters to government officials in the offending nations requesting that the prisoners be treated humanely, given access to fair and prompt trials, or released. The international pressure created by thousands of letters written from around the globe frequently results in the release of the prisoner. The organization allows students to be "hands on" activists for justice.
Meetings are held once per month, usually on selected Tuesdays at 7:20AM in Rm. A1 at Marian. Current moderators are Mr. Louis-Prescott (Brother Rice) and Ms. Geary (Marian). The meetings are educational and social as students compose the letters that will be sent on behalf of each month's adopted prisoners. The meetings are open to all students on an ongoing basis.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
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