Ukrainian Alexander Popov was arrested by police and after tortures accused of murdering a man he had never seen. This is not isolated example of authorities violating human rights.

Every year Amnesty International holds the International letter-writing marathon to stop the lawlessness.

Our challenge was to convince Ukrainians that they should speak against violations.

The objectives: collect letters to support the Marathon.

The strategy: to show Ukrainians that everyone can become a victim or a witness of illegal arrest.

The execution: 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. 16,439 people wrote letters during the Marathon (137% of the planned goal).

Our case appeared to be prophetic. In only five days, when Ukrainian government tried to suppress peaceful protests and started illegal arrests, hundreds of lawyers and activists were ready to act. Luckily they had 5 days to think and prepare.

The message worked with public opinion of professional communities (lawyers, journalists etc) and ordinary Ukrainians.

Our goal was to involve more participants in our letter-writing Marathon in support of individuals and organizations whose rights have been violated.

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

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

Amnesty International is well known in professional human rights community, but it remains unknown to many Ukrainians.

We understand that for achievement of the highest results we need to take into account the rule of approximation of interests, according to which the farther from the representative of the potential audience events unfold, the more important for it they are.

We collected 16,439 (137% of the planned goal).

But what was a 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. More than 200 participants of peaceful protest were arrested.

Thousands of lawyers saw our campaign. Civil society and especially lawyers had had 5 days to think and decide how they personally would act in similar situations.

They acted. By February 14th 234 illegally arrested Ukrainians have been released.

Nobody could have imagined that after five days of our staged arrest more than 200 people would have been illegally arrested. But hundreds of lawyers gave them free assistance. Civil society was activated.

Media coverage - 620 000 people. Among them – thousands of lawyers, who saw our campaign.

16,439 Ukrainians wrote letters at the Marathon.

234 illegally arrested Ukrainians released.

November, 25th. Staged performance of illegal arrest in cinema.

November, 25-26. Seeding phone video of the arrest in professional communities.

November, 27th. Revelation with full-video of performance and press-release of Amnesty International.

November, 30th. Brutal suppress of peaceful protest by Ukrainian government. Hundreds of illegal arrests.

December 6-20. Letter writing marathon.

By February, 14th 2014 – 234 illegally arrested Ukrainians released.

We injected the video directly to opinion leaders of civil society (community activists, journalists,NGOs). Opposition political parties and Council of Lawyers of Ukraine started to share and discuss the case. This caused a storm of debate and discussion among lawyers, activists and journalists.

We didn't expect that just in five days the capital of Ukraine would be swept by illegal arrests. Our case helped people to prepare and mobilize, because lawyers and activists had at least 5 days to think and decide how to act in similar situations.

Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization that advocates for the defense and observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus all campaign organizations are based on the contention that everyone is able to provide protection and support to those who need help.

Every day human rights are violated. In order to help illegally arrested people, the community should respond: write letters, make officials act only within the law. Public attention and pressure is very helpful.

But Ukrainian civil society is very weak, people prefer to stay indifferent. Even lawyers and journalists usually stay aside.

To show Ukrainians that everyone can become a victim or a witness of illegal arrest. But each of us can also help to people whose rights are violated.

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

In our action the target audience watched human rights violation from the first row. We staged an illegal arrest in the cinema, indeed. The SWAT team, the illegally arrested man and the lawyer were professional actors.