Write for Rights 2020
Every year the School’s student-led Amnesty International Society gets involved with a ‘Write for Rights’ day.
Read a report below by Katya and Bea, U6.
This year’s ‘Write for Rights’ day was different to our usual event but nevertheless, still hugely exciting! Due to the School’s COVID restrictions that are in place, the U3, L4 and U4 all wrote letters in their PSHE lesson, and the remaining year groups had the opportunity to write letters throughout the day. The Amnesty team were thrilled to receive so many.
We selected five activists: Germain Rukuki, the El Hiblu 3, Jani Silva, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the Student Pride Defenders from Ankara University. We chose these people as we felt they had the most compelling and moving cases; we wanted students throughout school to really appreciate their situations and feel inspired to stand up for what they are particularly passionate about. As with every year, we were so impressed and grateful for all the letters people wrote. We hope to put pressure on these human right violations and help the activists feel supported, and their actions recognised. We managed to write over 300 letters altogether – an extremely impressive amount!
A big thank you goes to Mr Des O’Driscoll for his help in organising the day and doing the onerous job of packaging up all the letters. We would also like to thank Mr Humphries for helping put together the video for assembly which gave the girls an insight into each case.
Head Girl Milly Drinkwater, who took part in the event, said: “I think it is such a special event to be involved in and Headington is immensely lucky to have an Amnesty International Society run by such dedicated and committed Sixth Form students.
“It is really important that we show our solidarity and support to those less fortunate than ourselves who are battling for a better life of equality. The turnout this year was magnificent and the girls at school should be extremely proud of themselves for all their efforts. As always, thank you to the Amnesty club at Headington for their help and hard work!”
Mr O’Driscoll said: “Many students gained a valuable insight into how non-governmental organisations can raise awareness of global issues and catalyse change through grass roots actions such as letter writing campaigns.”
