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2018 Write for Rights and Holiday Potluck

Write for Rights Holiday Party! Join Amnesty International Portland (Group 48) for our annual Write for Rights holiday event. We’ll write letters to stand in solidarity with and free human rights defenders across the world and shine a light on human rights abuses. Stop in and stay as long as you can. Write letters. Talk to other activists. Fortify yourself with the free refreshments. This year’s letter-writing cases feature individuals from Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, South Africa, Ukraine, Venezuela.

Date: Thursday December 13, 2018

Time: 7:00-9:00pm (set up starts at 6:30pm)

Location: Eliot Center Buchan Building (Room A108) at First Unitarian Church (church map)
1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland, OR 97205

What to bring:

  • Food (an appetizer, main dish or dessert)
  • Drinks
  • Utensils, plates, cups, napkins
  • Greeting cards (non-denominational and non-Amnesty cards)
  • Paper for letter writing
  • Envelopes
  • $1.15 stamps (international postage)
  • 50-cent stamps (domestic postage)
  • Copies of the AIUSA Write for Rights cases (case sheets and/or sample letters)

Please RSVP by adding a comment to this post and include some details if you plan to bring food, supplies and/or guests.

Note: Comments are moderated on this site, therefore, they do not appear immediately after submission.

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Bring the Myanmar military to justice

One year ago, a terrible human rights crisis erupted in Myanmar. The Myanmar military embarked on a vicious and systematic campaign against the ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine state, burning villages to the ground and killing thousands of civilians, including men, women and children.

In the past year, Amnesty International has documented extensively this relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing, and the squalid camps on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border where more than 900,000 Rohingya who managed to escape are now housed.

The Myanmar military assaulted civilians, including children, shooting and killing them as they fled in horror. They laid landmines along the path to safety. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been killed with their homes destroyed and women sexually assaulted. The United Nations called this crisis “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

It’s time for United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley to move for an international mechanism that will pave the way for bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. Ask your Member of Congress to push for an investigation of crimes against the Rohingya now.

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Amnesty International’s Oregon State Meeting

On Saturday, April 7, 2018, Amnesty activists from across Oregon will be gathering for a meeting! Come learn about what you can do to take action to protect human rights in the US and abroad and develop skills for effective organizing in Oregon. Join us in planning our activities in Oregon. Please RSVP today!

What: AIUSA Oregon State Meeting
Where: Lewis and Clark College
0615 SW Palatine Hill Road
Room #123, JR Howard Hall
Portland, OR 97219 (campus map)
When: Saturday April 7, 2018
Time: 9:30 am – 3:00 pm

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2017 Write for Rights and Holiday Potluck

AIUSA Group 48 will host its annual Write for Rights and holiday potluck in December. Write for Rights is Amnesty International’s annual global letter writing marathon that generate millions of messages for people whose basic human rights are under attack.

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Date: Thursday, December 14, 2017

Time: 7:30-9pm (set up starts at 7:00pm)

Location: Buchan Building at First Unitarian Church (church map)
1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland, OR

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Myanmar: Scorched-earth campaign fuels ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Rakhine State

Amnesty International
Press Release
September 14, 2017

Amnesty International can reveal new evidence pointing to a mass-scale scorched-earth campaign across northern Rakhine State, where Myanmar security forces and vigilante mobs are burning down entire Rohingya villages and shooting people at random as they try to flee.

The organization’s analysis of active fire-detection data, satellite imagery, photographs and videos from the ground, as well as interviews with dozens of eyewitnesses in Myanmar and across the border in Bangladesh, shows how an orchestrated campaign of systematic burnings has targeted Rohingya villages across northern Rakhine State for almost three weeks.

“The evidence is irrefutable – the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar. Make no mistake: this is ethnic cleansing,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director.

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