For the next month you can do something pretty. 
Amnesty International is partnering with Australia to encourage Japan to acknowledge, apologize and compensate for the atrocities committed against countless “comfort women” during World War II.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, as many as 200,000 women were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery during World War II. “Comfort Stations” were established all over Asia during the war and women and girls usually 20 years old or younger, some as young as 12, were sold, kidnapped, or otherwise compelled to “comfort” soldiers. These girls were kept for months or years at a time, and for the past 60 years have been kept relatively silent.
In recent years though, many of these women have been speaking out.
Amnesty International, the veritable watchdog of global human rights has spearheaded a campaign to achieve the survivors’ goal of receiving the recognition and apology they deserve. Japan has refused this acknowledgment in the past, making only vague, and inadequate inferences to the injustices done to so many women. 
The survivors, and global community think it is time to make a change.
The butterfly you see here is what SG has done to encourage and support that change. In an effort to publicize the struggle and further this cause, AI and former comfort women have chosen the symbol of the butterfly, as hope and we want to make them fly.
In creating a butterfly, you are signing a petition, showing your support and using your voice.
Injustices done to these women are international war crimes, against universal laws as outlined in the Geneva Convention and must be amended to the best of our abilities now. The survivors deserve to see this addressed before the end of their lifetime, so let’s help to make that happen.
Visit Amnesty International for more information here where you can follow a link to create your butterfly- it takes only a minute, and it is actually a lot of fun!
If you are interested in Australia’s involvement with former “comfort women” you can read more about that here.
See a survivor’s request for support, Jan Ruff O’Herne talks to us here.
Make a butterfly. When you do, come back here and post it in a comment. We would love to see them. Use your voice, make it fly.
