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!
The February meeting began with our AGM, all officers being re-elected unopposed.
The Chair gave an overview of the year’s activities, speakers and campaigns. North Africa and India have been prominent, with a new initiative on Zimbabwe and ongoing support of the Middle East & North Africa, Football Welcomes and the Death Penalty. We had speakers on Kashmir and Zimbabwe, and a talk on a fund-raising climb of Kilimanjaro for AI by a student whom we sponsored. We held three Write for Rights events in December.
The Secretary reported the perennial problem of access to the local press: the County Gazette has discontinued reports from local societies, and AIUK no longer presents Actions in a readily publicisable form. Suggestions for using other outlets, and our own experience of the Letters page may point a way forward.
Suggestions were made for broadening our appeal, perhaps using email to circulate those on AIUK’s local lists, and promoting hybrid meetings using Teams if this can be done without jeopardising our successful monthly meetings.
Our regular monthly meeting followed. The Groups’ Newsletter urged us to sign a number of AI petitions: for human rights defender Rita Karasartova of Kyrgyzstan; for freedom of expression in Jammu Kashmir; for justice and reparation in Peru after brutal repression of protests; for freedom of expression in Bangladesh before recent elections, and for charges against our adopted Zimbabwean prodemocracy activist Makomborero Haruzivishe to be dropped.
We were reminded of priority campaigns for AIUK: Ending Israeli Apartheid, and Protect the Protest – a call on the Home Secretary to scrap anti-protest laws.
We discussed a letter from Chris Ramsey, ex-SW regional rep, about Amnesty Futures, a group anxious to get back to campaigning on worldwide Individuals at Risk rather than disproportionately increasing the scale of work and deployment of resources on thematic UK-focused human rights issues. He will be addressing our March meeting to further clarify concerns about and hopes for AIUK.
Our Middle East lead had written to President al-Sisi about the detention and torture of Anas al-Beltagy, the son of an Opposition politician. Our India lead will be writing to the Indian High Commissioner about two members of the BK16 who are bailed but still in goal. Meantime another member is hoping to organise a speaker on Russia.
There is an Eat Festival in Taunton on 11 May – we are hoping to have a publicity stall at this.
Our recommended Media of the Month is Jon Ronson’s BBC podcast series ‘Things Fell Apart’ – human stories from the history of the culture wars.
Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 12 March at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Newcomers are always welcome!
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.
We based the first part of our meeting on the Amnesty Group Report for August. This updates us on the activities of other Groups and alerts us to current actions within AIUK.
There is concern over El Salvador, where a State of Exception – in effect a state of emergency – has run since March. Over 60,000 people have been imprisoned and more than 150 have died in custody. There’s an online Amnesty petition demanding their government should end the state of exception and respect the human rights of all their citizens – this can be found on the AI website.
There was a debate earlier in the month in the House of Commons about British Nationals detained abroad – Alaa Abdel Fattah in Egypt, and Morad Tahbaz and Mehran Raoof in Iran – we are anxious to keep our MPs briefed and working on these cases.
Our plans for Write for Rights in December were discussed – we’ll probably aim again, if it’s possible, for St Mary Magdalene Church in Taunton.
Sue, our Middle East & North Africa lead, wrote a detailed letter (signed by all) protesting about the prolonged detention in inhumane conditions, and the 5 year imprisonment, after an unfair trial, of Egyptian Badr Mohamed. The reason? Involvement in an alleged protest in 2013 when he was 17. She also wrote to the Algerian authorities about Slimane Bouhafs, an Algerian activist kidnapped from Tunisia and brought back for trial in Algeria. He has been imprisoned for 3 years.
Alun re-capitulated the sorry story of the BK16 in India. The Minehead Group held a vigil for them earlier this month. Cherry Bird, Minehead Group and South Asia Co-ordinator, keeps us up to date with South Asia briefings.
Media of the Month – several suggestions here:
Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful – Jolyon Maughan KC
Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters – Adam Wagner
The Last Colony – Philippe Sands – about the British Indian Ocean Territories
Homelands – A Personal History of Europe – Timothy Garton Ash
Living Next Door to Putin – A two part piece on BBC1 by Katya Adler, Europe Editor.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 10 October, 7.30pm as usual at the Quaker Meeting House in Bath Place. Do join us there!
An unusual meeting: we were expecting an online talk by Carla Torres, the Country Coordinator for Zimbabwe, as we have adopted the case of Zimbabwean Makomborero Haruzivishe, an Amnesty Individual at Risk. At the last minute we learnt that Makomborero himself was also joining online. Fearful for his safety, he has recently left Zimbabwe and is living as a refugee in the UK.
