Les 3 - Amnesty

Les 3 - Amnesty

Today:

• Learn about Amnesty
•  Read about Amnesty
• Read some cases and give your opinion

Reading

Read the questions and then read the texts. 

Answer the questions.

Discuss!

Read the cases 1, 2 and 3. 

Discuss your answers in pairs. Write them down!

What action did Amnesty take? 

How did it help to change the situation? 

What more could have been done at the time? 

What do you think is the main message of these cases for human rights activists?

What action did Amnesty take?

How did it help to change the situation?

What more could have been done at the time?

What do you think is the main message of these cases for human rights activists?

Set up your own campaign!

You'll read about two cases.

In groups of 4 pick a case and make your own campaign. 

If you worked for Amnesty International, what would you do to campaign for the release?

• How would you set up a creative campaign for them? 

• What action would you take?

• How would you encourage others to get involved?

• Who would you get involved?

Don’t forget the different ways that Amnesty campaigns on behalf of people, eg letter-writing, lobbying (for example persuading MPs to use their influence to get something done), online actions, demos, awareness-raising, showing support, public events, work with celebrities.

Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov

WHERE: Azerbaijan

WHAT HAPPENED?

 Youth activists Bayram and Giyas, 22, were angry with the Azerbaijani government, which strictly controls what people can do or say in the country. They protested by spraying a graffiti message on a statue of the former president.

After posting a picture of it on Facebook, they were arrested in May 2016 and tortured into ‘confessing’ to serious drug crimes. In December both were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.

WHAT HAS AMNESTY DONE? 

Young people all over the UK have sent graffiti messages to both students to keep their spirits

up – and show the prison authorities how much international attention is on the case. Letters have also been sent to the President of Azerbaijan asking him to drop all charges and release them.

Fomusoh Ivo Feh- Cameroon

WHAT HAPPENED?

Secondary school student Fomusoh Ivo Feh was set to start university in Cameroon, when he received a joke text from a friend: ‘Boko Haram recruits young people from 14 years old and above. Conditions for recruitment: 4 subjects at GCE, including religion.’

The message was a joke about how difficult it is to find a job in Cameroon – so even an armed group like Boko Haram require highly-qualified recruits. Ivo forwarded the message to another friend, who sent it on again. 

But after a teacher saw the text and showed it to the police, Ivo and his two friends were arrested in late 2014. The charges against him include attempting to organise a rebellion against the state. Right now, he is in prison facing a 20-year prison sentence.

WHAT HAS AMNESTY DONE?

Ivo featured in Amnesty’s 2016 Write for Rights annual campaign. People wrote to the President of Cameroon demanding that he drop all charges against Ivo and his friends and free him. Letters of support were also sent to him, some football themed because he is a huge fan football fan.