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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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Update from our January meeting

25 Jan

Our main event for Write for Rights 2024 took place this month in Taunton Minster.  Our original December event was stymied by Storm Darroch. The January event though was really successful; not a great number of people, but some rewarding contacts, and the courtesy of a  visit from the Deputy Mayor with the Serjeant at Mace. An interesting contact was Dr Mary Young, a lecturer at the University of the West of England; she offered a workshop about international crime.

Pat hosted an earlier W4R event from her home, but feels an initiative based on contacts with local schools would be more rewarding for the 2025 event.

One further success was the Somerset County Gazette’s publication of a letter from our Taunton Group urging people to add their voices to the 2024 W4R.  Happily, Neth Nahara of Angola, one of those featured by Amnesty for 2024, was released in December.

Meanwhile we continued with one of  the mainstays of our work, writing to the authorities on behalf of those persecuted or imprisoned. We signed a letter written by Lyndsay to the Governor of Oaxaca province, Mexico and the Mexican Ambassador in the UK on behalf of Sandra Dominguez, a Mexican indigenous woman, lawyer and human rights defender who disappeared in October 2024.

Sue wrote on behalf of Nasser Zafzafi, a Moroccan arrested in 2017 and imprisoned for 20 years for peaceful protest; we all signed her letter.

Alun updated us remotely on the latest on the BK16 group in India; he will bring cards for them to the next meeting.

A talk on the Roma people in Europe by Ulricke Schmidt of Amnesty has been pencilled in for March. 

Liz has drafted a Calendar of Events for the year, outlining our own programme of meetings and projected events, relating them to Actions planned by AIUK nationally.

Media of the Month: ‘Say Nothing’ (on Disney Plus) is a drama about the Northern Ireland Troubles.  ‘7/7 The London Bombings’ is on iPlayer

The next meeting is our AGM on Tuesday 11 February.  Look out for some changes!  Do join us and have your say.

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May meeting report and activities

24 May

Simon Cosgrove of the charity Rights in Russia came to our May meeting and talked at length about their aims and experience and rights in Russia today. A quotation from their website sketches the background:

‘Rights in Russia is a community of people committed to supporting the protection of human rights in the Russian Federation. The mission of Rights in Russia is to provide information about human rights in Russia and to support the work of human rights organizations based in the Russian Federation. We believe the voices of Russia’s human rights defenders should be more widely heard internationally, both by civil society and by governments. We wish to address a continuing shortage of accurate information in English about human rights in Russia.’

They’ve recently launched a new project, very familiar to Amnesty members, of writing letters of support to political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. These need to be in Russian, so they’ve established a group of translators to facilitate this. Contact http://www.rightsinrussia.org for further information.

In the rest of our meeting we signed cards prepared by Alun to BK16 prisoners in India and a letter Sue had written to the Public Prosecutor in Cairo about the detention without trial of 26 year old student Oqba Hashad.

On Saturday 11 May the group ran an Amnesty stall at the Taunton Eat Festival in the town centre.  Very busy (and good weather!). We had petitions for visitors to sign for Russian Alexei Gorinov, imprisoned for protesting about the war in Ukraine, and Alaa Abdel Fattah, former hunger striker, former hunger striker, well known to us as the dual English/Egyptian national imprisoned for his human rights activism.

Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 11 June in the Quaker Meeting house, Bath Place, Taunton.  We’d love to see you there!

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Families Together display at Taunton Library

16 Feb

IMG_5079Yesterday, Taunton Amnesty Group donated several children’s books about refugees to the Taunton Library (pictured). This donation accompanies a small display at the library to highlight the Families Together campaign.

More than half of the world’s refugees are children, many of them separated from their families as they flee war and persecution. But needlessly strict laws in the UK IMG_20200215_150336229mean many are prevented from being joined by their parents, brothers and sisters. These restrictive rules leave people isolated, traumatised and alone in the UK, knowing that the people they love still face untold dangers in other countries.

Amnesty International and many other organisations that form the Families Together Coalition are calling on the UK Government to expand the current refugees family reunion rules.

If you get a chance, please pop by Taunton Library to see our display and learn more. The display will be at the library during normal opening hours until the end of Saturday 22nd February.

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Amnesty campaign evaluations

2 Jul

‘Stop Torture’ and ‘My Body My Rights’ were two global Amnesty International campaigns during 2014-16. A recent external evaluation looked at the successes and failures of these two campaigns.

