Tag Archives: meeting
Next Taunton Amnesty Group meeting Tuesday 13th January
5 Jan
Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 13th January at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH. 8pm start.
All are most welcome to join us for campaign updates, news and actions and to find out more about human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
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, and check the board by the entrance door for which room we are in.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Next Amnesty Taunton Group meeting Tuesday 9th December
3 Dec
Join us at our next monthly meeting on Tuesday 9th December at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton TA1 3DH. 8pm start.
We will be writing greetings cards to prisoners of conscience for Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign, making decorations for our tree at the United Reformed Church’s Christmas Tree Festival (12-14 December), and consuming a mince pie or two!
All are welcome to join us.
Report from our November meeting
18 Nov
Write for Rights Campaign 2014: Amnesty’s greetings card campaign for Christmas is under way!
‘It only takes a few minutes to write a card or letter. But this simple act brings hope and comfort to people suffering human rights abuses.’ Amnesty received this message from Serkalem Fasil, whose husband is serving 18 years in jail in Ethiopia. The family received thousands of messages last year:
‘I want to convey Eskinder’s gratitude and my own to everyone who has taken part, taken action or sent us letters. For him, it’s a huge source of encouragement and moral strength. The regime will be forced to release him and other prisoners of conscience. That kind of pressure, they can’t resist for ever.’
Look out for Taunton Amnesty’s Write for Rights Campaign Tree at the United Reformed Church’s Christmas Tree Festival 12th-14th December.
For the November Monthly Action we called on the USA to ratify the 25 year old Convention on the Rights of the Child. Despite having signed the Convention in 1995, the USA has still not ratified it – the only country, besides Sudan, to fail.
We meet at 8pm on the second Tuesday of the month at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton. Join us in December to send off Write for Rights Cards and eat mince pies!
Next Amnesty Taunton group meeting Tuesday 8th July @ Silver Street Baptist Church
1 Jul
Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 8th July at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH. 8pm start.
All are most welcome to join us for campaign updates, news and actions and to find out more about human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
This month’s meeting includes a workshop on Human Rights in the U.K.
Amnesty Taunton group meeting Tuesday 13th May @ Silver Street Baptist Church
6 May
Our next monthly meeting is on Tuesday 13th May at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH. 8pm start.
All are most welcome to join us for campaign updates, news and actions and to find out more about human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
This month we will also be hearing from Rebecca Pow, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, about her views on human rights.
Here’s what happened at the April 2014 Taunton Amnesty meeting…
11 AprHakamada leaves prison after 46 years on death row © Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
A piece of welcome good news! Japanese death row prisoner Hakamodo Iwao has at last been released. He was sentenced to death in 1968 after a trial of dubious validity, and has been under sentence of death for an unbelievable 44 years. However, the prosecution has appealed against this release. The Tokyo High Court could take up to two years to rule, adding to the psychological distress already endured by this elderly gentleman.
The Group debated what campaigns and countries to focus on particularly this year. We will be working for the Stop Torture and Crisis and Tactical Campaigns. We will continue to work for Dr Tun Aung of Burma; two members will focus on North Africa, and another on China, besides continuing work on such issues as the Death Penalty.
April’s monthly action highlighted the dreadful plight of persecuted civilians in the Central African Republic, where society has broken down in a series of sectarian and inter-ethnic conflicts. Amnesty is appealing to the Americans to support an immediate intervention by international peacekeeping forces. Click here to sign the petition.
Our May meeting will be addressed by Rebecca Pow, prospective Conservative candidate for Taunton, on human rights issues. All are most welcome to come and hear her at 8pm on the Tuesday 13th May 2014 at Silver Street Baptist Church.
Correction: Amnesty Taunton group meeting Tuesday 8th April @ Silver Street Baptist Church
6 Apr
Sorry for the incorrect date on the title of our earlier post! To confirm:
Our next monthly meeting is next week, on Tuesday 8th April, at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton, TA1 3DH. 8pm start.
All are most welcome to join us for campaign updates, news and actions and to find out more about human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
Missed January’s meeting? Read all about it here…
25 JanThe first meeting of 2014: an occasion to look forward to new plans and initiatives, and maybe, even, in hope.
One for whom we hope, and on whom we are still concentrating as the New Year begins, is Dr. Tun Aung, the Group’s adopted Prisoner of Conscience in Burma. He has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment after an unfair trial, having been arrested following riots between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Maungdaw, a town in western Burma, in June 2012. Independent eyewitnesses confirm that Dr Aung actively tried to calm the crowd during the rioting and played no role in the violence. Nevertheless, he was convicted of inciting riots and various other criminal offences.
Speaking in London in July 2013, Burma’s President Thein Sein gave his guarantee that all prisoners of conscience would be freed from his country’s jails by the end of the year; we continue to press him for Dr Tun Aung’s release.
We heard reports on the Death Penalty (possibly some improvement in China, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, but more, and more brutal, in Iran) and signed a plea for a prisoner in Iraq. One of Amnesty’s main campaigns for 2014 is for victims of torture.
The group’s AGM will be held in February; in March Ann Marcus will speak on the Middle East and North Africa. All are welcome at our meetings, 8pm the second Tuesday of the month at the Silver Street Baptist Church.
Next group meeting: Tuesday 12th November
4 Nov
Our next monthly group meeting takes place on Tuesday 12th November from 8PM at Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton. Click here to view location on a map.
All are welcome to come along and discuss human rights, receive campaign updates, and take part in letter writing and other actions to promote human rights.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 