I strongly believe that letter writing is still effective. Whether it be handwritten, emailed, faxed etc. I suggest those who do not think so should come up with something else, without belittling that which is being done. I cannot understand how thousands upon thousands of letters can be deemed as ‘futile and uninspiring’. Please enlighten us with what you’re doing? Amnesty International has no government affiliation whatsoever, and regularly criticises governments on their actions or inactions, bringing to light many human rights offences and injustices that may well never see the light of day. Not to mention the outstanding work that they do in assisting those who have endured imprisonment or abuse. I assure you that those in power who flout human rights standards would much rather prefer that organisations such as Amnesty (with their large worldwide letter-writing members) not exist, so they may freely go about depriving their citizens of their basic human rights. Futile and uninspiring - hardly!

Governments are bureaucracies, letters need to be assigned to someone to read. Individuals in a government are not aware of all that is going on in a country, these letters bring awareness. Awareness is the first step in the change and transformation of a situation. We may protest to bring awareness of these violations in our own country yet these protests are often NOT reported in the media of the home country of the human rights violation. These letters reach out and bring light and hope where there is much darkness. If it is our intention to bring healing and freedom to the lives of those persecuted then letter writing is a persistent and effective way of achieving this aim.

If the politicians we are electing are unaware and/or don’t care about human rights across the world, then they are clearly not ‘representing’ the people. I am tired of trying to convince politicans, when it is THEY that represent US, not the other way around. I think the culture of human rights needs to be reassessed is all. I guess my powerlessness is more directed at the stagnation of out non-participatory democracy, and possibly I should look for more agressive, action based orgs rather than passive, government pandering ones.

dear action, writing a letter isnt the only option. nor is it out of date.  Politicians sometimes pay more attention to a hand-written letter. as for being uninspired and futile - that may well refer to your negative offering to this blog. what kind of ‘action’ exactly are you suggesting amnesty should do?  btw, this write-a-thon gets 100s of 1000s of letters written every year, from all over the world. mongolia, jamaica, south africa etc. that’s maybe a little inspiring?

I am sorry Amnesty, but in today’s world, writing letters just doesn’t seem to be enough. I think you need to think of new and current ways to engage more people to become involved in Human Rights. As someone interested in Human Rights, writing a letter is probably the most uninspired, passive and futile thing I think I could do (maybe not as passive as donating money). talk