He talked at length about his own experiences as a front line Human Rights activist and the state of affairs in Zimbabwe. Despite the 2017 coup ousting Mugabe, a military dictatorship is now in power, and corruption, killings and arrests are rife. Makamborero was elected to represent the National Union of Students; he was arrested and expelled from the University two weeks before graduating.
Speaking out against corruption, he organised country-wide protests but was abducted and imprisoned. He finally left the country during 2022.
What can we do? It looks a difficult task, but Carla recommended keeping up a series of smaller actions: writing to the local press, trying to involve MPs and Parliamentary Groups.
The next big event for the Taunton Group is the Pride March in Taunton on Saturday 22 July. Members of the group will take part and run a stall in Vivary Park.
We discussed a number of issues covered by the May Local Groups Newsletter, particularly Refugee Week, from 19-25 June. Its theme is Compassion, and the Museum of Somerset is running events to celebrate it on Saturday 24 June. A diary clash here, since the Minehead Group is celebrating its 21st birthday that day with a concert in St Andrew’s Church, Minehead at 3pm.
We signed a letter to the Moroccan authorities on behalf of Mohamed Ziane, imprisoned human rights lawyer and an ex-Minister. We signed cards of encouragement to more members of the BK16 group in India. We were encouraged to write Father’s Day cards to Alaa Abdel Fattah, still in prison in Egypt.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 11 July at 7.30pm in the Friends Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Do join us to hear more about our work, and for lively discussions!
Prompted by the Local Groups Newsletter from AIUK, we discussed our recent ‘Football Welcomes Refugees’ action at the Taunton Town match on 25 April. It was felt to be a valuable consciousness raising action in unfamiliar territory, and one replicated nationally by over 100 AI Groups. Taunton got a mention and a picture in the Local Groups Update, which is a welcome pat on the back for everyone’s efforts.
The Update highlighted AI’s Israeli Apartheid campaign, which was well referenced in a recent well- attended House of Commons debate.
The Immigration Bill is another grave matter of concern, characterised by Amnesty as ‘inhumane, racist and divisive’. We were encouraged to write to our MPs and sign an online petition.
The Urgent Actions campaign is 50 years old this year; it has proved to be a very effective tool, with 500,000 volunteers working on it over the years.
Our India specialist had written a letter, for all to sign, to the Indian High Commissioner about the BK 16 group, and had prepared cards for all to send to some of those imprisoned. AI is planning a campaign on Kashmir, still only in the planning stage.
Encouraged by a recently joined member we have taken up the case of Makomborero Haruzivishe of Zimbabwe, a member of the opposition CCC Party, at odds with the governing Zanu-PF. A law student, and student leader, he has been jailed for ‘inciting violence’ aka peaceful protest.
The documentary film ‘Navalny’, about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with novichok, was chosen as our media of the month.
Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13 June at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. We’d love to see you there.
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!
Garry Ettle, AIUK’s Country Coordinator for Israel and the Occupied Territories, gave us an online talk – ‘End Israeli Apartheid’. Amnesty has recently published a detailed report on this topic, Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians, and is promoting this as one of its current campaigns.
‘Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, successive governments have created and maintained a system of laws, policies, and practices designed to oppress and dominate Palestinians. This system plays out in different ways across the different areas where Israel exercises control over Palestinians’ rights. However, the intent is always the same: to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians.’
There are four ways the Israeli authorities enact this system: by fragmentation, dispossession, segregation and deprivation. Garry gave many examples of how this plays out and ran some troubling illustrative video clips of Palestinian repression.
The aim of AI’s campaign is to increase general awareness, stimulate recognition and foster action. There needs to be far greater public awareness to put pressure on not only Israel but our own government. There is an online petition you can sign here.
Some of our members are still away and couldn’t report, but we heard reports on the Death Penalty and an update on the human rights situation in India. The crackdown on Amnesty in India continues. The case of the BK15 has been our particular concern; we continued to send cards, prepared by one of our members, to some of the BK group.
An update on dual national British/Egyptian Alaa Abdelfattah, long a prisoner of conscience, gave a worrying picture. Prominent since the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, he has been on hunger strike for months; he has told his mother he expects to die in prison. Amnesty is currently encouraging members to write to their MPs on his behalf.
Media of the month – the 2017 The Viceroy’s House, available on Netflix, was recommended; it tells the story of the last days of the British Raj, the Mountbattens and partition.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 11 October at 7.30pm in the Friends Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. All are welcome!
