FAMILIES TOGETHER We discussed how best to bring this campaign home to people. More than half of the world’s refugees are children; Amnesty is asking that child refugees in the UK have the right to sponsor their close family to join them, so they can rebuild their lives together, and be helped to integrate in their new community. Family and togetherness are at the heart of this campaign.
We heard reports on the Death Penalty. We signed letters to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his Ambassador in this country on behalf of a father and son, Ali Nasser Ali Jarallah and Abdulhai Ali Nasser Ali Jarallah who were forcibly disappeared on a journey through Saudi Arabia.
We signed letters to President el-Sisi on behalf of Aser Mohamed of Egypt, 14 when arrested in 2016 and tortured into a ‘confession’; he’s still in pre-trial detention, and on behalf of Ramy Shaath, a political activist arbitrarily arrested this July and still untried.
The time for Amnesty’s Write for Rights is approaching. Sometimes a letter can change someone’s life: that’s the premise of Write for Rights, Amnesty’s global letter and card writing campaign on behalf of those whose human rights are being attacked. This year our focus is on children and young people.
With the kind permission of the Church, Amnesty Taunton will be at St Mary’s, Hammett Street on 30 November (10am-2pm) with cards for you to sign. There is plenty going on there that Saturday: a Tower Open Day, an Advent Fair in the Church and a Christmas Festival in Hammett Street. We hope to see you there!
Our chosen book of the month is “Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics”, Jonathan Sumption’s 2019 Reith Lectures, a book very pertinent to our times.
We meet at 7.30pm on the second Tuesday of the month (excluding December) at the Friends Meeting House in Bath Place. Visitors are always welcome.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 
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