A group of freshmen are reinstating the Kent State chapter of Amnesty International, a student organization which has been inactive since last spring.

According to Amnesty International’s Web site, the organization is a worldwide non-governmental and non-profit group devoted to protecting human rights around the world. These rights are recognized by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards.

The local chapter of the group will focus on awareness and letter-writing campaigns. They hope to organize rides to protests as well.

Thisanjali Gangoda, freshman biology major and founding member of the group, said she wants to get a core group of people who are ready to actively participate.

She said the group wants to focus on at least one national and one international project each semester. One of the planned projects, Gangoda said, is a campaign to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.

“Amnesty International is big on anti-torture,” she said.

Gangoda said the group fell apart last spring when all the previous members graduated.

The first meeting will be at 8 p.m. today in Room 307 of the Student Center.

Contact news correspondent Kiera Manion-Fischer at [email protected].