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Editorial

Human Rights & Wrongs

by Rick Lewis

For over forty years the human rights organisation Amnesty International has coordinated a vast worldwide network of volunteers called the Urgent Action Network. If they hear of anybody anywhere in the world who has been arrested for the peaceful expression of their political views and who they consider to be in imminent danger of execution or torture, they immediately alert members of the network, who respond en masse with swift, courteous letters and emails to the responsible officials urging that the detainee be released or at least that their rights in custody be fully respected. I was a member of this network many years ago. If you’ve ever tried to get a response from me to an urgent email you’ll realise that I probably wasn’t the ideal person for this, but I did my best. I found that one problem you face when writing such letters is that you are writing to officials who may not be remotely enthused by the notion of human rights.

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