10 Q&A about Write for Rights in Taiwan

2017/12/01

Ya-Chi Yang, Campaigner Manager, Amnesty International Taiwan

Amnesty International’s annual letter writing campaign “Write for Rights” is entering its 15th year. Write for Rights started from a young couple in Poland. Gradually, it has become a global campaign with more than 4.6 million actions taken last year. The “Write for Rights Teachers’ Programme” developed by Amnesty International Taiwan is marching towards the 3rd year.

In 2016, campaign actions taken in Taiwan has exceeded 314,399, playing an important role on the international stage. Most actions were taken by students, who were inspired and guided by their teachers to write postcards in class.

Before the launch of 2017 Write for Rights campaign, we interviewed the campaign manager of Amnesty International Taiwan, Ya-Chi Yang, to share her insights of “Write for Rights with Teachers” project from her perspective through 10 questions.

When did you start thinking about running the “Write for Rights” campaign with schools and students?

“Write for Rights” is the biggest annual campaign of Amnesty International. I had been thinking about what is the best way to introduce this human rights campaign with the most participants worldwide to our passionate people in Taiwan.

However, back then, I didn’t expect that I’d be working with these many teachers. Since human rights education is such a broad field, it’s unlikely to access the formal school education system with the capacity of one single person. We knew that school teachers are busy and stressed out about keeping up with existed teaching schedule.

And then, I decided to ask a friend in Hsinchu if I could run the “Write for Rights” campaign with her students in class. This opportunity became the first school experience for the “Write for Rights” campaign.

How was that first try? Do you have anything impressive to share?

The first experience is the most impressive action for me so far. I remember that it was a middle school near one fishing port in Hsinchu, and students’ living environment and family backgrounds were simple. I was quite nervous as it was the first time to meet with these students. It had been a long time since I graduated from middle school, and I hadn’t interacted with 13-year-old students for a long time.

One of the cases of the “Write for Rights” that year was about Shell oil spills in the Niger delta, a pollution case affected many households. I was surprised that many students easily felt connected to the scenario of this case. Then the teachers told me that many students’ family are in fishing industry. I told the students that such pollution does not only affected water resources, but also damaged the livelihood of individuals, whose livelihood depends on fishing.

When I was sharing this story, the students were very concentrated. I could tell from their faces that they could identify with the scenario I described. This experience and the reactions of the students has encouraged me. And I thought that I should keep trying to work with teachers. First I started with my own networks to find some cooperation opportunities. I asked my friends who work as teachers if they were willing to let me run the “Write for Rights” campaign in their classes. This is the kick-start of “Write for Rights with Teachers.”

Whenever I had interactions with students on such occasions, I always felt that not only did we teach students about human rights, but students also brought new views and inspirations to us, recharge us to continue our human rights work.

Do you think that there is anything special about “Write for Rights”?

“Write for Rights” supports individual cases through writing letters, which is one of the most common campaigning approaches adopted by Amnesty International. I really enjoy case work. Sometimes we want to make some changes. For example, I want to change the situation for women in a country, but it is very difficult to find a starting point in practice. I might give up in the process of struggling, and say to myself, “never mind, I couldn’t have done anything anyways.” I might even become cynical. However, writing letters is a starting point for facilitating personal influence.

In my opinion, the most important thing about letter-writing campaign is the firm idea about being able to change and do “something” through writing letters. Writing letters is a very powerful campaign approach given that there are many things that you can’t do right away, but you can at least write a letter. Besides, even if the letters turn out to be useless, you will not suffer huge losses.

Even if you are not sure about this campaign, and simply think that “writing a letter might work” and then start writing a letter to try to change the world, such belief and action are indeed wonderful. In our society, there aren’t many people doing things without asking for results. It seems that every action needs to be evaluated like making an investment. We calculate the results and gains from our actions to see if they are worth of our effort. Sometimes…we seem to lose the pure idea of “doing something because I believe it’s the right thing to do.”

Do you think it is difficult to deliver some cases or rights to young participants? What is the appropriate age for joining Write for Rights?

When we first launched the Write for Rights with Teachers project, we met students from different school years. I sometimes got sentimental during the process as interacting with them reminded me of my own experience. I saw how people gradually lost faith in the world as they grew up. This kind of feeling was especially strong when working with adults.

People often say to me that cases of Amnesty International might not be easy for students to understand as these cases involve complicated human rights concepts. However, according to my own experiences, younger students, especially first and second graders aged 7-8, had the best reaction. They were the ones touched me the most.

The topic of this year’s Write for Rights is “Human Rights Defenders.” Do you think it’s a very remote concept?

I think the concept of human rights defenders is very simple, but just sounds a little unfamiliar. The concept is neither something far away from our lives nor something created out of thin air by the western society or by the United Nations. In fact, we have human rights defenders in our own culture and history. For example, in the process of liberalization in Taiwan, many people made small or big sacrifices through various approaches to defend important human values. These people are human rights defenders, and thanks to their hard works in the past, we can discuss issues and express different opinions today.

I participated in a workshop in London this year, and one of the facilitators asked the participants to think about “what kinds of people make the life we have now possible and who makes our existence possible.” Most people directly thought of their parents or families. However, if we look back further to the days before we were born, many people already stood out and fought for the rights we enjoy today.

During the sharing session of the workshop, a participant showed us a picture of a blonde woman, but no one recognized that woman. Then the participant said, “I don’t know this woman personally, but she is one of the most important women in my life. If she hadn’t started defending LGBTI rights in her own country 30 years ago, I, as a gay man, probably can’t live in my own country safely let alone marry my same-sex partner.” You might think that some people have nothing to do with you. However, the fact is that without them, we can’t be what we are today. I don’t know these people personally, but they are important to my life. This kind of people are human rights defenders.

