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Human Rights Week November 6–10, 2006 Events The Voice Mural, a public forum for individuals to speak their minds (photos, quotes, thoughts, etc.) Tuesday Activities Period (Wigg 214): Open Discussion on Guantánamo Bay
What is Amnesty International?
Wednesday, 6:00 p.m. (Straus): Human Rights Speaker Sifa Nsengimana, Massachusetts Coordinator for the Coalition to Save Darfur; a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda Friday Activities Period (Wigg): JAMNESTY 2007 Brainstorm Friday, 7:00 p.m. (Straus): Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids (http://www.kids-withcameras.org/home/)
W
ill Newman-Wise, Class II, and Hanna Tonegawa, Class I, head Milton’s Amnesty International chapter, and this year put their efforts to the dual challenge of raising awareness about issues and raising the profile of the organization on campus.
Hanna Tonegawa and Will Newman-Wise
“Our main challenge is to get students to look outside their busy world, to help them understand something they’ve never experienced and can’t imagine.” —Will Newman-Wise, Class II
great discussions,” the leaders reported. Will and Hanna hope Human Rights Week will become an annual tradition at Milton, just as the group’s spring event, JAMNESTY, has become.
“Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for human rights. [Amnesty’s] work is based on careful research and on the standards agreed by the international community. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion.” (www.amnesty.org)
JAMNESTY, an April outdoor music extravaganza, with student bands and performers from Milton and other schools, drew hundreds of students last year and netted $1,000 for Amnesty International’s freedom campaign. Students are working already to reach that success this spring: 75 percent of the funds raised go to Amnesty International; 25 percent seeds the Milton chapter’s activities for the following year.
Hundreds of students over the years have participated in Amnesty’s letter-writing campaigns—demonstrably effective global campaigns to alert the public to human rights abuses that put individuals or communities at risk. This year’s heads, who adopted Human Rights and Poverty as their campaign, strategized to find a more powerful way for students to connect with human rights problems.
Hanna, who is from Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, was inspired to get to know the “outside” political world by students just ahead of her: Alice Tin (Hong Kong), Seohyung Kim (South Korea), and Laura Yeo (Canada), all Class of 2006. Will came to Milton from Singapore; in his former school, students were engaged in international concerns and he wanted to continue that.
“Why not a whole week of daily focus on human rights?” their group thought. Amnesty’s “Human Rights Week” premiered this November and attracted plenty of participation: “new information and
Will says, “Students may think these issues are irrelevant, but they don’t realize that they’ll be the leaders making the decisions, making the choices, very soon.” CDE
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Milton Magazine