Amnesty International Taunton Local Group

October 2026

Four members of Taunton’s Amnesty Group met up with Gideon Amos last week to bring to his attention the plight of Nasser Zefzafi. Nasser is a human rights defender from Morocco who has been in prison for decades for peacefully protesting. He has been subjected to torture and ill-treatment and has been held in solitary confinement despite his deteriorating health.

He has been called the Gandhi of Morocco for his non-violent civil disobedience.

Morocco have a new female Prime Minister who has been tasked with forming a coalition and preparing the country for the FIFA World Cup in 2030. It seems therefore that now would be a good time to bring some pressure to bear upon the Moroccan government who will not want their image tarnished by publicity around their domestic human rights.

Gideon was very interested in Nasser and has agreed to contact Ed Miliband the Foreign Secretary about him, and possibly put forward an Early Day Motion about the case.

A very successful meeting!

We have had a busy few weeks starting with an interesting talk by Chris Ramsey, country co-ordinator for Turkiye. Chris was very knowledgeable about the human rights situation and

• Suppression of any political opposition
• Undermining of the independence of the judiciary
• Attacks on civil society and the hounding of human rights defenders
• Attacks on freedom of expression especially for journalists and the media
• Attacks on  freedom of assembly
• Diminution of the rights of women and LGBTI people
• Impunity for members of the security services who carry out torture

All dissent, and even simple criticism is treated as criminal and often is associated with terrorism

What you can do next………..

Sign up to the Europe team mailing list for Türkiye actions by contacting me: chris.ramsey@amnesty.org.uk

Follow/Like /Share/Retweet AIUK Europe posts on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyUKEurope

https://www.instagram.com/amnestyukeurope

In mid June, we took part in the Big Green Festival held on Castle Green. The lovely weather saw a good turn out and we managed to garner plenty of signatures for our two petitions; one for the Bille community in the Niger Delta, urging the Nigerian government to take steps to protect the community from methane gas leaks, and another protesting the imprisonment of Cambodian environmental activists.

We also had a stall at a Pride event at the Brewhouse prior to a show with petitions about LGBTQI criminalisation in Turkiye and a letter about the BBC’s reporting on queer matters which provided another opportunity to raise awareness of Amnesty, and our local group.

We will be taking a break over the summer so next update in September!

A coordinated campaign is being launched on Tuesday April 28th to demand the release of Oqba Hashad. The campaign will occur on three consecutive days (April 28^th, 29^th, and 30^th) and includes three actions: emailing, faxing, and tagging key officials: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (President of Egypt), Mohamed Shawky Ayyad (Public Prosecutor), and Mahmoud Tawfiq (Ministry of Interior) on X, to raise awareness and increase pressure for his immediate release. We are planning on participating individually within our local group and lending our voices to chorus of activists calling for Oqba’s release.

We have also been finding out more about the campaign against Palantir, a US software company whose tools are currently used by the Israeli military as they commit genocide against Palestinians in occupied Gaza.

Palantir also supply ICE with tools that are used to track and surveil migrants in the US.

However in 2023 NHS England awarded a £330 million contract to Palantir to provide a new data platform.

Due to its role in human rights abuses including genocide, Amnesty is campaigning for all NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards to refuse to use their technology.

Sarah Dyke, MP for Glastonbury and Somerton has responded promptly to concerns raised with her by one of our members, explaining that the Lib Dems have been campaigning vigorously on this issue and Ministers are now reported to be exploring a break clause in Palantir’s contracts with the NHS.

Gender Apartheid

A brave girl from Afghanistan spray paints #LetHerLearn on a wall to spread a powerful message of resistance against the Taliban’s oppressive ban on girls’ education.

During the recent webinar “Afghan women and youth under the Taliban: voices of resistance”, two young women talked about how the Afghan Government severely restricts the freedoms of more than 20 million women in a highly oppressive system of gender based domination. 

These are just some of the restrictions:

• travelling without a male escort is forbidden;
• studying in secondary and tertiary education is not permitted;
• speaking outdoors is not allowed. 
• barred from most forms of paid employment, public parks and gyms
• adherence to a strict dress code
• women may not study midwifery. 
• visas are not granted even if a woman has succeeded in gaining a place at a foreign university

A law recently passed states that a man may beat his wife as long as no bones are broken.

The young women spoke of their work around resisting these restrictions and emphasised how important it was that the young boys and men who will grow up to father the next generation of women do not learn to normalise this repression of women’s rights.

Please consider clicking on the link below to find out more and to sign an open letter urging countries to recognise gender apartheid

Campaign to End Gender Apartheid – https://endgenderapartheid.today/index.php  

Free Oqba

You will remember Oqba Hashid from our 2024 Write for Rights campaign.