Overall, both campaigns helped to produce successful outcomes in some countries. It was felt that they contributed to significant improvements in a number of countries, for example, restrictive abortion laws or provisions were dropped or changed in Poland, Portugal and Spain and there were also clear examples of individuals having benefitted from these campaigns.

Results were less strong than expected in other ways, for example, with regard to their impact in changing national law or policy. The ‘My Body, My Rights’ campaign had an important influence on public debates, especially in El Salvador and Ireland about abortion and in Burkina Faso about forced marriage. There is also anecdotal evidence that the ‘My Body, My Rights’ campaign was effective at mobilising young people in countries like El Salvador and Burkino Faso.

Taunton Amnesty International ran a campaign stall at this time focussing on Early Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation. It generated a lot of interest and support among the people of Taunton who signed petitions and gave donations to help to continue Amnesty’s work; it’s good to feel that we were part of something so much bigger which had a very beneficial effect on the lives of young people in other parts of the world.

DIARY DATE: On Sat 1 September (10am–2pm) we will have an information stall in Taunton town centre (near Next) to highlight Amnesty’s campaign BRAVE, calling for the increased recognition and protection of Human Rights Defenders around the world.

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Reminder: Amnesty stall this Saturday

14 Jul

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If you are in Taunton this Saturday (16th July) please drop by our stall at Castle Green (near the museum). We are raising awareness about and fundraising for one of Amnesty’s key campaigns on Women’s Rights, focusing on Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

The Department for International Development will be doubling any money raised by Amnesty to support projects to prevent cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Forced Marriage (EFM) in Burkino Faso and Sierra Leone.

Please come along to make a small donation (which will be doubled by the UK government) and sign our petition calling on Burkino Faso’s government to protect girls and young women from forced marriages.

We’ll be there from 10am until 2pm. Hope you can pop along!

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Save the date! Taunton Amnesty stall Saturday 16th July

6 Jun

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On Saturday 16th July we will be holding a stall event from 10am until 2.30pm at Castle Green in the centre of Taunton. We are aiming to raise awareness about one of Amnesty’s key campaigns on Women’s Rights, focusing on Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone where discriminatory attitudes and high costs create barriers to women accessing contraception and sexual and reproductive services and information.

From 18 April to 18 July this year, the Department for International Development will be doubling any money raised by Amnesty to support a project to prevent cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Forced Marriage (EFM) in Burkino Faso and Sierra Leone.

Please come along to make a donation (which will be doubled by the UK government) and sign our petition calling on Burkino Faso’s government to protect girls and young women from forced marriages.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Taunton Amnesty schools debate planned for 2016

19 Oct

o-HUMAN-RIGHTS-ACT-facebookIn spring 2016, the Taunton Amnesty Group plans to host a debate about the Human Rights Act involving local schools. We hope the event will happen in the last 3 weeks of the spring term, and so far King’s College, Queen’s College, Taunton Academy, Taunton School and Richard Huish College are interested in taking part.

If anyone following our blog is a school teacher or governor at other local schools, or if you know someone who is, and would be interested in taking part, please email: benjaminhughgrant@icloud.com

 Many thanks!

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Join our group member Pat at her Write for Rights Day on 17th December

29 Nov

Write for Rights 2013Join Pat on Tuesday 17th December and sign cards to support prisoners of conscience worldwide.

Sessions take place:

10am-12pm

2-4pm

6-7pm

14 Georges Mews, Dunkleys Way, Hillyfields, TA1 2LX

Tel: 01823 332773

£1.50 donation per card and stamp.

Tea,coffee and mince pies too!

About Write for Rights: Every year during November and December, Amnesty International asks people to write a letter and send a message of hope to someone suffering human rights abuses. Presidents, police chiefs and prison governors do take note when they receive hundreds of appeals to release a prisoner, stop the harassment of an activist or change an unjust law. For more information on this year’s cases please click here.

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Come to our fundraising concert with Taunton Deane Male Voice Choir

16 Sep

St. Michael’s Church, Galmington

7.30pm Saturday 26th October 2013

A programme of romantic love songs, semi-religious numbers and rousing battle tunes.

With star guests the Farey Family singing a range of folk and other popular songs.

Tickets £10 from Taunton Amnesty group Treasurer 01823 284001 or from the Church office 01823 332371. Cheques payable to St Michael’s Church.  Seats reserved for payments received by 1st October 2013.

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