On December 10^th the TRUSU Equity Committee marked Human Rights Day by participating in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights event at TRU. The Committee helped write letters calling attention to, and pressuring governments to stop, human rights abuses around the world including specific cases in Iran, Venezuela, India, the USA, Kenya, and Kyrgyzstan.

Defending human rights and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly regardless of who they are, what they look like, or what they believe is a fundamental value of the TRU Students’ Union. The Equity Committee has worked to put this value into practice this semester by participating in Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network. Since May, the Committee has sent 15 letters to governments around the world to request they intervene to protect the human rights of various marginalized groups and communities.

The Equity Committee gets the best feeling in the world when it receives word of a successful pressure campaign to protect a marginalized group. For example, on November 12, 2018 TRUSU received a message of thanks from Kemba Didah Alain a Chadian student and human rights activist who was arbitrarily detained by the government of Chad for peacefully protesting the violations of basic human rights in Chad. The Equity Committee had sent an urgent action letter to the Chadian Minister of Justice in early-2018 requesting that he investigate Alain’s case and release him as soon as possible and to ensure that pending his release he is not subjected to torture or other ill-treatment. “It is thanks to the pressure like yours exerted on the political authorities of Chad that I was able to secure my freedom on February 26^th” 2018, Alain wrote in his message.

Click here to see the letters we’ve sent on behalf of the Students’ Union this year!

If you’re interested in getting involved in the fight for global human rights, you can find more information about joining Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network here!

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About the Equity Committee

The TRUSU Equity Committee is a group of eight elected and appointed students who work to raise awareness about the systemic oppression of marginalized groups in society, and to challenge that oppression on campus.