amnesty international

Spring Quiz and Brazil Talk

May 2, 2016 by zarganar

Quiz nights have been a major social event and fundraiser for many years now. The Ye Olde George in the centre of Christchurch was our original venue – despite their function room being somewhat gloomy (and grubby) and their charging for the privilege. Sadly it is currently closed. Last year we returned to the Brunswick Hotel, Charminster – we’d been there many years ago. One of the oldest pubs in Bournemouth, it doesn’t overwhelm you with fancy decor and lights.

amnesty quiz night — packed amnesty international quiz night at the brunswick

Numbers were rather low for our last Autumn Quiz in Poole, but we had well over 60 crammed into the Brunswick’s function room. David Brown again proved an excellent host, and May Stevens organised another stunning raffle. We raised over £400 – a record for our quiz nights.

David Brown quizmaster at amnesty international quiz night

Thanks to the Brunswick for providing the venue (and manning a separate bar) for free.

Brazil

At the April meeting we had a fascinating talk by Richard Crosfield on Brazil. Richard is one of the hard working South American team of volunteers who coordinate and disseminate the mass of information into case files and actions. You’ve probably seen some of their newsletters on this blog.

Brazil is a vast land of many contrasts – in some quite liberal (they abolished the death penalty in the 19^th Century). But it was the contrast of people with great wealth living alongside the masses crammed into the favelas (slums) and in particular the numerous killings by police. These killings seldom lead to any prosecution of the perpetrators – such an example is our case file.

Richard also spoke about the challenges faced by the local offices in Brazil and how this hasn’t always led to actions for us to work on. But he flagged up the work coming linked to the forthcoming Olympics in the Summer.

Newsletter April 3rd 2016

April 3, 2016 by zarganar

Hello

Welcome to the latest news from your local Amnesty Group.
Our next meeting is Thursday, 14th April 2016 at 7.30pm at Moordown Community Centre, Bournemouth. There is going to be a….

Speaker on Brazil

Unfortunately the new Brazil country coordinator Ellie May, who was scheduled to visit, has been unwell. The good news is that Richard Crosfield, who had that brief until earlier this year and is still a big part of the South America Team, has agreed to come instead. The group has been associated with South American campaigns for most of its existence, and Brazil has always generated most work. We currently have an open action file centred on an individual in Brazil (more about this is now on the “take action” page of our blog). The other big issue related to Brazil is, of course, the summer Olympics. This should be an ideal time to flag up human rights abuses in a country that is sensitive to international opinion.

If you are interested in reading more about some of the appalling issues in Brazil, find the South American Newsletter from August 2015 on our blog. This has a link to an Amnesty document “You Killed my Son“, which looks at the extraordinary number of killings by the police in Brazil. Although 47 pages, it does have a 4 page summary to start with – well worth reading.

So please put 14th April in your diary now. Please note that as Richard is travelling down and back to London, the meeting will start sharply and any “business” will be discussed at the end.

South America Newsletter

We have just posted the latest South American Newsletter to our blog – amnestyat50.co.uk There is a huge amount of information and several actions. It does illustrate – in just one region – how much work Amnesty does, and how many Human Rights abuses are going on that don’t get into the press. Those coming to hear Richard on the 14th may like to follow up the Brazil section – in particular the “street cleaning” of street children ahead of the Olympics….

Spring Quiz

We are back on track with our popular Spring Quiz. This is now organised for Friday April 22nd at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX.
For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Teams of up to 6, which can be formed on the night. Singles and couples get added to other teams, usually leaving teams with at least 4. Entrance to £5, pay at the door. David and Rosemary Brown will return as hosts, so put it in your diary now.