We might not personally know the individuals of Write for Rights. However, by supporting them, we are defending crucial values of mankind. We probably have never been to or would never go to some remote places, such as Palestine, but by supporting human rights defenders of Palestine, we are defending Palestinian people and their future generations. Meanwhile, we are also defending some believes and values shared by human beings.

Participants of Write for Rights have been significantly increased annually. Which part of this campaign attracts teachers, in your opinion?

I think the question goes to the teachers who attended “Write for Rights” . I am surprised that there are many teachers in Taiwan passionate about human rights issues, and they are willing to devote their time to this campaign. Teachers of the network take credit to the growth of the actions taken.. Taiwanese society nurtures determined new-generation educators, and we simply provide materials and opportunities.

I think the most special part of this project is that there is no clear line between teachers and students. Teachers play the role of catalyst and bring this project to students, so teachers are more like story sharers than knowledge givers. I have been emphasizing that Write for Rights is not a knowledge competition. We don’t need human rights or international law experts. Everyone can use this Write for Rights with Teachers toolkit to join the campaign.

It doesn’t matter if you are a staff of Amnesty International, a teacher, or a student. Having different roles at different positions makes no difference.

Sometimes, students even actively invited their teachers to join the campaign, and I think it is a valuable part of this campaign. We have been emphasizing that students are the subjects of education process, and students should be able to decide what they want to learn and how to learn. I think such idea is very important as students can decide on something relevant to them rather than stand on the sideline and passively receive information. It is very different from the not-so-wonderful learning experiences we had when many of us grew up.

Do you want to say something to encourage teachers who have never participated in or are still considering joining Write for Rights to be part of it?

From my perspective, teachers play the role of “catalyst,” while conventionally our society expects teachers to know everything. However, in the Write for Rights Teachers’ Programme , we anticipate teachers seeing themselves as a channel passing cases and materials to students rather than an encyclopedia.

Moreover, we are now living in the Internet era. Teachers do not have to play the role of Google search engine. A student may not be clear about a case, may question the authenticity of a case, or may want to debate with other students. We should regard these scenarios as good starting points. Teachers can encourage students to find related information by themselves. By doing so, students can learn with a more proactive attitude, and believe that they will someday find a stage of their own.

Therefore, we welcome teachers from all areas to join the project. We believe that every teacher can inspire students in a unique way. Teachers might inspire students to write a letter properly or express themselves in Chinese or English accurately, or help students know the concept and values of human rights.

Do you have anything to say to the students who want to join Write for Rights?

Write for Rights is a campaign initiated by a young couple in Poland, so the campaign itself is full of youth spirits. That real story brought a series of human rights change, indicating that however incredible or impossible a change may seem like, it could be done by a young people.

Although Amnesty International has many campaigning tatics, we have been seeking breakthroughs and innovation. However, the most basic way may be the one most likely to touch people, for example, writing a letter. Letter writing can never be enough. Let’s try and picture that after you send out one after another letters and postcards, the receivers can’t just ignore them or delete them with a click. Writing a letter may seem very conventional or even aboriginal, but it is the most direct approach to tell the counterpart that “it is what I think.”

When I am writing a letter, I usually imagine that I am not only talking face to face to the person I am supporting, but also talking face to face to the person sitting in the government office. Through writing letters, I am telling the person sitting in the office that “we might be very different; you might have incredible power; I, as a human being, want to tell youwhat I think.”

When you stand out for someone you don’t know for no return, probably for the first time in your life, and just for doing the right thing, I believe you would be touched by your own kindness.

Do you think the Internet era has any influence on Write for Rights?

In the social media era, everyone can be the media. We’ve been asking our young friends to write a postcard, take a photo of it, upload the photo, and hashtag “#W4R17” for this year’s campaign. By doing so, they not only connect with the world, but also influence their friends on social media. For example, a student has 200 friends on social media, the post would pop up on 200 people’s timeline. If 5 of these people are interested in the student’s action and wonder “who is the personwriting to” and want to know more about this campaign, and then start writing postcards and sharing on Facebook, the message will continue to spread. Everyone’s influence is immeasurable. Social media has influence that conventional letters or a group of people demonstrating on the street can never achieve.

Today, young people can express their opinions through various ways, and I think it is one of the most wonderful things about the democratic society we live in. We usually say that use your rights to defend others’. Even if we can stand out and say what we want to say here in Taiwan, not everyone in this world enjoys the same rights. Therefore, as long as we have these rights, we should make good use of this “privilege” that we should not take granted for to support those whose rights are not fulfilled.

Compared to past Write for Rights, do you think there is anything different from this year’s campaign? Do you have any expectation for this year’s campaign?

More people registered! I think I am expecting something different from this year’s Write for Rights as I have been inspired greatly every year. For example, we haven’t acutally launched the campaign this year yet, and a student left a message to us saying that the teacher who introduced Write for Rights to them is not teaching their class this year, but he still wants take part, and wants to know what to do. After reading the message, I realize that results of our work have been accumulated little by little, and I am quite touched.

However, every year and there is different as each case has a completely different life story. How can they be the same? There is a phrase in Japanese, “one time, one meeting” entailing the meaning of treasuring meetings with people. I think the Write for Rights with Teachers project should run like this phrase. This project creates connections between us and teachers, between teachers and students, between us and cases we support, and even between us and government officials. Each connection is unique, and worthy of being treated wholeheartedly. Let’s make this right together.