On Monday, Amnesty International launched its traditional year-end campaign for human rights justice. The campaign will end on Human Rights Day (December 10th), with dozens of candles lit in the Jardins du Maïeur in Namur. This is the way the city wants to commit to Amnesty International as the "City of Lights" and "declare its love to human rights".
Amnesty will of course sell their traditional candles, but also a sticker with the image of Philippe Geluck’s Le Cat. This new product will be sold as of Monday for 5 € and you can stick them to your window or windshield for example.
In order to complete their mission of promoting human rights all around the world, Amnesty wishes to sell 50.000 stickers and 130.000 candles in Belgium thanks to its 846 volunteers. You can find the selling points thanks to the interactive map on Amnesty’s website: www.amnesty.be.
Almost 25 neighbourhoods of Brussels and Wallonia, including Namur and Gembloux have become "Cities of Lights", a label that they can renew every year, depending on each neighbourhood’s effort to defend and promote human rights.
Namur has been called on by Amnesty to support Laisa Santos, a woman facing death threats for protecting the Amazon rain forest against the World’s large landowners. "Our status as capital city can widely influence someone’s life against death threats. It was the city’s obligation to join Amnesty to plead this cause, just like we had done for Aung San Suu Kyi and Ingrid Betancourt", says Deputy Mayor for Equal Opportunities, Stéphanie Scailquin. Namur also signed the Charter of Equal Opportunities back in 2013, therefore committing to fight against all kinds of discriminations.
After the candles are lit in the Jardins du Maïeur and a few speeches on December 10th, a torchlight walk is planned.
(Source: Belga)