AGM, Human Rights Act and Syria

These were all featured at our last meeting! For those interested the Chairman’s report has been posted on our blog, which does show how much we got up to in 2015.
Whilst it may appear all quiet on the proposed abolition of the human rights act, we are still expecting the long promised “consultation document” to be published this Spring. If you have not done so, please write to your MP. Your editor has put a copy of the letter he wrote to his MP Christopher Chope on our take action page. Please download and adapt as you wish. Its worth noting that although Mr Chope does not share our views, he has replied saying he

“has made representations on your behalf to the Mimister responsible at the Ministry of Justice and shall let you know when I receive a reply.”

So do take action! There is also an “MP letter” you can download on Syria. We have now passed the 5th anniversary of the start of the crisis; Syria has become the epicentre of the world’s worst human rights & humanitarian catastrophe. There is also a link on this page to the latest Amnesty report on Syria.

Tapestry

Our group was quite involved in a Regional Action to create a tapestry depicting the various parts of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is now displayed in the Chapter House at Salisbury Cathedral, on the way to the Magna Carta (please note, you don’t have to enter the Cathedral (and pay) if you just want to see the Tapestry and/or the Magna Carta). Its not clear how long it will be there – at least all April we hope. But check out salisburyai.com/tag/salisbury-cathedral/

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South America Newsletter April 2016

April 3, 2016 by zarganar

Here is the latest from the hard working South American Team:-

“We have lots of news on the region, an action you can take on Venezuela and there are two petitions, one each on AI Chile’s and AI Peru’s websites, to sign. And there’s good news from Chile on abortion law.

REGIONAL

Thanks to all of you who helped to publicise the launch of the report on State Violence against Women and Torture in Sexual and Reproductive Services on 7 March. The campaign is now well and truly up and running and we shall be asking you to take further action. Meanwhile, you can still sign the petition on AI Chile’s website here.

The International Secretariat teams dealing with South America except Brazil, are being moved to Lima. (Brazil is already handled by the office in Rio de Janeiro). All the staff will probably be new: most of our London-based contacts have left or moved to other jobs in the London office. We therefore face a transitional period when the new staff will be learning the ropes and this may in turn affect our service to you. So please bear with us during this period.

BRAZIL

Brazil is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Legal actions were filed against former president Luiz Ignacio (Lula) Da Silva and other leaders of the ruling party linked to a corruption case. President Dilma Rousseff is also being investigated by the Parliament on accusations related to the funding of her presidential campaign. This investigation could lead to her impeachment and her removal from power.

President Rousseff should veto a counterterrorism bill whose overbroad and vague language could be used to undermine freedom of association and expression in Brazil, Human Rights Watch said 14 March in a letter to the president. [Read more…]

AGM & Meeting 10th March 2016

March 15, 2016 by zarganar

At our last meeting on 10^th March we held our AGM and went on to have “normal” meeting as well!

AGM

Chairman’s Report

The year started remarkably well with a quiz in early January at the Arts University Bournemouth campus. We had nothing to do with the organisation, which was down to someone called Wendy Gardner who most of us had never heard of. Wendy organises these quizzes in aid of various charities, this year deciding on us and the Parkinson’s Society. But as we turned out en masse, she divvied it up 75:25, so we came away (literally) with £750!

We had two other quiz nights of our own, at the Brunswick in Charminster in April and The Queen Mary in Poole in November. Thanks to David Brown, David Rogers and Sally Hawksworth for running these events, but particularly to everyone who turns up. We don’t promote these events much outside the group, so they do need your support to continue.

Likewise street collections. These are strange events; I don’t think anyone enjoys the experience of being invisible for a few hours on a Saturday in the middle of town. As our Treasurer will explain, they do continue to generate useful revenue. Although this has dropped, it’s more to the passing public missing their cue to donate rather than lack of volunteers to take part.

The weather didn’t help with the Muscliffe Family Funday, which was held over until August due to bad weather. Thanks to May and Ted for manning their stall. Ted continues to give his talks to any school or organisation that is prepared to listen! This can be productive financially – The Women’s Fellowship West Parley donated over £50 – but also spreads the word about what Amnesty does and gets others involved in taking action.

