RESCUE A HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FROM TORTURE

According to Amnesty International:

• State officials in more than 150 countries mistreat or even torture political prisoners and human rights activists.
• In more than 80 countries, political prisoners and human rights activists were murdered as a result of torture by state officials.

Examples of physical forms of torture include: beating, whipping, burning, rape, submersion into water almost to the point of suffocation, and electric torture with shocks of high voltage on various parts of the body, very often on the genitals.

Examples of psychological forms of torture include: threats, deceit, humiliation, sleep deprivation, isolation, mock executions, witnessing torture of others (including one's own family), being forced to torture or kill others, and withholding of medication.

Torture is used to destroy the will of victims and to suppress democratic opposition in the broader community.

Torturers thrive when it seems that no one is watching. Over the years, Amnesty International has mobilized volunteers to make individual appeals to expose and stop torture. Thousands of torture victims have been rescued, because volunteers sent letters of protest to torturers and their leaders.

Join the Urgent Action Network, so that Amnesty International can send you alerts via email, cell phone, or pager, whenever it hears about an imminent threat of torture or human rights abuse. You can respond to the alerts, from any internet connection, by quickly emailing a pre-drafted letter of protest to the torturers and their leaders. Your letter, in combination with appeals from hundreds or thousands of other concerned volunteers, can convince state officials that their acts of torture have been exposed globally. Once exposed, further torture is nearly impossible to carry out.

Act Now for Human Rights provides a good alternative, if you prefer to help by sending a single hardcopy letter or fax, without receiving alerts.