First Lady’ video campaign on Asma al-Assad in Syria also launched

Ahead of International Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights’s Rights Day (8 March) Amnesty International has launched a new campaign in support of the right of Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Saudi Arabia to lawfully drive.

A new video accompanying the campaign - Saudi Arabian Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights must drive their way to freedom - highlights the punishments facing those in Saudi Arabia who defy the country’s ban on Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights getting behind the wheel of a car (see the video below).

Amnesty supporters in the UK are targeting Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, calling on him to press the Saudi King to “heed demands of Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Saudi Arabia to have the right to drive as a first step towards guaranteeing their basic rights and ending the discrimination against them”.

The campaign calls on the Saudi authorities to instruct law enforcement officials to stop arresting Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights for driving, to halt all prosecutions against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights for driving and to quash any sentences in relation to the offence, including floggings Activists around the world are also using a photo-sharing site to share images and messages of solidarity with Saudi Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights who have taken considerable personal risks attempt to overturn the ban on Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights driving.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

“The ban on driving is just one example of pervasive discrimination that Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Saudi Arabia have to face.

“It’s utterly shocking that a woman in Saudi Arabia could be given a sentence of flogging simply for getting behind the wheel of a car. It’s time for this to end and for the Saudi authorities to respond to international outrage on this issue”.

As part of its work on Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty supporters are also focusing on Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights’s rights in Syria, Iran and Yemen. In Syria the organisation has launched a letter-writing campaign to urge Bashar al-Assad’s wife, Asma al-Assad, to use her influence to help end ongoing violence and human rights violations against Syrian Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights human rights activists. A short film, The First Lady silent on Syria's human rights record, which is available for embedding, can be viewed at www.amnesty.org.uk/syria /p>

Meanwhile, Amnesty is pressing the Iranian authorities to release Nasrin Sotoudeh - a prisoner of conscience and human rights lawyer serving a six-year jail sentence at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison - and the organisation is also urging the transitional authorities in Yemen to consult Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights human rights activists to bring an end to discriminatory laws and practices in the country.

• Amnesty action:  Open the road for Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Saudi Arabia /li>