It's International Human Rights Day today, the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I'm marking the occasion by taking action in support of Young Women for Change.

This is a grassroots feminist movement of women human rights defenders in Afghanistan who are at constant risk from reprisal attacks. 

Young Women for Change organise films, courses, lectures, walks, and ‘sister sessions’  to help women to take a greater part in social and political life.

The group has opened a women’s internet café in Kabul, a tailor shop for women, and a learning centre where women teach literacy, language, vocational and computer skills.

They have also led  protests asking for justice for women experiencing violence, conducted the country’s first large-scale study  of sexual harassment and set up the first men’s group advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Today I am writing to the UK ambassador in Afghanistan asking him to urge the Afghan government to actively and vigorously defend women's rights, as well as the freedom for women to lobby for their rights.

If you'd like to do the same, you can contact the ambassador at this address:

UK Ambassador Sir Richard Stagg, British Embassy, 15th Street, Roundabout Wazir Akbar Khan, PO Box 334, Kabul, Afghanistan

For more information on the action, please see Amnesty International's blog here.