Amnesty International has called on people across the UK to take part in its flagship letter writing campaign tagged write for Rights, in support of individuals from around the world who have been persecuted, jailed, or faced human rights abuses for standing up for their rights.
The 2025 campaign will be done with and for individuals who are suffering abuses in all Nations.
This follows the release of five government critics in Angola after more than a year of arbitrary imprisonment.
The government of Angola is said to have denied healthcare including urgent surgery and daily HIV medication.
Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, Sarah Jackson urged Angola government to respect the people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and end arbitrary detention and torture in the country.
One of the detainees, Neth Nahara, was featured in Amnesty International’s 2024’s Write for Rights campaign, with over 21,000 UK supporters sending letters appealing for her release. During her imprisonment, authorities denied Neth her daily HIV medication for eight months, which severely impacted her health.
Police arrested the other four activists on 16 September 2023 in Luanda before a planned protest in solidarity with motorcycle taxi drivers.
On December 25, 2024, Angola’s President Joao Lourenço announced pardons for Neth and the four others.
Amnesty International hopes its 2025 campaign will bring freedom to the following:
Oqba Hashad, an Egyptian business student, has been arbitrarily detained for nearly five years.
Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı, head of the Turkish Medical Association, faces more than seven years in prison because of her human rights work.
Human rights defender Rita Karasartova was arrested in 2022 along with 26 others for opposing a new border agreement that gave control of a freshwater reservoir to Uzbekistan.
So far many have gained freedom as a result of Amnesty International’s intervention.
