We can make a difference!

Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú

The Mexican government has announced that it has taken responsibility for the rape and abuse of Valentina Rosendo Cantú. To add to the great news, the government is expected to take responsibility for Inés soon too.

These formal Acts of Acknowledgement were originally demanded by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in August 2010 and now the Mexican government has agreed.

Jabbar Savalan

Imprisoned Facebook activist Jabbar Savalan was released on Boxing Day 2011 after he received a presidential pardon.

Whilst a pardon doesn’t mean the charges have been removed or overturned, his release is still great news and we will continue to campaign for freedom of expression to be respected.

The Deep Sea settlement

The Prime Minister of Kenya has announced a halt to all evictions in Kenya until legal measures are put in place to make sure that residents are not left homeless by evictions. Although this is positive, it comes in reaction to a violent eviction at the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi at the end of January, in which three people are reported to have died.

Chen Guangcheng

This is one that hit the world media in the past few weeks. Mr Chen is now in the US with his wife and children after escaping from house arrest and making his way to the US embassy. 12 months ago

Do you have time to send any cards to people on this list?

Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to do any additional cards now so am marking this goal as complete.
Still 11 cards is good especially as one of my recipients was released from prison during the campaign!

Till November 2012 … human rights abuses won’t be eradicated before then but I hope not to see the same names again and to hear good news about this year’s recipients in the meantime. 15 months ago

Update 26 December 2011: Good news! Azerbaijani activist Jabbar Savalan has been pardoned and released today. He is now at home with his family. This is fantastic news but 16 prisoners of conscience remain in jail in Azerbaijan.

Many thanks to everybody that sent Jabbar a message of solidarity. 16 months ago

Sending cards to:

• The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó
• Deep Sea Settlement
• Christi Cheramie
• Afghan Women’s Network
• Jean-Claude Roger Mbede
• Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú

Not as many as last year, but with all the cards I’ve been sending my funds are running a little low. I figured a few are better than none! I’ll mark this goal complete once they’re in the mail.

_{Note to self for next year: Buy special cards for this. The ones I got this year just didn’t have the right kind of pre-written messages.}17 months ago

4 cards today, signed by me and my 2 oldest sons. 17 months ago

Ferhat Gerçek
Ragihar Manoharan
Hamad al-Neyl Abu Kassawy
Deep Sea Settlement
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

cards on their way. 17 months ago

Will send some religious ones to other recipients in early December then mark this as done. 18 months ago

• Chen Guangcheng and Yuan Weijing – China
• Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand – Iran
• Mukhmed Gazdiev and Madina Gazdieva – Ingushetia
• Family of Hamad al-Neyl Abu Kassawy – Sudan
• Ferhat Gerçek – Turkey – again as not his first year in this campaign :-(18 months ago

• The Afghan Women’s Network
• Amina and Zainab – Pakistan – 2 cards
• Fatima Hussein Badi – Yemen
• family and colleagues of Natalia Estemirova – Russia
• Jabbar Savalan – Azerbaijan

And some more to come later on. 18 months ago

Next step is to write some messages of support in them and post them.

I’ll send some religous ones closer to Christmas to those who can accept them. 18 months ago

I wrote out the cards last night. Amnesty Int’l makes this pretty easy because they provide the addresses, salutations, and greetings. They also tell you what you can and cannot put in the card (religious messages, political messages, certain pictures, etc.)

If someone had a group (scouts, class, whatever) they have address label templates and message templates that you can print out on labels to make these up en mass. Then the group members just need to put them on cards and sign them.

A quick stop at the post office and this goal is done. 18 months ago

Thanks for the invite/reminder! Cheers! 18 months ago

Thanks to those who have joined me so quickly on this. We are currently the top goal of the day :) 18 months ago

As you can see from these updates writing a card can make a difference. For those with unchanged situations both the recipient and the authorities are aware of the international attention.

Azerbaijan
Eynulla Fatullayev
Released on 26 May 2011 following a presidential pardon.

Burma
Khun Bedu, Khun Dee De and Khun Kawrio
All three remain in prison.

Canada
Lubicon Cree
More than 2,000 cards and letters sent by Amnesty supporters to the Lubicon Cree last year showed the community the scale of the international support for them.

China
Nurmemet Yasin
Remains in prison.

Egypt
Mohamed El Sharkawi
Released on 17 March 2011 after almost 16 years in administrative detention.

El Salvador
Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz
No further developments.

Equatorial Guinea
Five prisoners of conscience
All five men were released on 7 June 2011 after a presidential pardon.

Greece
Konstantina Kuneva
In December 2010, the attack on Konstantina Kuneva became part of a wider police investigation into cleaning companies in Greece.

Iran
Ronak Safarzadeh
Ronak remains in prison.

Laos
The October Protesters
No further developments.

Mexico
OPIM
Members of OPIM say the letters they received through GCC 2010 enabled them to show that they have international support. OPIM leaders received further threats in 2011.

Morocco
Chekib El -Khiari
Released from prison on 14 April 2010 after a royal pardon.

Nepal
Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC)
Coordinated physical attacks on WOREC staff have stopped and the police inspector has proved to be more responsive.

Rwanda
François-Xavier Byuma
Remains in prison.

Serbia/Kosovo
Petrija Piljevic
No further developments.

South Korea
Park Rae-Gun
On 24 January 2011, Park Rae-gun was convicted for his role in organising protests and given a four-year suspended sentence.

Syria
Seven prisoners of conscience
All released in 2011.

Ukraine
Aleksandr Rafalsky
Remains in prison. Letters from Amnesty supporters are being
used during English lessons in the prison.

USA
Troy Davis
Despite serious doubts about his guilt, Troy was executed on 21 September 2011.

Uzbekistan
Isroil Kholdorov
No further developments.

Vietnam
Le Thi Cong Nhan
Continues to be held under house arrest. (Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who was jailed alongside her, was released into house arrest in March.)18 months ago