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Report from our June meeting

23 Jun

The Tunisian Penal Code criminalises same-sex sexual relations between adults. It also includes articles that criminalise acts and expression that are ‘offensive or undermine public morals and decency’ and which are used to prosecute people based on the expression of their gender identity. These laws put LGBTI people at risk of arrest and prosecution and create a climate of abuse from the police and the community with little accountability. Activists and organisations that call for LGBTI rights to be protected in law are also threatened and harassed.

We wrote messages of support on balloons as part of a solidarity action by Amnesty International members worldwide, the photos of which will be used on postcards and posters and shared with LGBTI activists and organisations in Tunisia. We also signed a letter to the Tunisian authorities.

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Diary date: On Saturday 16 July (10am–2.30pm) we will be holding a fundraising stall by Castle Green, Taunton, to raise awareness about the issues of Early Forced Marriage (EFM) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Any money raised will be doubled by the Department for International Development to support a project to prevent cases of FGM and EFM in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. We hope you can come along and show your support.

Our next meeting will be held at the Taunton Quaker Meeting House, 13 Bath Place, TA1 4EP at 8pm on 12 July. All are welcome.

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Next Taunton Amnesty meeting Tues 14th June

7 Jun

Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 14th June at 8pm at Taunton Quaker Meeting House, 13 Bath Place, TA1 4EP (there is nearby parking behind Boots). 

Join us to hear about our campaigns, human rights and the work of Amnesty International.

We hope to see you there.

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Next Taunton Amnesty group meeting 10th May

3 May

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Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 10th May at 8pm. Please note this will be at a different venue from usual: Taunton Quaker Meeting House, 13 Bath Place, TA1 4EP. 

Join us to hear about our campaigns, human rights and the work of Amnesty International. Our monthly action will be for Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning Azerbaijani journalist and prisoner of conscience, locked up by the Azerbaijani authorities for exposing corruption.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Report from our April meeting

21 Apr

Burma AppealWe were delighted to discover that Burmese student activist Phyoe Phyoe Aung, who was to have been the subject of our April Monthly Action, had already been released as part of a more general prisoner amnesty.

The National League for Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory earlier this year in Myanmar (Burma) and promised to release all prisoners of conscience as soon as possible.

Phyoe Phyoe Aung’s release sends an encouraging message about the new government’s intentions, and we urge them to keep to their promise and remember they hold that symbolic key to freedom.

Other members gave reports on actions on the Death Penalty, on prisoners such as Moroccan Ali Aaras who has featured in Amnesty’s Stop Torture campaign, and on campaigns planned for later this year.

The Amnesty Schools debate on Human Rights, organised by group member Ben Grant, was held at Taunton School on 14 March. Several teams took part, and the standard of debate was impressively high, with lively and articulate participants.

 Our next meeting will be on 10th May at 8pm in the Quaker Meeting House in Bath Place, Taunton. All are welcome.

Postscript: since our April meeting took place, we heard the great news that the Unity 5 group of journalists imprisoned in Myanmar have been released.

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Report from our March meeting

25 Mar

We had a busy meeting, dealing with a range of issues. We marked the 5th anniversary of the Syrian Uprising by contacting our local MPs and asking them to write to the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, to ensure that the UK Government champions human rights benchmarks at the ongoing Syrian Peace talks, and lobbies to end unlawful attacks on civilians.

Mindful of the threats to the Human Rights Act, we circulated a petition calling on the Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, to save an Act that maintains those fundamental rights we all have as human beings.

To mark International Women’s Day on 8th March we were anxious to show solidarity with the young women of Burkina Faso in West Africa, where physical and sexual violence against women and girls in early and forced marriages is common. Amnesty is working directly with five of the Shelters set up for them, and we made decorative bunting to show our support.

Some members had attended the South West Regional Conference in Exeter last month, and gave an account of the topics covered, including Human Rights, Roma, China, Drugs Policy and Asylum issues.

