Amnesty International USA last month activated its new Internet advocacy network by asking members to send e-mail appeals to Turkish authorities on behalf of Sehmuz Temel. Mr. Temel is a Kurd who was being held at police headquarters in Istanbul and had been severely tortured during previous detentions.
Several days after the organization sought help, and more than 2,200 e-mails later, Mr. Temel was released unharmed.
Amnesty International can't know for sure that the e-mail messages won Mr. Temel's release, but the group believes that the speed and ease of its Fast Action Stops Torture, or FAST, network will make it an important tool in the group's efforts to prevent the torture of political prisoners.
"We are exposing the potential torture before it can happen and hopefully saving lives," says Janice Christensen, campaign director at Amnesty International.
Activists can join the network on Amnesty's Web site, and can opt to receive action alerts via e-mail on their computer or on cellular phones or pagers that accept e-mail messages. Each alert includes an Internet address where members of the network can learn more about the case and send a message to the appropriate public official.
The organization has been promoting FAST for two months, and so far more than 6,000 people have signed up.
Several partnerships with dot-com companies -- a charity auction on Yahoo.com, online chats about the problem of torture on About.com and Yahoo.com, and free music downloads for network members from ArtistOne.com -- have helped to get the word out about the network.
But Amnesty International is also counting on the power of the forward button. When activists join the network they receive an e-mail message that describes how FAST works and asks them to send the information on to their friends and family members.
To get there: Go to http://amnestyusa.org/stoptorture.
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