The main focus of this month’s meeting was a Zoom call, with other Groups, on the role of AIUK North Africa Country Co-ordinators. One of our own group works on North Africa, and AI’s Country Co-ordinators, all impressively well-informed volunteers, are extremely active in sending through updates and calls for actions.
They try to keep in close contact with Groups, updating and supporting; they produce an ezine every 3 months and make extensive use of social media. They aim to produce a good spread of cases. On the advocacy side they maintain links with the FCDO, who are respectful of the materials Amnesty produces.
We have been working on the case of Egyptian housing officer Ibrahim Ezz el Din who, by happy chance, was released the day before our May meeting. We were especially pleased as two of our Group have organised a letter bombardment on his case, sending some 50 letters. We now plan to turn our attention to the campaign for Alaa Abdel Fattah, a human rights advocate who also has UK nationality.
We discussed Ukraine – there’s a letter for signature online urging the PM to help the people fleeing Ukraine, our response so far having been ‘slow, chaotic and insufficient’ – and other allied issues of migrant and refugee rights. The Nationality and Borders Bill has been passed, ‘ripping up the Refugee Convention (a long-standing international agreement) and shamefully abandoning the responsibility it owes to refugees’.
Amnesty is launching a Right to Protest campaign next month (in part a response to the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill) and continues to focus on the threat to human rights in our own country newly underlined by the new Bill of Rights announced in the Queen’s Speech.
We received reports from members on the Death Penalty campaign, Football Welcomes and India. Our India co-ordinator had prepared cards of support for us to send to members of the BK 15 group of political prisoners. We noted that the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had commented that the US are monitoring the state of human rights in India.
The Death Penalty report contained the usual depressing list of those imprisoned for decades before execution, or of the mentally impaired executed – Singapore recently executed Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a man with an IQ of 67.
We’re planning a Taunton town centre stall on 25 June – more details next month.
Our next meeting will be at 7.30pm on 14 June at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place.
At our April meeting our first thoughts were again with the Ukraine crisis. ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a manifest violation of the United Nations Charter and an act of aggression that is a crime under international law’ said Amnesty, as it called for all those involved in this crime to be held accountable for these violations.
There were online petitions and actions to take (see the April Local Groups newsletter or amnesty.org.uk for this and all other actions mentioned), and a call to the UK government, among other things, to fulfill its commitment to provide sanctuary to 200,000 Ukranian refugees in the UK by providing safe travel routes and a temporary visa waiver. Currently the Government’s ‘Homes for Ukranians’ scheme is not going smoothly.
This is a concern which fed into our discussion of the Nationality and Borders Bill, recently given a rough time in the House of Lords, where the Government has lost 12 of 13 votes taken. Amnesty describes it as a ‘piece of legislative vandalism which will wreck the UK’s asylum system, undermine international law and criminalise people for attempting to reach a place of safety’. The Commons is ignoring the Lords’ amendments.
A problem for AIUK is that its planned campaigns for 2022 are in danger of being squeezed out by the Ukraine crisis, but we discussed moves to end Israeli Apartheid and the campaign to save the Human Rights Act (threatened by the so-called British Bill of Rights).
One piece of wonderful news was being able to welcome back Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori from Iran – news somewhat damped by the continuing arbitrary detention of Morad Tahbaz and Mehran Raoof – we were urged to continue lobbying for them.
Two new cases to act on: Marfa Rabkova, a volunteer network coordinator for the Belarus human rights group Viasna, detained since September 2020 for exposing the Belarusian police’s brutality against peaceful demonstrators after the disputed Presidential election in that year. She faces a possible 20 year goal sentence – we’re asked to write to her and to the authorities.
Secondly, imprisoned French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hammouri, a field researcher for Palestinian NGO Addameer, persistently harassed by the Israeli authorities since 2002. A guide was provided for actions to help his case.
The Taunton Group is continuing a rolling action of letters for imprisoned Egyptian housing officer Ibrahim Ezz El-Din. Our North Africa co-ordinator had written a series of protests about Egypt’s breaking of its own laws in handling his case – photographed for display on Twitter and our own blog.
Some members ran a Football Welcomes Refugees stall at Huish Tigers youth matches this month – lots of positive interest from leader Gavin and uptake of stickers and badges.
Our India co-ordinator brought in cards to send to imprisoned members of the BK15. We had an update on the Death penalty and discussed future stalls and publicity
Our chosen Book of the Month is The Conservative Human Rights Revolution by Marco Duranti; it gives an account of post-war Human Rights and the ECHR, driven by conservatives concerned about controlling left-wing politics.
Join us for our next meeting at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place in Taunton – second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 