Syde provides MultilingualPress for Amnesty International’s 16 WordPress multisite installations, supporting translation operations in 72 languages across their global network of human rights advocacy sites.
The challenge: Coordinating urgent human rights advocacy across languages and borders
Amnesty International operates as a global movement defending human rights in over 150 countries and territories. With 10 million supporters and 29 out of 50+ national sections using a shared codebase, the organization needed a digital infrastructure capable of rapidly deploying urgent campaigns across multiple languages while maintaining operational independence for each country section.
Their previous CMS platform created significant constraints. Limited to just 4 languages with expensive add-ons, it couldn’t support the organization’s growth trajectory and was only able to power the global website, amnesty.org. This prevented the International Secretariat from running additional sites or country section websites. After switching to WordPress, Amnesty expanded its digital presence across 10+ multisite installations and needed to serve audiences in many different languages globally, they required a solution that could:
Enable unlimited language expansion without architectural constraints or additional licensing costs
Support both centralized translation teams (Paris, Madrid, London/Beirut) and decentralized country section workflows
Handle traffic spikes during major campaigns like Write for Rights, which generated 4.6+ million actions in 2024
Maintain consistent multilingual architecture across independent country section sites
Provide the performance necessary for time-sensitive human rights documentation and urgent action mobilization
The solution: WordPress Multisite with MultilingualPress for scalable multilingual operations
Amnesty built its infrastructure on WordPress Multisite, with MultilingualPress integrated to support the organization’s complex multilingual requirements. The solution powers 10+ separate multisite installations across Amnesty’s global movement, with the global website amnesty.org now supporting a broader set of languages, including English, Arabic, Spanish and French as well as Chinese (delivered in both simplified and traditional scripts). Additional Eastern European and Central Asian languages are currently being rolled out. This distributed approach enables each region to operate independently while maintaining consistent multilingual capabilities through MultilingualPress.
Multilingual Architecture
Language Resource Centre Integration
MultilingualPress supports Amnesty’s Language Resource Centre (LRC) operations, which coordinate translations across many different languages globally—from widely spoken languages like French, Spanish, and Arabic to regional languages including Amharic, Oromo, Shona, Tetum, and Visayan Cebuano. The LRC’s professional translation teams in Paris, Madrid, and London/Beirut manage core language translations while country sections maintain autonomy over their local language content across the 10+ multisite installations.
Unlimited Language Scalability
Unlike the previous CMS with its 4-language limit and add-on requirements, WordPress with MultilingualPress provides unlimited language support as a core feature. This architectural advantage enables Amnesty to expand language coverage based on advocacy needs rather than technical or budget constraints. Country sections can deploy new language sites as human rights situations demand, without dependency on central IT resources.
Performance at Scale
WordPress Multisite’s architecture, with each language running as a separate site with its own database tables, prevents the performance degradation common in single-site translation solutions. This separation is critical during high-traffic periods—such as when the 2024 Write for Rights campaign mobilized 4.6+ million actions across 200+ countries, or when urgent actions require immediate global coordination.
Complex Script Support
MultilingualPress correctly handles the diverse character sets required for Amnesty’s language portfolio, from left-to-right Latin scripts to right-to-left Arabic script and complex Asian characters. This capability is essential for human rights documentation in regions where local language accessibility directly affects activist safety and campaign effectiveness.
Technical Implementation
The WordPress development team integrated MultilingualPress with custom translation workflows, allowing Amnesty’s translation teams to export content, translate using internal systems, and reimport updates while maintaining proper content relationships across language sites. The platform integrates with Amnesty’s open-source Humanity theme and custom Gutenberg blocks, enabling non-technical staff to rapidly build campaign pages during human rights crises.
The outcome: Supporting global human rights impact through reliable multilingual infrastructure
With MultilingualPress as part of their WordPress infrastructure, Amnesty International operates a digital platform that supports their mission-critical work defending human rights globally.
Write for Rights Campaign Performance
Amnesty’s flagship Write for Rights campaign demonstrates the organization’s capacity to support large-scale global mobilization. While MultilingualPress has supported their multilingual publishing work since 2021, the broader campaign achievements span more than two decades:
50+ million actions generated since 2001, around 20 million actions supported since adopting WordPress + MultilingualPress in 2021
4.6+ million actions in 2024 alone, across 200+ countries
Materials prepared and distributed across 72 languages through the global movement
Campaign coordination across 50+ national sections, each adapting content for local contexts
Individual cases highlight the impact of Amnesty’s multilingual content capabilities. During Write for Rights 2021, more than half a million actions were taken for Bernardo Caal Xol, a Guatemalan teacher and environmental activist, and in March 2022 he was released. Rocky Myers’ death sentence was commuted in 2025 after hundreds of thousands of Amnesty supporters signed a petition calling for clemency in 2023.
Write for Rights 2022 mobilized global support for Sasha Skochilenko in more than 40 languages, significantly increasing international attention to her case. More than 100 individuals featured in Amnesty campaigns have since seen positive outcomes, including release from detention, improved conditions, or dropped charges.
Digital Platform Performance
Post-platform optimization, Amnesty has achieved measurable improvements in digital experience and multilingual publishing workflows, including:

Improved member engagement across several regions

More consistent multilingual donation experiences

Stronger year-over-year online participation

Enhanced campaign performance through optimized regional sites
These improvements collectively strengthen Amnesty’s ability to reach, engage, and mobilize supporters across its global movement.
Systemic Human Rights Outcomes
Beyond individual campaigns, Amnesty’s sustained multilingual advocacy has contributed to significant systemic change. Their death penalty abolition work, enabled by consistent messaging adapted to local languages over decades, has helped advance a global trend that has seen countries abolishing the death penalty grow from 16 in 1977 to 113 today—more than half the world’s countries.
Open-Source Contribution
Amnesty’s decision to open-source their entire WordPress ecosystem in 2024—including the Humanity theme, custom plugins, and campaign tools—extends the impact of their technical infrastructure beyond their own operations. Other human rights organizations can now freely adopt and adapt these tools, creating a multiplier effect for global human rights advocacy.
Our multilingual platform helps remove barriers so people everywhere can access human rights information in their own language.
Caroline Courtney Global Website Editor
Key results:
Scalable multilingual architecture
MultilingualPress’s integration with WordPress Multisite provides the foundation for Amnesty to serve millions of supporters across 150+ countries in 72 languages, handling traffic spikes during urgent campaigns while supporting 50+ independent national sections across 16 multisite installations.
Flexible translation workflows
From the Language Resource Centre’s centralized professional translation teams managing strategic languages to 50+ national sections handling local translations across 16 multisite installations, MultilingualPress enables efficient content creation and publishing across regions—ensuring urgent human rights information reaches target audiences quickly.
Unified global presence with local relevance
Moving from a 4-language CMS with costly add-ons to MultilingualPress’s unlimited language support enabled expansion to 72 languages across 10+ multisite installations. Amnesty can now rapidly deploy content in new languages as human rights needs emerge, without architectural limitations or escalating costs.
Foundation for measurable impact
The reliable multilingual infrastructure supports campaigns that generate tangible outcomes: 50+ million actions since 2001, 4.6+ million actions in 2024, and more than 100 individuals seeing positive case results including release from detention and improved conditions.
Discover how MultilingualPress supports enterprise-scale multilingual WordPress operations at
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