He is still in prison having been arbitrarily detained now for 6 years, 9 months without trial, solely due to his brother’s human rights activism. He was arrested at his student residence at the University of Sadat City with a number of other students all of whom were released shortly afterwards. Oqba however was forcibly disappeared for 77 days during which time he was tortured. He is now being held in 10th of Ramadan Prison, where authorities are cruelly denying him his prosthetic leg, which he needs to walk unassisted as his right leg has been amputated above the knee since his childhood. His mobility is also impaired due to severe back pain and his mental and physical health are deteriorating.

Oqba has spent most of his twenties in prison, years that he could have been spending completing his education, pursuing a career and perhaps having a family.

Please write a letter asking for Oqba’s immediate and unconditional release and for all charges against him to be dropped, as he is being detained solely as a punishment due to his brother’s activism. Pending his release, he should be granted a suitable prosthetic leg as well as access to his family, lawyers, and adequate healthcare. He should also be held in conditions that comply with international standards for the treatment of prisoners.

Letters should be addressed to

His Excellency Ashraf Swelam,

Egyptian Embassy,

26, South St,

London W1K 1DW   

Gezi Prisoners

We have been following the plight of the Gezi prisoners over the past few months and we have news now that one of the prisoners, Tayfun Kahraman, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis some time ago was hospitalized following a serious deterioration in his condition. He has been in Silivri Prison since April 25, 2022, due to the unfair conviction and 18-year prison sentence that he received in the Gezi Trial. Despite the Constitutional Court’s ruling on rights violations and the decision for a retrial, he still has not been released, and his health condition is deteriorating the longer he remains in prison.

Our group have sent him some messages of support in the past few months.

Amnesty Türkiye are now requesting activists to show their support for Tayfun by writing a message of solidarity using the following link that they have provided on the section’s X (Twitter) account. If you are an X user, please click on the link to send your message.

Some good news………!

Human Rights defender Enes Hocaoğulları had been placed in arbitrary pre-trial detention after being detained at Ankara Esenboğa Airport upon his return to Türkiye, due to comments he made in March during a speech at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He was released from prison at the first hearing of his prosecution on 8 September 2025 but still faced charges. Taunton Amnesty completed an urgent action for him a few months ago and on February 23rd we heard from Amnesty Türkiye that Enes had been acquitted. He presented a very strong defence and described the physical, sexual, and psychological violence he was subjected to in prison.

We were very pleased to be able to host a talk last week by Caz Dennett, co-founder of Justice 4 Nigeria; we were also joined by Lazarus Tamana, J4N co-founder and leader of MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) who joined us from the NIger Delta.

Both Caz and Lazarus gave a powerful talk on the impact of Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta.           

In Ogale, A 2011 UN report found that benzene levels in groundwater were nearly 900 times above safe levels; in Bille, oil pollution has damaged nearly 13,200 hectares of mangrove forest. The resulting widespread damage to fishing and farming, and impact on health is driving young people from the area because there is no longer a livelihood for them in their own communities.

Shell are divesting to local consortiums who are ill-equipped to manage the legacy of environmental damage, and do not have the expertise to maintain and protect the infrastructure to international standards.

Fortunately, a High Court judgement in June 2025 ruled that the Bille and Ogoni people can pursue claims for environmental damage dating back decades, and rejected Shells’ attempt to enforce a 5 year statute of limitations and to shift responsibility on to local consortiums.

A full trial is expected to be held in 2027.

Leigh Day, a law firm established to fight injustice and champion the underdog has been representing the Bille and Ogoni communities in their fight against Shell and an interesting blog on the subject can be found on their website.      The Niger Delta Climate Change Conference 2025       

J4N are hoping to start a letter writing campaign in the coming months – we hope to have more information in due course.

As an alternative to braving the dark rainy night, we tried an on-line meeting for our November meeting which proceeded without any IT hitches! We focussed on Justice for Nigeria (J4N) by watching a short You Tube video showing the level of pollution in the Niger delta and the anger and frustration of the local community. We are looking forward to welcoming MOSOP leader Lazarus Tamana and co-founder of J4N, along with Caz Dennett, another founder, to our January meeting to talk more on this subject. See our Events page for more details.

Media of the Month:

“Russian Street Musicians jailed for protest songs”. Click on the link below to hear them.

Russian Street Musicians

Case details are also on AIUK website

Russia: Street musicians jailed for a third time over anti-war songs – Amnesty International

Write for Rights

We have had two successful Write for Rights campaigns, first at St Mary Magdalene Church on December 6^th. Unfortunately the weather was dreadful which meant far fewer people were in town, but about 25 cards were signed and some good conversations were had with interested passersby.

Taunton Amnesty Group also joined forces with students from Richard Huish College, a link forged by one of our members Pat. A large number of students were involved manning a stall and collecting signatures for letters and petitions for abortion rights, climate action in Ecuador and US student rights. An excellent example of direct action and awareness raising.

We hope some of you will join us for our talk on J4N on January 13^th at 7.30pm – if you would like to join online, please contact us by emailing amnestytaunton@gmail.com

With best wishes to you all for a happy Christmas!