Can you send an extra card this holiday season?

I am only a member of two charities. One of them is the WWF, which I don’t preach about too much – a desire for all those beautiful animals we’ve got on this planet to still be there when I look for them tomorrow could be described as a selfish desire, when there are so many other good causes out there.

Then there is human rights charity Amnesty International, which I will happily preach about and never stop. They’re a human rights campaign group who work to peacefully protect the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for everyone in the world.

Every year around Christmas time they run their Greeting Cards Campaign. This isn’t about wishing prisoners of conscience a Merry Christmas –  not all of these countries celebrate Christmas.  It’s about encouraging supporters, at a time when lots of people are sending cards anyway, to send messages of support to someone who is in danger or unjustly imprisoned, or otherwise in need of Amnesty’s help.

A criticism I’ve often heard is “What can a simple Christmas card do?” A fair question – when some of these people are being tortured or under threat of execution, what good is a piece of folded card with a picture of a kitten wearing a Santa hat really going to do for them?

Well, for a method of peaceful protest, quite a lot, actually. Especially when that card is in a post bag with one thousand, two thousand others.

Some of these people are trapped in prison cells, with very little contact with the outside world, and these cards tell them, “We’re here, we care, we support you, and we’re doing what we can to get you out.”

Some of these people, the campaign groups under threat of violence, the families of those who have disappeared or been unjustly killed, are already working with Amnesty International. They know who we are, they’ve met Amnesty representatives in their country, but these messages will show them just how many people they’ve got on their side.

Some of these people may not even SEE their cards. The prison may not deliver them. But for the prison staff, the regime, the guards who might be having doubts about whether this is right or good or whether they’re going to get blamed for this one day if the people in power change, the message will have been delivered. “The rest of the world is watching.”

Watch this interview with former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Omar Deghayes, The Power of Letter-Writing, if you’re not convinced.

There have been thirty-two individuals and groups highlighted this year who need your support. Each has a page on the website dedicated to them, with an address for sending cards, so you can pick one address or several. Cases of particular interest to Bad Reputation readers might be the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre in Nepal (WOREC) or Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) or the Seven Prisoners of Conscience in Syria in prison for five to seven years for -oh wait- publishing pro-democracy articles on the internet. That’s Bad Reputation: The Syria Edition put to rest, then.

You might not agree with all thirty-two cases; activism against the death penalty (as in the case of Troy Davis) is an issue that divides many people, but remember the right to life and the right to be free from inhuman, cruel and degrading punishment are important parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It may be too late now to send a card that will arrive in time for the 25th of December, but a general message of support will be appreciated at any time. If you have already sent a card, there are links on every page, (Already Sent A Card?) where you can write to politicians, ambassadors, and other people with power over the lives of others and express your thoughts on each case.

To find out more about Amnesty’s work, check out their website, follow them on Twitter @AmnestyUK or subscribe to one of their RSS feeds, such as this one on Women’s Rights or this one on LGBT rights all over the world.