We had a letter of apology from Rebecca Pow MP, who was unable to attend our debate on Human Rights held on 14th March at Taunton School.

Please note: our next meeting on Tuesday 12th April at 8pm will be held at a different venue: the Taunton Quaker Meeting House, 13 Bath Place, TA1 4EP.  All are welcome.

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Next Taunton Amnesty Group meeting Tuesday 8th March

1 Mar
Keep Calm and Support Amnesty
Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 8th March at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH.  8pm start.
Join us to hear about our campaigns, human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Note: there is parking at the rear of the church; ring the bell at the rear entrance if there is no-one there to let you in. Check the board by the entrance door for which room we are in.

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Report from our February meeting

23 Feb

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Arms export licences from the UK worth £5.5 billion in the last 5 years, bombs worth £1.7 billion and a further 37 arms export licences since 2014. All for Saudi Arabia which, since 2014, has been waging war on an armed rebel group, the Huthis, in Yemen. Schools and civilian targets have been bombed, and hundreds of civilians killed. Read more and sign the petition here.

For our Monthly Action we sent a petition to David Cameron calling on him to suspend all arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and call for an international investigation into human rights violations committed by all sides.

Our Group held its AGM this month. The overall message was ‘Steady as she goes’, with group numbers maintained, and points to be focussed on both in past activities and future campaigns.

We took part in the United Reformed Church’s Christmas Tree Festival, actively supported Amnesty’s Write for Rights Campaign and the Taunton Literary Festival’s impressive young speaker Gulwali Passarlay, talking about his account of his journey from Afghanistan to the UK in “The Lightless Sky”.

We continue to work on the Death Penalty, on North Africa, China, Women’s Rights and the Unity 5 group of imprisoned journalists in Burma. We wait with concerned interest to see how things will develop in Burma after the recent elections.

We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at 8pm. Check the venue and our other activities on amnestytaunton.wordpress.com. All are welcome.

 

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Taunton Amnesty Group monthly meeting Tuesday 9th February

2 Feb
imageTuesday 9th February at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH.  8pm start.
Join us to hear about our campaigns, human rights and the work of Amnesty International. This meeting also includes our AGM.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Note: there is parking at the rear of the church; ring the bell at the rear entrance if there is no-one there to let you in. Check the board by the entrance door for which room we are in.

 

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Next Amnesty Taunton Group meeting tonight, Tuesday 12th January

12 Jan
With apologies for the lateness of this post, our next monthly meeting is this evening, Tuesday 12th January at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH.  8pm start.
Join us to hear about our campaigns, human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Note: there is parking at the rear of the church; ring the bell at the rear entrance if there is no-one there to let you in. Check the board by the entrance door for which room we are in.

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Report from our December meeting

15 Dec

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This was our Write for Rights evening, which, as has become customary, we spent writing cards to prisoners of conscience and their families, and letters to the authorities in their countries, pleading their cause.

Letters of solidarity can make a real difference to a prisoner wrongly detained, for family members waiting for news of a loved one who has ‘disappeared’, or for a torture survivor fighting for justice. A letter can also remind an abusive government that the world is watching.

Our monthly action focused on one of the Write for Rights cases: the problems that women in the sub-Saharan country of Burkina Faso in West Africa have in resisting early forced marriages, getting access to contraception and other basic sexual health services and information. We wrote to the President urging liberalisation in these matters.

Among others we wrote to Saudi Arabia for imprisoned human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair, to Malaysia for political cartoonist Zunar, to Syria for Rania Alabbasi, a dentist, and her six children, ‘disappeared’ since 2013.

The meeting had a lighter side too: members had brought festive food, which we enjoyed while we also made decorations for the Amnesty Christmas Tree at the United Reformed Church’s Christmas Tree Festival (pictured).

Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2016 to all our followers and supporters!

 amnesty.org.uk/write

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