Write for Rights | Stedelijk Museum

Imagine: you are in jail because you criticised the government. Thousands of people from around the world send a letter to the president calling for your release. The same people send you a card with a kind message. This is Write for Rights.

Write for Rights is the world’s largest letter-writing campaign. Every year in November and December, tens of thousands of people worldwide take action for victims of great injustice. Letters are written from locations across the country; schools, museums, libraries, bookshops, living rooms. Together, everyone writes hundreds of thousands of letters and cards to authorities. The call is to put an end to this injustice. Many thousands of participants also sign these letters online. And it works: victims are freed every year, and injustice stops. Will you join us this year?

• Damisoa from Madagascar. He fled with his family from famine in the south, but now lives in very poor conditions in the northwest of the country.
• Ellinor from Norway. She is fighting for the rights of her Sámi community now that the construction of an industrial wind farm threatens traditional reindeer herding.
• Fifteen young women and girls from Ecuador who form the Guerreras por la Amazonía together. They demand that the government bans the toxic gas flares of the oil industry.
• Unecebo Mboteni from South Africa. He was only 3 years old when he died after falling into an open toilet at his preschool. No one has been held responsible.
• Saleh Diab from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He and his family face losing their home because Israeli settlers want to evict them.
• Sai Zaw Thaike from Myanmar. The photojournalist was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison after reporting on the destruction caused by Hurricane Mocha.
• Mother Nature Cambodia. Members of this organisation fight against environmentally damaging projects by companies and the government. Five of them are currently in prison because of this.
• Juan López from Honduras. He opposed polluting mining and energy projects. On 14 September 2024, he was shot dead. The perpetrator is still at large.
• Sonia Dahmani from Tunisia. This lawyer frequently speaks out in the media about injustice. On 11 May 2024, she was arrested. Since then, she has been detained under terrible conditions.
• Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy from Kyrgyzstan. As editor-in-chief, she exposed corruption. In January 2024, police arrested her. She has been sentenced to six years in prison.