How a letter-writing campaign became a global force for change: Polish activist Witek Hebanowski explains

12 November 2026

In 2001, Witek Hebanowski was a member of a local Amnesty group in Warsaw when he met another young activist while organizing an event at a festival. Together they hatched a plan to spend 24 hours writing protest letters to governments around the world. This spontaneous action grew into Amnesty International's Write for Rights campaign, a global force for change which over the years, has demanded an end to injustices faced by more than 200 individuals and groups.

As Write for Rights turns 25, Witek, 49, tells us how he became an activist, why letter-writing is as important as ever in this digital age, and describes some of the cases that deserve our attention today.

What inspired you to become an activist?

My father was a painter and my mother was an English teacher, but both of them were involved in anti-communist activities in Poland in the 1980s. I remember one 60-year-old guy, who used to come for English lessons, but in fact, he was smuggling opposition newspapers and stuff that was illegal and for which you could get arrested if you were caught with them. My family, especially my mother, but also my father, helped with distributing this material.

At an early age, they would also take me to demonstrations where I would see the police beating protesters. Even the end of communism in Poland was brutal, in the sense of total censorship and violence against protesters. Communism ended when I was 11 - I remember it well - and by the age of 18 I had witnessed the big transformation of Poland from an oppressive country to a free country.

When did you first join a local Amnesty group?

I was 18 when I joined the Amnesty International Warsaw group, fresh out of high school. It was an absolute discovery for me when I went to the Amnesty International Poland AGM, aged 19, for the first time - meeting people from other cities and with the same ethos, the same strong values. But more importantly, they were not dreamers, they were people of action - 'doers'.

"more importantly, they were not dreamers, they were people of action - 'doers'"

What sparked the 24-hour letter writing session?

We had a brainstorming session - I remember using a blackboard where we wrote about 40 ideas on it, and from these 40 ideas, we came up with three basic rules.

The first idea was to write letters based on Amnesty International cases - in the end, it was 30 plus cases altogether. Then we had a second rule, which was to do this to celebrate Human Rights Day, to celebrate the anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration. So, let's do this over 24 hours, starting Saturday, that was 14 December at noon, and ending on Sunday noon.

We tried to promote it as an extreme way of spending your Saturday night, you know, instead of going to some clubs, you would spend the time writing letters to 4, 5, 6 AM. And then the third decision was like, okay, count how many letters we had written and give feedback to each other.

So, then I wrote a letter to Amnesty International Poland's other local groups to say we at the Warsaw group were planning this action. Would they join?

How did it grow from there?

I think we got about 5,000 letters for Write for Rights in 2002. Then we got 20,000, then 40,000. In the first four or five years of the campaign, we got to 100,000 letters. One of the reasons why it worked was it inspired the movement. We got pictures from around the world of people writing letters, people in Niagara Falls in Canada, people in Zimbabwe, in Pakistan, all writing letters.

How does it feel to see how Write for Rights has grown into a global campaign, now 25 years old, with hundreds of peoples' lives being changed?

I've come to understand from this experience that there is nothing that is impossible.

We have no limits in what we can do. I never thought that from being in the basement of the Amnesty Warsaw group, operating without any funding, that I would see John Legend or Jeremy Irons recording a video about why they were taking part in this action. It was beyond my imagination at the time.

Why is the letter so powerful?

When authorities receive thousands of letters, it works. It makes a change, starting in their mailroom.

It also gives power to people who are in prison. It gives power to their families. It gives people this kind of self-esteem, and a sense of dignity to know their case matters to other people who have made a bit of effort to write - because we don't write letters by hand very often now. We have to understand there are people who need this effort from your side, more than anything. It gives them a reason to go on.

"We have to understand there are people who need this effort from your side, more than anything. It gives them a reason to go on."

Success sometimes means someone gets moved to a better prison, or they get released. Or we stop the death penalty from going ahead. So, letter-writing is still effective, and we should also understand how meaningful it is for people on the other side, receiving letters.

Are there any cases of injustice that you feel deserve more attention right now?

Bahruz Samadov's case is especially personal to me. He recently cut himself during a court hearing, and Amnesty International has called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Bahruz was part of One Caucasus, an arts and education festival and long-term programme we created in Georgia as a safe and inspiring space for young people from across the Caucasus. He joined us in 2015, when he was 19. As an Azerbaijani, he met and worked with young Armenians there, built friendships, and this became part of his path towards peace activism and dialogue.

There is also a personal Amnesty connection. When we organized the first global Write for Rights action, Amnesty International Group 133 in Cambridge, Massachusetts - Rick Roth's group - provided the first and, in practice, the only budget we had: just a few hundred dollars to help organize an action across around 40 countries. That story is an important reminder of how Write for Rights itself began. Years later, the same Rick Roth became a strong supporter of One Caucasus. He helped us financially, fundraised for the project, and Amnesty was visibly present there as well.

So, for me there is a double responsibility here. Bahruz was part of the space we created - and now he is serving 15 years in prison on fabricated "high treason" charges connected to his peaceful activism and contacts with Armenians. We have to stand with him. I would ask people to read Bahruz Samadov's story, print this campaign poster, take a picture with it and post it with #FreeBahruz and send it to [email protected] with "Free Bahruz" in the subject line.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about joining Write for Rights this year?

Do it.

I think one of the deepest forms of happiness is to become part of a great idea that is actually changing the world for the better. Write for Rights gives you exactly that experience - little by little, person by person.

"I think one of the deepest forms of happiness is to become part of a great idea that is actually changing the world for the better."

And when you write a letter, sign a petition or join an action, you may one day feel a little of that extraordinary moment when someone walks out of an unjust prison sentence and wins back their freedom. You were part of that.

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all - and we can only do it with your support.

Act now or learn more about our human rights work.