The objective: ?ollect letters at letter-writing Amnesty International marathon and to show Ukrainians that everyone can become a victim/witness of illegal arrest.

Primary: lawyers, politicians, civil activists, community leaders, journalists.

Secondary: everyone is able to support those who need help.

In order to convey to people this idea we applied psychological rule of approximation of interests – the farther from the representative of the potential audience events unfold, the more important for it they are.

In our action people watched human rights violation from the first row. We staged illegal arrest in the cinema, indeed.

We staged an illegal arrest in cinema. Men in SWAT uniform broke into the hall, twisted the arms and dragged out a viewer. A man who presented himself as a lawyer, tried to defend the victim, but police arrested him as well.

We injected the video of the arrest to social networks of political parties, lawyers, journalists and NGOs and they responded. Even Council of Lawyers of Ukraine joined the discussion of this case.

Then we revealed that the arrest had been staged, but people went on discussing how civil society and lawyers should act to prevent illegal arrests.

We planned to collect 12,000 letters and collected 16,439 (137% of the planned goal).

Media coverage – 620,000 people.

But much more significant result is that the action took place just in time.

We didn’t expect that in five days after our staged performance the capital of Ukraine would be swept by illegal arrests of more than 200 peaceful protesters. Thousands of lawyers saw our campaign. This time civil society had at least 5 days to think and decide how to act in similar situations.

And they acted. 234 illegally arrested Ukrainians released by February.

The action budget was 3,500 euros.

Every day human rights are violated. In order to help illegally arrested people, community should respond: write letters, make officials act only within the law. But Ukrainians prefer to stay indifferent. So we decided to show that everyone can become a victim or a witness of lawlessness. And it is up to you to decide how to act.

We provided people a unique chance to witness an open lawlessness of police and to understand how everyone can fight against this.

Amnesty International speaks against human rights violations all over the world. It needs support of civil society.