Students write for rights in Academia building

Today, students are gathering in the Academia building to bombard government officials with letters. In a four-and-a-half-hour writing marathon organized by STAI, they write letters calling for the protection of human rights.

Students in need of good karma could stop by the Academia building today from 10:30 until 15:00 to participate in a writing marathon organized by STAI (Students Tilburg Amnesty International). By writing letters to government officials across the world, students were standing up for people whose basic rights are violated.

Elena Carrieri (19) writing a letter

Elena Carrieri (19) writing a letter

Good cause

One of the participants is Global Law student Elena Carrieri (19) from Italy. “I’m glad to be involved, because I think it’s a good cause”, she says. “Right now I’m writing a letter in support of Johan Teterissa, who is serving a prison sentence in Indonesia for waving a flag. By writing letters of protest, we can put pressure on the authorities to release him.”

Awareness 

Elena Carrieri with STAI-president Róisín Scholtens

Geertje Smits with STAI-president Róisín Scholtens

“The goal is to collect as many hand-written letters as possible today”, says Geertje Smits (21), who is a member of STAI’s events committee and helped organize today’s writing marathon. Writing protest letters is a long-used strategy to put pressure on government officials, but the writing marathon also serves another purpose, Geertje explains: “We believe it’s important to raise awareness for human rights violations, which unfortunately occur every day. By organizing a writing marathon, we also want to demonstrate that anyone can help protect and promote human rights.”

The letters will be posted by STAI tomorrow.

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