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Roma Rights are Human Rights talk

22 Mar

To mark International Roma Day, Taunton Amnesty are delighted to be hosting Ulrike Schmidt, Amnesty UK Country Coordinator for the Balkans, who will give a presentation:

Roma Rights are Human Rights!  An investigation into discrimination and racism experienced by Europe’s largest minority.

 Ulrike has led the Amnesty Roma Rights campaign for more than ten years.

We would welcome any local Amnesty supporters, members of other local Amnesty groups as well as members of other local and related groups who would like to join us.

The event will start at 7.30pm at the Taunton Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton, TA1 4EP. Free car parking is available in The Crescent Car Park, The Crescent, TA1 4EA just behind the venue.

Tea/coffee available for a small donation.

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See us at Eat:Taunton festival

7 May

Saturday 11 May 10am–4pm

This Saturday the Taunton Amnesty Group will have a stall at the Eat:Taunton festival taking place at Taunton Minster, Hammet Street and East Street, Taunton TA1 1SA. The event brings the very best West Country food and drink producers and artisans to the town centre. Come along to the Amnesty stall to meet us and sign petitions for prisoners of conscience in Russia, Egypt and Tunisia.

Hope to see you there!

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Report from our January meeting

21 Jan

Write for Rights being the stand-out event in December we took stock of how we had got on, with the feeling that we needed to reach outside our core audience to draw more people in. Hence the promotional visit to the Taunton campus of Bridgwater Tech, although slow going, seemed a good place to proselytise in the future. More school events for 2024 would be good.

Future December visits to Taunton Minster – St Mary’s –  need to attach to some other event for maximum impact.  We took part in the Christmas Tree Festival in Buckland St Mary – not an obvious place but hopefully we reached out to a few unfamiliar people there.

Meantime we plan for a stall at the Taunton Eat festival in May.

We heard reports of members’ work on campaigns.  Sue had written on behalf of prominent Write for Rights activist Chaima Issa of Tunisia, urging the quashing of her spurious military court conviction, and also on behalf of Tunisian MP Abir Moussi. According to her defence lawyer, she faces charges including “attempting to change the form of government”, “inciting citizens to arm themselves against each other” and “provoking disorder on Tunisian territory”.

Ben gave us quick overview of the death penalty in the USA. It seems to be in a state of some disarray, with more legal challenges and mistakes in attempts to carry it out.  The practicalities of it are becoming less and less tenable – witness the case of the botched execution attempt of Kevin Smith, on death row since 1988, his execution now scheduled for later this January.

Alun updated us on India & Kashmir with special reference to the BK16: 8 of them in prison (2 granted bail) and 5 out on bail; he will write a letter for them to the Indian authorities on the Group’s behalf. The Indian government must end the repression of rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

Our must-be-seen media this month is the ITV drama Mr Bates v the Post Office detailing the outrageous behaviour of the Post Office over the Horizon scandal.

The meeting next month includes our AGM; it’s on Tuesday 13 February at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton.  Do feel free to join us – all are welcome.

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Next Taunton Amnesty meeting

7 May

Our next monthly meeting will be on Tuesday 9th May at 7:30pm in The Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton – all welcome. If you’d like to join remotely via Teams then please email amnestytaunton@gmail.com and we’ll send you a link.

Hope to see you there!

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Football Welcomes Refugees

2 May

As part of the April Amnesty campaign, Football Welcomes Refugees, our Taunton group took a stall to Taunton Town Football Club’s game against Weymouth on Tuesday 25th April. We had an overwhelmingly positive response, people coming up to the stall to sympathise and offer support, taking leaflets and stickers. We also met Zealand Shannon, American ‘football influencer ‘ on YouTube, who came to find out more about Taunton FC. He was very sympathetic to our initiative and said he had donated a sum to Amnesty during the World Cup.

All in all a worthwhile venture and one we hope to repeat next year.

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Refugee Week 15–21 June

12 Jun

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Refugee Week is a time when we can all celebrate the contribution refugees make to the UK. The theme of this year’s event is ‘Imagine’, and most activities will take place online this year.

To find out how you can take part, have a look on the Refugee Week website. There are  films to watch, writing workshops, book launches, virtual exhibition tours and much more.

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Write for Rights campaign 2018

13 Dec

AI 8 Dec 2018Our meeting in December was transformed into a Write for Rights event, held by kind permission at St Mary’s Church, Taunton during their Saturday Coffee Morning on 8th December.

Every December Amnesty International worldwide picks 12 people or causes who are suffering persecution in some form, and writes to them and to the authorities in their country. Last year people in 208 countries sent 5.5 million letters, cards, emails and social media posts. More than 430,000 helped to protect Chinese housing activist Ni Yulan; nearly 875,000 demanded the release of 11 human rights activists in Turkey – all are now free!

On Saturday visitors, including the Mayor of Taunton and her consort, came to our stall and signed cards. This year’s campaign supports women all around the world who do extraordinary things to protect human rights, including Pavitri Manjhi, harassed for standing up to big business in India; Atena Daemi, jailed for speaking out against the death penalty in Iran; and Seyi Akiwowow, bombarded with online abuse for speaking up in the UK.

If you’d like to write to any of the people in this year’s Write for Rights campaign you’ll find all the details here.

We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm in the Friends Meeting House, Bath Place – all are welcome.

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Reminder: Great Get Together event on Saturday 23rd June in Taunton

19 Jun

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Sat 23rd June 5–9.30pm
The Great Get Together: The Great 1978 Picnic, at Longrun Meadow, Wellington Road, Taunton (between Tesco and the College).
In memory of Jo Cox MP and in celebration of her belief that we have more in common, a Great Get Together event in association with Taunton Amnesty. Come along and bring a picnic. You can even dress up and imagine it’s 40 years ago, June 1978! Listen to music from the 1970s eg Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Kate Bush, David Bowie, The Clash, Joni Mitchell, Al Green, T Rex, Led Zeppelin, Donna Summer, ELO and many more. From pop, disco, folk and soul to glam rock, new wave and punk. There will be a 1978 quiz. Family friendly. Voluntary donation of £1 or more to Amnesty International. https://www.greatgettogether.org/

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Save the date! Great Get Together event on Saturday 23rd June in Taunton

7 Jun

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Sat 23rd June 5–9.30pm
The Great Get Together: The Great 1978 Picnic, at Longrun Meadow, Wellington Road, Taunton (between Tesco and the College).
A Great Get Together event in association with Taunton Amnesty. Come along and bring a picnic. You can even dress up and imagine it’s 40 years ago, June 1978! Listen to music from the 1970s eg Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Kate Bush, David Bowie, The Clash, Joni Mitchell, Al Green, T Rex, Led Zeppelin, Donna Summer, ELO and many more. From pop, disco, folk and soul to glam rock, new wave and punk. There will be a 1978 quiz. Family friendly. Voluntary donation of £1 or more to Amnesty International. https://www.greatgettogether.org/

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Write for Rights 2017

4 Dec

W4R17-mosaic-1000pxInstead of its usual monthly meeting in December, the Taunton Amnesty Group is holding a Write for Rights stall at St Mary Magdalene Church, Church Square (off Hammet Street), Taunton TA1 1SA, on Saturday 9th December from 10am–2pm. Please come along and sign a greetings card to a prisoner of conscience.

Light refreshments available in Magdalene’s Coffee Shop.

We hope to see you there!

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