Amnesty Quinte is joining Amnesty International in the bid to free an Indigenous man in Guatemala.
When Bernardo Caal Xol, an Indigenous man from the Maya Q’eqchi’ nation in Guatemala stood up to protect the flow and water quality of a river sacred to his people by taking the authorities to court, he was himself sentenced to more than seven years in jail. On December 10, a group of people from the Quinte area will do their best to set him free.
The tools they will use are pen and paper, and online petitions and letters.
Amnesty Quinte spokesperson Jan Sosiak comments on the work.
“We can give some support and hopefully more than support, some change for people who are either imprisoned or have had their land or their rights, you know, they’ve been taken away.”
Joining with people around the world, the plan is to flood the Guatemalan authorities’ desks with hundreds of thousands of messages, so they know the world is watching this miscarriage of justice.
Each December 10, International Human Rights Day, millions of people take part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights, the world’s largest human rights event with 4.5 million people participating last year in the midst of the pandemic.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of this initiative.
Sosiak adds, “The fact that people around the world are writing on their behalf gives them, even if they’re still in prison, even if they don’t get out, just gives them hope.”
“Many of these people actually do get freed if they are in prison, because of this. When they see that so many people realize around the world that this person has been incarcerated just for defending human rights.”
Amnesty Quinte presents Write for Rights, plus a special Amnesty Holiday Market, on Friday, December 10 at the Belleville Public Library.
