Amnesty International:

Here's a few of the cases I've written for, recently:

• On July 8 in the small village of La Union, Colombia, a paramilitary force entered the village, rounded up the population and separated the men from the women. They summarily shot six men (Rigoberto Guzman, Diofanor Correa, Elodino Rivera, Humberto Sepulveda, Jamie Guzman and Pedro Zapata) and then informed the others that they have 20 days to leave the area. Although the army officially denies any knowledge or involvment in this attack, government forces often coordinate their activites with, and deliberately fail to intervene in, paramilitary operations like this one.
  La Union was part of 'la Communidad de Paz' (the Peace Community), a group of 17 villages trying to maintain neutrality and avoid reprisals from both sides in the civil war in Colombia.
• In Congo, Mianda Tshimona, Pastor Nkashama, Jonas Mukamba, and Pastor Tshisumpa, were arrested for their involvment with a prisoner's rights organization. While in detention, they face a very high likelyhood of being tortured. Also detained were: Dutch national Mieke Rang, driver Kalobo, BBC journalist Caroline Pare and her assistant, Pierre Mombele. Christophe Tshimona and M Tshitenge later tried to inquire as to their friends' wherabouts, and they were also held.
• In India, Sikander Ahmad Mir, his son Abdul Rashid, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Gulshan were recently taken into custody by the "Special Operations Group". There is grave concern for their safety. In May, alone, 30 people in the region are believed to have died in official custody.

I consider these and thousands of similar situations to be unacceptable. In my opinion, the observation of Human Rights is linked to virtually every other worthy cause & issue we face, both locally and globally.

Letter writing doesn't always get results, of course. From my desk, I can't necessarily stop people from having a political prisoner tortured, but at very least, I can deprive them of the luxury of pretending no one's watching.

And sometimes, the process actually works. When I find out that someone I wrote for got released, that feels really cool...

I urge anyone to become involved with Amnesty International. If larger numbers of people were paying attention and speaking out against the attrocities, they would subside and we could really start to experience some semblance of human civilisation.

Otherwise, what's the point? (I reckon being put on the rack in the year 2000 feels the same as being put on the rack in the year 1342.)

To learn more about AI, check out their U.S. website.