We had two new events this year. We manned (or mainly womanned) a stall and took part in the procession at Bourne Free Pride Festival in July. This was quite successful as all our cards were signed and much interest shown in the LGBT cases Amnesty is involved in. Also in July we supported a screening (and had a stall) of the documentary film “The Look of Silence” at Pavilion Dance. There was only a small public turnout to see this very moving film, but those who went from the group felt it was worth the effort to be there.

This year we managed to get two marvellous venues for our Write for Rights campaign. Most of you know how difficult this has been in the past, leading to near arrest outside Borders about 8 years ago. Thanks to Ted, May and Genevieve for their persistence in getting these spots. Castlepoint was decimated by appalling weather, although we found a more direct, in your face, approach did work.

Finally the year ended as it had begun, with an unexpected donation. Fiona McDonald is an old member who has moved back to Poole, and wanted to celebrate a “special” birthday – OK she hit 50. But she wanted friends to donate to Amnesty International, rather than give her presents. Another £150 came our way. Thank you Fiona.

Thanks to David Rogers for maintaining our blog and producing the newsletter, that now goes out to over 200 people. He also informs me we have over 1000 followers on our Facebook page – far more than any other local group – and where actions get shared and followed up several times a week.

We’ve continued to meet at Moordown Community Centre every month, except August. And every month we have written letters linked to our various campaigns in Cuba, South America, China and other Urgent Actions that arise. Unfortunately the China Coordinator, who was scheduled to speak to us in June, couldn’t get to us. However, in October we had an excellent talk by Dr Howard Davis, lecturer in Public Law at Bournemouth University about the Human Rights Act. Thanks to all of you for turning out over the course of the year.

[Read more…]

Newsletter February 24th 2016

February 25, 2016 by zarganar

Hello

Welcome to the latest news from your local Amnesty Group.
Our next meeting is Thursday, 10th March 2016 at 7.30pm at Moordown Community Centre, Bournemouth. This will be our Annual General Meeting.

There will also be an element of planning for the year ahead, reviewing where we are in the various campaigns signed up for. We also have a potential new case file to discuss. As ever there will be letters to send, so please come if you can….

Spring Quiz

quiz night We are back on track with our popular Spring Quiz. This is now organised for Friday April 22nd at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX.
For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Teams of up to 6, which can be formed on the night. Singles and couples get added to other teams, usually leaving teams with at least 4. Entrance to £5, pay at the door. David and Rosemary Brown will return as hosts, so put it in your diary now.

Speaker on Brazil

The main event planned, so far, for 2016. The Brazil country coordinator Ellie May is coming to speak to us at our meeting on April 14th, Moordown Community Centre. The group has been associated with South American campaigns for most of its existence, and Brazil has always generated most work. We currently have an open action file centred on an individual in Brazil. The other issue related to Brazil is, of course, the summer Olympics. This should be an ideal time to flag up human rights abuses in a country that is sensitive to international opinion.

So please put 14th April in your diary now.

Vince Cable

The New Forest Group have invited The Right Hon Sir Vince Cable to speak on the topic of “Business, Security and Human Rights; Do They Mix?”. Saturday 5th March 2016, 2.30pm at the Lymington Centre, Robert Hole Room. More details from http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/uk/new-forest/ or 01590 6819007

Tapestry

Your editor is still experimenting with format and content. Its clear from last months mailing that a “simpler” newsletter does get through – a huge number were starting to bounce with numerous outgoing links and photographs.

With this likely change, it seems inadvisable to promote individual actions via this newsletter. So if you are keen to get involved, please go to our “letters” or “take action” page on our blog – http://amnestyat50.co.uk/letters. We now have links to the action pages of several Amnesty International organisations – please investigate!

South America

Please go to our blog and check out the latest newsletter from our South America Coordinators. There is a huge amount of information and several actions. It does illustrate – in just one region – how much work Amnesty does, and how many Human Rights abuses are going on that don’t get into the press.

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