Write for Rights 2024 is on its way! AIUK writes:
‘Every year, we run Write For Rights, a campaign over November and December where we encourage you to write messages of support to people around the world who have suffered injustice, and show you how to support their campaigns for justice.’
Here’s a link to the 2024 booklet – Download the campaign booklet (PDF)
Amnesty Taunton will be at St Mary’s – the Minster Church – in Taunton on 7 December from 10.00-1.45 with leaflets and cards and information so you can take part – we look forward to seeing you there! We are inviting Gideon Amos, MP for Taunton, to join us.
At our November meeting we heard reports on our campaigns. Our Middle East & North Africa lead has written to the authorities on behalf of one of the Write for Rights 2024 chosen cases, Oqba Hashad of Egypt, detained without trial in horrible conditions due to his brother’s activism.
She updated us on Alaa Abdel Fattah, Egyptian blogger, software developer and political activist, imprisoned since 2019. Bizarrely, Ireland has deemed Egypt a ‘safe country’, expressing its confidence in the security and human rights conditions there. A chink of light is the release of Omar Radi of Morocco.
Alun reported on India and the BK16 case file; 8 are still in prison, 7 out on bail; ways of keeping in touch by post are being explored. AIUK writes: ‘The 16 detained activists have long worked to defend the rights of some of India’s poorest and most marginalized communities, including Dalits and Adivasis – India’s indigenous peoples. As poets, journalists, and advocates, they have been vocal in their criticism of government policies and therefore, have often been targets for the authorities.’
We discussed ways forward on the US State Governor Death Penalty action. We looked at possible ways of improving interaction with our own Website and blog. We have become increasingly uneasy about the way that X under Elon Musk is developing; should we boycott it and turn to Blue Sky?
A number of suggestions for Media of the Month; first suggestion was for Alexi Navalny’s posthumous Patriot, a Memoir.
There’s no monthly meeting in December, but we’d love to see you at our Write for Rights stall at St Mary’s on Saturday 7 December from 10am-1.45pm. Our next monthly meeting will be on Tuesday 14 January 2025 at 7.30pm at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. Hope to see you there!
Our meeting in December was transformed into a Write for Rights event, held by kind permission at St Mary’s Church, Taunton during their Saturday Coffee Morning on 8th December.
Every year, thousands of people in the UK write letters in solidarity with those suffering human rights abuses around the world as part of Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign.
Instead of its usual monthly meeting in December, the Taunton Amnesty Group is holding a Write for Rights stall at St Mary Magdalene Church, Church Square (off Hammet Street), Taunton TA1 1SA, on 
The highlight of our November meeting was a talk by Federica Smith on the organisation she founded 18 months ago: RAFT – Refugee Aid From Taunton. By ingenuity, persistence and learning as they go, RAFT has sent aid to, among other needy places, Syria, Uganda (for Sudanese refugees), and the Ukraine. Their next shipment is to Lebanon.
Tuesday 8th December at the Silver Street Baptist Church, Taunton,
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 