PEN Canada works on the cases of threatened and imprisoned writers and on the broader issue of freedom of expression in a variety of ways:
1) Through work on behalf of our adopted honorary members, whose cases (between 20 and 30) we monitor regularly, and on whose behalf we petition governments, courts, international organisations, and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
2) Through the Rapid Action Network (RAN), appeals are sent by a network of subscribers almost every week concerning an urgent case, either from our own list of honorary members, or from the casebook of between 750 and 900 cases, researched and updated every six months by the Writers in Prison Committee at International PEN's headquarters in London, UK.
3) By designating as Campaigns certain ongoing and or especially topical cases or the freedom of expression abuses in specific countries. These are situations, often involving more than one writer on trial, or a group of writers arrested, or a writer murdered, where we are either working with other centres on a strategy or receiving regular updates and commentaries or analysis.
Our current campaigns include the situation in Turkey (abolition of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and the trial of those charged with the murder of Hrant Dink); the autumn 2007 uprising and subsequent crackdown by the military junta in Burma; and an Americas Brief, on which PEN Canada is working with other centres in preparation for the 74th PEN Congress in Bogotá, Colombia, in September 2008.
For more information and updates on individual campaigns use the links below.
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh
• Afghanistan: PEN Canada Honorary Member Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh
China: Countdown to the Olympics
• Charter 08: the declaration of human rights signed by Chinese dissidents
• PEN: Signs "Discouraging" for Post-Olympics Human Rights Improvements in China
• Beyond the Olympics: Final Report of the Campaign
PEN Poem Relay
• PEN Gives Voice to Silenced Writers in China on Eve of the Olympics: New York City, August 7, 2008
• PEN to Imprisoned Writers on Eve of Olympics: You will not be forgotten.
• Failing to Deliver: An Olympic-Year Report Card on Free Expression in China
• Fifty-two Writers: Their Stories
• Day Two: International PEN POEM RELAY site blocked in mainland China
• Day 21: Chinese Writer Re-Arrested as Crackdown Continues
• Day 30: A failing grade for China
• Day 36: Chinese Journalist Sentenced, Others Prevented From Meeting U.S. Officials
• Day 55: Detentions Escalate at China Quake Site
• Day 62: No Let-up: China Detains Another Writer
• Day 77: Chinese Writer and Professor Guo Quan Detained
• Crackdown Intensifies in China During Olympic Torch Relay
• Arrest of Zhou Yuanzhi brings number of imprisoned writers to 40
• PEN writer and Chinese citizen, Yu Zhang, denied entry to Hong Kong for World Press Freedom Day conference
• Day 100: Take action: on World Press Freedom Day, write a letter on behalf of Hu Jia
• Day 111: PEN denounces detention of prominent Tibetan
• Day 126: Writers Decry Conviction of Leading Dissident for Criticizing Beijing Olympics
• PEN to China: Let free press tell true story in Tibet
• Women under Surveillance in China
• Day 183: Another Mixed Week in China
• Day 204: 41 Writers in Prison, 1 released under dubious terms
• Activist Hu Jia Arrested in Beijing:
Number of Jailed Writers Rises to 42
• Chinese Police Preventing Prominent
Chinese Writers from Meeting in Beijing
• Day 231: PEN Condemns New Detention of
Cyber-Dissident in China
• Open letter from Presidents of Three
PEN Centres to Chinese authorities
• False Promises: Countdown to the Olympics
• Activist Hu Jia Arrested in Beijing:
Number of Jailed Writers Rises to 42
• Chinese Police Preventing Prominent
Chinese Writers from Meeting in Beijing
• Day 231: PEN Condemns New Detention of
Cyber-Dissident in China
• Open letter from Presidents of Three
PEN Centres to Chinese authorities
• False Promises: Countdown to the Olympics
• Forty-two Writers: Their Stories
Free Expression in Turkey
• Jan. 19, 2008-Monthly "301" Action
• Dec. 19, 2007-Monthly "301" Action
• Nov. 19, 2007-Monthly "301" Action
• PEN Protests Sentences under Article 301
• Trial of Hrant Dink's killers continues
• Call for abolition of Article 301
• Murder of journalist Hrant Dink
• Background report on insult trials
• Turkey campaign
Crisis in Burma
• Poet/comedien Zargana: an update
• Burma: The Evil of Mediocrity
by Honorary Patron John Ralson Saul.
• Background: PEN Canada's concerns
Day of the Imprisoned Writer:
November 15
• More than forty journalists and writers killed in the past year
• Exiled Eritrean journalist Sara Habtemichael concerned for her imprisoned journalist brother
• More on Eritrea
