Individuals at Risk

Dear Supporter,

Thank you for hosting a Write-a-thon in your home, community, or campus. We hope that your Write-a-thon will produce not just mounds of letters, but also great discussions, new friends, fresh and daring ideas for action.

This year we ask you to help recruit new Amnesty members to further strengthen the organization and the international human rights movement. If your Write-a-thon participants -- family, friends, fellow students, neighbors, or people you've just met -- are not already members of Amnesty, please encourage them to join by making a tax-deductible contribution of $25 or more in support of your Write-a-thon event.

Members automatically receive a subscription to our magazine Amnesty International. See the online version at www.amnestyusa.org/magazine. They are also eligible to vote in Amnesty elections, join volunteer network, and take advantage of the Member Section of our website. The Member Section gives Amnesty members access to updates about our organization, special reports, human rights updates, membership publications, special training tools and more.

By recruiting new Amnesty members, you are eligible to win an Apple iPod. The Write-a-thon event that generates the most new members wins! Visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/prize.html for details.

For new members to be counted for your Write-a-thon event, they must join using the form that automatically appears in your event listing.

Send an email to your friends and family asking them to sponsor your event and directing them to your webpage. You can also use the "Tell a friend about your event" feature located on the right side of the screen when you are logged in to edit/view your event information.
Please note that this form is the only way for us to count the number of people you will have recruited.

The iPod will be given to the person who registers the winning event, but for group events additional prizes such as Amnesty T-shirts and posters will be awarded to the other members of the winning group.

Help us recruit new members to continue our fight against human rights abuses in the world. More people means more letters, effecting more powerful change in the lives of individuals at risk, speaking out with a louder voice against human rights atrocities in Sudan, Mexico, Chechnya and other countries.

You can request general AIUSA brochures to aid your recruitment efforts from a Regional Office near you (call toll free 1-866-A-REGION to reach your Regional Office).

Resources Update:
Stay up to date, share ideas, ask questions by visiting our Write-a-thon blog!


Get Amnesty posters and banners for your Writea-thon from Amnesty Store at:


Good luck with your Write-a-thon!

Sincerely,
Natasha Nummedal, Julia Nemon, and Tanya Cooper
The Urgent Action program team
Amnesty International USA

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Filemón Ondó (m)
José Antonio Nguema (m)
Florencio Ondó (m)
Basilio Mayé (m)

Members of Progress Party of Equatorial Guinea (Partido del Progreso de Guinea Ecuatorial, PPGE)

The four men named above were released from prison at 10am on 12 November 2006. They had been arrested in Bata, the main city in mainland Equatorial Guinea, between 9pm on 8 October and 1 am on 9 October, and were accused of being members of the Progress Party of Equatorial Guinea (Partido del Progresso de Guinea Ecuatorial, PPGE), a banned political party, and of having in their possession party leaflets and other documents. However, they were released without charge.

On 31 October the four men appeared before the investigating judge but were apparently not charged with any offence. The four were taken to Bata Public Prison (Cárcel Pública de Bata), where they remained incommunicado until their release.

Thank you to all who sent appeals on behalf of Filemón Ondó, José Antonio Nguema, Florencio Ondó and Basilio Mayé. We believe that your appeals contributed greatly to their release. No further action is requested.

Dear Activists,

The 2006 Global Write-a-thon is only weeks away! If you have not done so already, please sign up today and get started planning your write-a-thon event or activity! Once you register we'll provide you with all the support materials and actions you need to hold a successful write-a-thon. Downloadable versions are available at the links below, or you can write to us at writeathon@aiusa.org and we will mail the hard copies to you. The action kit will include:

• 12-page Amnesty International Letter Writing Guide full of tips on making your letter appeals effective and powerful.
• Amnesty International case sheets and Urgent Actions. These actions will also be available for downloading from the Write-a-thon webpage around November 28th.
• The Holiday Card Action, featuring prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders, and other individuals at risk of human rights violations to whom you may send cards and letters of hope.
• A collection of Amnesty International success stories and quotes from former prisoners, demonstrating the effectiveness of letter writing.

Across the country, we already have over 650 write-a-thons registered and over 43,000 letters pledged by the activists. Additionally, every year Amnesty activists from 30 countries organize write-a-thons to demand justice and give hope to those put behind bars for speaking out for freedom and peace.

Here are a couple of tips to get you started:

• Ask a friend or group of friends to help you organize a write-a-thon. Discuss the tasks listed below and decide who will be responsible for what. Remember to follow-up.
• Write-a-thons can be as small and simple as a cluster of friends or family sitting around a kitchen table. For write-a-thons that are open to the public, community areas such as libraries or recreation center meeting rooms are a possibility, but always make sure you have permission to use the facility beforehand. Coffee shops are also popular venues, but check with a manager to ensure space is available and your group is welcome. If your group plans to have the write-a-thon on a campus, book a room or reserve a table in a high-traffic area through the proper channels.
• Publicize
• Encourage attendees to bring stamps, seek in-kind contributions, or collect change for stamps by making a postage donations jar. Don't forget to have the donation jar available at the write-a-thon as well. Encourage attendees to bring writing materials to the write-a-thon, or collect materials beforehand. You can also solicit in-kind contributions from local businesses, such as pens, paper, stamps, envelopes, or other necessary materials.

More tips are coming!

Welcome to the 2006 Global Write-a-thon Blog! We hope that you are ready to join thousands of Amnesty activists around the world for the Global Write-a-thon, which happens on the weekend of December 8-10. As many of you already know, every year the Amnesty activists in over thirty countries gather to write letters on behalf of individuals who are being unjustly imprisoned, tortured, "disappeared," and threatened for their human rights work. It's now that time of the year to start planning your school or community Write-a-thon. Registration is already open and new resources will be added regularly at http://www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/index.html. This website will be your first step to organizing your own writeathon. We will help you to plan, promote and implement your very own writeathon this year, so register and start planning now! Apart from the website, more resources are always available from your Regional Office or the Urgent Action office to help you organize your event.

This blog will provide space where Amnesty activists in the US can share ideas, ask questions, and stay connected with hundreds of people across the country.

Of course, you can always direct your questions and comments to the Urgent Action office: 202.544.0200 (ask for Urgent Action) and writeathon@aiusa.org

Sincerely,

UA team

‘Ali al-Dailami was released without charge or trial from the Political Security prison in Sana'a on 5 November. Amnesty International believes that he may have been detained in connection with his human rights work.

He had been held in solitary confinement since his arrest by security forces on 9 October at the airport in the capital Sana'a. He was due to travel to Denmark as part of a delegation of representatives of non-governmental organizations in Yemen, in order to take part in a human rights partnership meeting in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

‘Ali al-Dailami is the younger brother of Yahia Hussein al-Dailami, who was sentenced to death in May 2005 after an unfair trial. However his death sentence was later commuted to a suspended prison sentence and he was released in May 2006. Amnesty International believes that Yahia Hussein al-Dailami was a prisoner of conscience held solely for his criticisms of the government and the peaceful expression of his conscientiously held beliefs.