Welcome to the latest newsletter. Our next meeting will be on Thursday May 7th 2026, from 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm, at Moordown Community Centre. At the meeting we’ll review our campaigning and the planning of future events, and take part in letter writing and online actions.
Over the summer, we are set to be at:-
6th June – Poole Pride.
We haven’t been able to attend Bournemouth Pride in recent years due to their conditions of attendance. We have booked at table at the relatively new Poole Pride, at the Lighthouse. This is 12.30 – 5.30 on Saturday 6th June.
20th June – Great Community Get Together
Along with other local organisations we are holding another “Great Community Get Together” to mark Refugee week. This will be from 2 – 6 on Winton Recreation Group, Bournemouth BH9 1BZ
30th August – Peace Festival
We have a stall at the resurrected Increase the Peace Festival in Bournemouth.
Autumn Quiz
In November we intend to have our annual quiz, our main fundraiser.
Write for Rights
We are thinking of where else we can hold Write 4 Right events in December – particularly outside Bournemouth. Do let us know if you have suggestions.
Event updates and links to organisers home pages are on our website
Just published, the Europe Newsletter contains three Urgent Actions. Hungary is currently in the news following the defeat of Viktor Orbán. Last October a peaceful LGBTI+ rights march went ahead, despite the ban issued by authorities under Hungary’s anti-Pride law. Géza Buzás-Hábel, a human rights defender is facing criminal charges for organising march. Amnesty International is calling for the criminal charges to be dropped, which constitute an undue interference in the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and non-discrimination under European and international human rights law.
As a local group we have predominantly campaigned on human rights abuses outside the UK. For decades we have focussed predominantly on South America, and more recently Europe as well. When the group was founded, in 1986, that was the way all international sections worked – never campaigning on domestic issues. We will continue to review where to focus our energies.
In the recent Local Groups Mailing, sent out by AIUK, they featured….
This is a big, new campaign building local power against US software company Palantir, due to its role in human rights violations including genocide. Palantir tools are currently used by the Israeli military as they commit genocide against Palestinians in occupied Gaza. Palantir also supply ICE with tools that are used to track and surveil migrants in the US.
Palantir’s contract with NHS England is up for renewal in February 2027. In the lead-up to this date, Amnesty is campaigning for all NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards (ICB) to refuse to use Palantir’s technology.
