The goal of Night of Rights is to raise awareness of contemporary human rights violations. Last year the focus of Night of Rights was on the abuses taking place at Guantanamo Bay. This year we plan on doing something in collaboration with the International Justice Mission. The goal of Night of Rights is to educate people about human rights abuses and to empower people to help stop them.

Night of Rights brings people together in a relaxed setting: an outdoor concert. It attracts a diverse part of the community; not only people who already know about the problems going on today, but also those who have no idea about these problems. Night of Rights is organized by our school's Amnesty International club, and we try to bring in not only people from our own school community but others as well.

Initially, Night of Rights was planned to be an indoor event. However, when we encountered problems with the indoor venue, we moved it outdoors. We recruited local bands, primarily from our high school, found volunteers from our high school's tech crew to rig up a sound system, and invited a guest speaker to provide a first hand account of abuse. Our club posted fliers all around our school and personally invited many people to attend. This year we plan an coordinating with Amnesty International clubs from various high schools in the area to increase the effectiveness of the concert. We also plan on organizing things at the concert to raise money to donate to the International Justice Mission. Last year the concert raised nearly $500 dollars from food sales alone. Perhaps as a direct effect of the concert, involvement in our club has increased threefold. We hope to exceed that amount this year, and rally even more people to take action.

Educating yourself about human rights abuses is the first step. They may not directly effect you, but the mere existence of abuses as heinous as the use of child soldiers or the use of rape as a weapon of war in this world assaults the dignity of all humankind. Awareness is the first, and most important step. The more people there are that truly understand the depths of these abuses, the easier it will be to take action.