Amnesty International Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Group

local news & events Amnesty International group for Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch

Group Newsletter 23 March 2017

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Hello
Welcome our the latest newsletter. Again a bit earlier than usual as you editor is about to go away (again!). Also its to remind you that the Spring Quiz is just two weeks from Friday (see below).
The next meeting  is on Thursday 13th April  2017, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre. As well as working on our Case Files and continued planning, we will discuss proposed changes to our constitution and membership. If you intend coming and would like to see these documents, please reply to this newsletter.
Spring Quiz
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This is now organised for Friday April 7th, 7.30 for 8.00 prompt  at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX.
For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Our last Spring Quiz was very popular, to the point it was overcrowded. We are now obliged to limit total numbers to 50 via a “virtual ticket” system. Please go to our event page for more information and to reserve your tickets.
Teams of up to 6, entrance £5 a person. David Brown will return as quizmaster, so we look forward to an enjoyable evening.
Feeding the Darkness
This is an early notification that the Journeyman Theatre are performing their critically acclaimed play “Feeding the Darkness” at the Friends Meeting House, 16 Warncliffe Road, Boscombe, BH5 1AH.
This 65 minute performance is a result of extensive research into the dark world of state-sanctioned torture and its stark impact on victims, perpetrators, families and those who collude in the ‘process’. Our Group have been invited to have a stall and will feature some case and campaign that revolve around torture (sadly there are far to many of them).
Its on Sunday 25th June, at 1.15pm. The day was chosen as the following day is the United Nations, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
Syria: Human Slaughterhouse​​​​​​​
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A shocking new Amnesty International report, Slaughterhouse: mass hanging & extermination in Syrian prisons  published on 7th February has exposed the cold-blooded killing of thousands of defenceless prisoners in a notorious Syrian government jail. It finds that up to 13,000 people have been hanged in the past five years, and mass hangings of up to 50 people at a time occur every week, sometimes even twice a week. These mass hangings took place at Saydnaya military prison near Damascus between 2011 and 2015 – and there are clear indications that they are ongoing as part of an extermination strategy pursued by Assad’s forces.
Take action by sending an e-mail and tell Russia and the USA to use their global influence to ensure that independent prison monitors are allowed in to investigate conditions in Syria’s torture prisons.
South America Newsletter
The March edition of the South America Regional Newsletter is now on the blog. Our group has focused on South America since its inception, which is also reflected in our two case files – see below. The 3 volunteers who run the network for AIUK – and produce the newsletter – do a huge amount of work on our behalf. This newsletter has links to Amnesty’s annual report, and links to the specific countries in this region.
Leopoldo Lopez
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The group are working on two case files at present; these are AI actions that focus on one individual or situation. This long term narrow focus ensures a constant pressure on authorities to take action.
Leopoldo Lopez – a 45 year old, a charismatic former mayor, he was labelled a “maverick” opposition leader in a BBC article. A long time thorn in the side of the Venezuelan Government, they referred to him as a coup leader and he was jailed for nearly 14 years for inciting violence during mass protests in 2014.  He claims he was simply calling on his followers to protest against government policies.
Amnesty International was able to review all evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor’s office and there was no evidence to substantiate the charges that the Public Prosecutor’s office had filed against Leopoldo and on which he was subsequently sentenced. He has been declared a prisoner of conscience.
Leopoldo was also featured as part of the W4R campaign. We also had a petition which we have sent to AIUK. This will be presented to the Venezuelan Ambassador on 17th February. At the meeting this week we will send more letters and copy in the Ambassador, to ensure they don’t think the heat is off now W4R has finished. Unfortunately, the South American Newsletter (see below) reports Venezuelan authorties have cracked down even more on opposition parties.
We have sample letters for both of our Case Files here.
Jorge Lázaro Samba Nunes dos Santos
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We have been writing to authorities in Bahia State, Brazil on behalf of Jorge Lázaro, our second case file,  for about 18 months now.
Two of his seven children have been murdered. Jorge Lázaro has been under huge pressure since the first murder in 2008 : he is seeking justice for the killings of his sons, trying to keep himself and his family safe, and providing necessary minimum living conditions such as a home and food.
To add to the tragedy of two murdered sons, on July 10th 2016 Jorge’s youngest son, Denilson was shot whilst walking home.  Luckily Denilson survived and is currently recovering.
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There are downloadable letters you can adapt on our “take action” page.There is also a link so you can send him a message of support via AIUK.
Christchurch Street Collection 2017
This is booked for May 13th. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer that last year!

