PEN International, a writers’ association that “promote[s] literature and defend[s] freedom of expression,” has launched a global campaign to mark “a significant public stand against racism and xenophobia.”

With the Make Space campaign—a coordinated effort consisting of events, publications, advocacy, community advocacy, and digital action set to unfold around the world over the next three years—PEN International aims to dispel harmful stereotypes about writers who are refugees or otherwise facing persecution.

An excerpt from the mission statement for the campaign reads, “Together we must shape a context for free expression in which all voices and stories have worth. Together we must challenge xenophobia and racism. Together we will shape a world with space for everyone and—as writers—it is with words and stories that we start.”

Below the mission statement, more than two hundred artists and writers have signed their names, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and artist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei, a political activist openly critical of the Chinese government who has been jailed for vague allegations of “economic crimes,” said to the Guardian that the campaign is important for what it promotes: literature. “Literature is a place where we can construct new realities together,” Weiwei said, “but unless the literature available to us is representative, those new realities threaten to reconstruct the prejudice and discrimination of the world we live in.”

Founded in 1921, PEN International documents human rights violations and works to defend writers from censorship and persecution.

Image Credit: PEN International.