E-mail alert wins its first success

 

Gallery

Posted on 26 Oct 2000 at 11:06

Amnesty International is claiming a first success for its e-mail alert system for human rights abuses.

According to Janice Christensen, campaign director for Amnesty's U.S. branch, the case involved a Kurdish activist, Sehmuz Temel. He was released just a few days after Amnesty members began sending e-mail to Turkish authorities.

Amnesty claims that Sehmuz Temel has repeatedly suffered torture in the past, from which he is now disabled.

More than 1,000 e-mail messages called for Sehmuz Temel's release in the first 10 hours of the campaign and more than 2,200 in 48 hours, Christensen said.

"The big difference is e-mail is so much faster," said Janice Christensen. "If we had done a mail campaign, we probably would have gotten 3,000 letters. But it would have taken 10 days to happen. This took two."

Author: Alun Williams