IF YOU HAVE THE FREEDOM TO ACT FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE TO HELP
UPDATE 10th December: Any donation you make today will be matched, dollar for dollar, by two Amnesty donors who want to help protect individuals at risk (up to the amount of $114,000). Your donation today will go twice as far to protect people like Dorgelesse, who was imprisoned for attending her first protest.
Throughout history, protest has been a powerful tool for change. From the Salt March in India in 1930 against British colonial rule, to protests to protect the Franklin river in the 1980s. And more recently, rallies for LGBTQIA+ rights and Black Lives Matter. We wouldn’t be where we are today without people speaking their truths.
However, with acts of police brutality and violence on the rise across the globe and on our home soil, the right to protest is critically under threat. If we don’t act now, we risk our freedom of speech being quashed and our right to speak truth to power, suppressed.
That’s why now more than ever, we need to protect our right to peaceful protest. When passionate and courageous people like you take action now, we can continue to make a difference and speak up for what is right.
DORGELESSE’S STORY
“Life was getting harder and harder. It wasn’t giving anything back…Nothing was going anywhere…Nothing led anywhere in Cameroon – everything was falling apart.” - Dorgelesse, 37 years old. Sentenced to 5 years.
Dorgelesse is a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a brave woman, whose only ‘crime’ was standing up for what she believes in. Her dream has always been to open up a thriving beauty institute to help the women of her community and to provide for her family.
As a concerned citizen, Dorgelesse stayed informed about the state of the economy. And when a protest was organised to raise awareness about corruption in Cameroon, she decided to join.
That day, Dorgelesse’s dreams of being a business owner were shattered when she was arrested during the protest.
Dorgelesse spoke up for freedom. And now she’s lost it.
“What led me to protest that day?” Dorgelesse often asks herself. “Life was getting harder and harder…Everything was falling apart…I said ‘well – if my voice can help inspire actual change in my country, why not?’...That was what motivated me,” she said.
The protest Dorgelesse attended was meant to be a peaceful demonstration. However, soon after, security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters. As Dorgelesse ducked into an alleyway to seek safety, the police followed her. The authorities arrested her and took her to a police station, where she was detained in a single cell with 22 other people, in abysmal conditions.
Right now, Dorgelesse is separated from her son and mother and worried about what will happen to them in the future. Right now she's being unjustly imprisoned simply for standing up for what is right.
Donate today to protect the human right to protest injustice.
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