 

South America Newsletter March 2017

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The latest newsletter from the South America Team at AIUK – Ellie May (Brazil), Richard Crosfield (Colombia), Graham Minter (Rest of South America).

This month, you can read about our South American coordinator’s petition hand-in, asking for the Venezuelan opposition leader to be released. They have Urgent Actions on behalf of a Venezuelan transgender lawyer, an Argentinian social leader, the Asháninka Meantari community in Peru and two for Colombia, including the Peace Community. The Brazilian Coordinator has also submitted information to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ahead of the next UN Periodic Review on Brazil taking place early May.
Finally, this month also sees the release of Amnesty’s global Annual Report.  Amnesty hailed 2016 as the year of “us against them”, with leaders singling out groups of people as a threat to national interests. All South American countries have their own reports. You will find links to each under each country section for reference and all other South American countries with a report listed at the end of the newsletter.

Venezuela

On 17 February Graham Minter joined a small group of AIUK staff on a visit to the Venezuelan Embassy to deliver over 2000 petition signatures calling for the release of the opposition leader Leopoldo López. You can read Graham’s blog reporting the experience here.
You will find an Urgent Action on behalf of a transgender lawyer Samantha Seijas. On 31 January he and his daughter were beaten about the head and face by police officers from the Aragua Police Force when they visited a police station opposite their home to file a complaint.  [Read more…]

Group Newsletter February 2017

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Hello
Welcome our the latest newsletter.
Our next meeting is on Thursday 9th February 2017, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre.
On the agenda – Planning 2017; Case file & campaign updates and letter writing.

Good news on cluster bombs

Just before the Christmas, the Government finally admitted that Saudi Arabia had indeed dropped UK cluster bombs in its bombing campaign in Yemen and in doing so, confirmed that Amnesty International research was entirely correct. When we alerted the UK government to this in May 2016, the Government strongly denied it, as did Saudi Arabia.
This is a major victory for our research work and campaigning to keep the government under pressure on this issue. Amnesty joined with 100s of other organisations around the world to campaign to ban cluster bombs because of the risks they pose to civilians. Cluster bombs scatter 100s of lethal bomblets that can continue to kill and cause horrific injuries long after the conflict has ended. The UK rightly banned these horrific weapons and their use in Yemen provides yet more evidence of indiscriminate nature of the Saudi Arabian led coalition’s bombing campaign. [Read more…]

South America Newsletter February 2017

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The latest newsletter from the South America Team at AIUK . In this month’s newsletter, they encourage us to write to the authorities in Brazil urging them to tackle the rising tide of killings in the country’s prisons.  There is some good news from Colombia but trade union leaders and human rights defenders remain under threat.  In Argentina, security forces have again attacked a Mapuche indigenous community.  Amnesty has expressed concern about the continued crackdowns against the opposition in Venezuela.

“Brazil

We urgently need you to take action for recent killings in Brazil’s prisons. Since January 1st over 120 inmates have died during riots and disturbances in north and north-eastern states. [Read more…]

Group Newsletter January 2017

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Hello
Happy New Year and welcome our the latest newsletter.
Our next meeting is on Thursday 12th January 2017, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre.
On the agenda – Write for Rights feedback; planning 2017; case file & campaign updates and letter writing.

Write for Rights 2016
castlepoint
We held 3 different W4R events:-  at Direct Theatre Improv’s “Improvisation for the people!” at the Shelley Theatre; at our Moordown Meeting and at Castlepoint Shopping Centre. All were successful in their different ways and well over 100 cards and letters were sent. It was nice at Castlepoint to have dry weather after 2015’s washout – and show off our new banner and boards.
Its never that clear when Write for Rights actually finishes – but materials are still up on the AIUK site. You can download a PDF or follow up individual pages on the different cases.

[Read more…]

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