ALL TOGETHER NOW Synchronised Photo Action Says: We Welcome Refugees
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GROUPS NEWS THE NEWSLETTER FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK WINTER 2017 LOCAL, STUDENT AND YOUTH GROUPS INSIDE TIME FOR JUSTICE INDIVIDUALS AT RISK See page 7 Scarborough BEING YOURSELFIE PRIDE CELEBRATIONS Bradford York See page 8 ALL TOGETHER NOW Synchronised photo action says: We welcome refugees At exactly mid-day on 24 June, to celebrate communities to work together to create a Refugee Week, the Scarborough group more welcoming environment,’ said Rod gathered on the South Cliff to tell refugees Heath, group secretary and regional rep for in the UK they are welcomed and wanted. North East and Yorkshire. ‘We decided to do At the same time, 13 other groups this action together for maximum impact.’ around Yorkshire and the North-East took The York group came together at photos with similar messages at their local Clifford’s Tower. The Bradford group landmarks. gathered outside the Town Hall. Other In a bid to change the tone of discussion groups who took part included Barnsley, around refugees, the groups wanted to Wakefield, Newcastle, Wearside, Sheffield, celebrate the contributions of refugees. Wharfedale, Kirkbymoorside, Scunthorpe, EMBASSY CRAWL ‘The theme of Refugee Week was Our Leeds, Hexham and Kirklees. NEWS FROM THE GROUPS Shared Future. We wanted to encourage READ MORE on page 5 See page 10 EDITORIAL NOTICEBOARD In the ‘Good Old Days’ there used to be at least two executions a week in this country. There were 200 different capital offences for which the guilty could be legally strangled including spending more than a month in the company of gypsies, picking pockets, the theft of goods worth at least 12 pence and committing a crime with your face blackened. I was 12 when I went on my first anti- death penalty demo. It was 1953. I stood in the rain with my Mum on a vigil outside Wandsworth Prison (picture). Eighteen-year- old Derek Bentley, who had just learned how to write his name, was about to be Football welcomes refugees ©Barrington Coombs/EMPICS hanged for ‘mentally aiding’ his young friend Chris to shoot dead PC Sidney Miles FOOTBALL WELCOMES: AGM ROLE VACANCIES during a botched burglary on a Croydon NEXT FIXTURE We are looking for people to represent rooftop. Football Welcomes 2018 will take place Amnesty at the Annual General Meeting I remember the debate in Amnesty at the on 21-22 April 2018. We want to build (AGM) 2018. There are four roles up for International Council Meeting in Sweden in on the success of the project last year election: 1977 when we first included work against by working with more football clubs • AGM Chair (1 vacancy) the death penalty in our Mandate. It was and refugee organisations, developing • Standing Orders Committee (1 vacancy) two years after the last execution in the UK community links, and exploring its • Members and Directors Appeals and only 16 countries had abolished the international potential. There are many Committee (2 vacancies) death penalty. opportunities for local groups to get Deadline for nominations is 16 February We had to wait until 1998 before involved and promote our work around 2018. executions were finally removed from refugees. For more info, visit: Britain’s statute book. Today 70 per If you’re interested, contact: Community www.amnesty.org.uk/agmroles cent of the world’s nations have either Organising Unit, [email protected] For queries, email abolished it in law or no longer use it in [email protected] practice, including: Fiji (2015), Republic NOMINATIONS FOR BOARD of the Congo (2015), Madagascar (2015), A reminder that nominations for the LEARNING ABOUT HUMAN Suriname (2015), Nauru (2016), Benin 2018-2021 Amnesty International UK RIGHTS DEFENDERS (2016) and Mongolia (2017). Board elections must be received by Over 60 activists attended the Amnesty However, 58 nations still retain 5pm on 11 January 2018. skillshare on the Human Rights Defenders executions in both law and practice, 23 Apply for full details and a nomination (BRAVE) campaign in Manchester on of whom were responsible for at least a pack from Selma Shirazi, Director’s Office, 7 October. Participants heard about thousand executions last year. As I write Amnesty International UK Section, the campaign from defenders, activists these words a new Amnesty International The Human Rights Action Centre, and experts working in the field. They UK network against the death penalty is 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA shared their ideas and knowledge on being established in the Section to work or call 020 7033 1556 or email campaigning, community engagement, alongside our Women’s Action Network, the [email protected]. media and social media. They took action Asylum Justice Project, the LGBT Network You can also download an Election throughout the day by signing a message and the Children’s Network. Join up now! Pack at www.amnesty.org.uk/board- of solidarity onto a transgender flag for Dan Jones elections-2018 Sakris Kupila, whose case is highlighted in See page 14 the campaign and Write for Rights. CONNECTIONS WITH RAGS We are currently in discussion with RAGs to secure partnerships – and asking Amnesty student groups to contact their RAG about working together. For details and advice on this, contact [email protected], 020 7033 1646. Demonstrators outside Wandsworth prison, 1953 © PA 2 FREEDOM FOR TURKEY’S SILENCED VOICES Exhibition in support of journalists and human rights defenders © Graeme Blackwell In September, the newly-formed Kirklees Over 100 visitors wrote messages of Turkey is now the world’s biggest jailer group held the exhibition Silenced Voices support to the journalists. Photos of the of journalists. Since the failed coup in July in solidarity with jailed and exiled Turkish exhibition were retweeted by the Stockholm 2016, over 281 journalists are behind bars journalists and human rights activists. Centre for Freedom, Violations in Turkey and the authorities have closed down more In a powerful and moving spectacle, rows and the European Centre for Press and than 180 media outlets. of photographs of journalists detained or Media Freedom. Can Dündar, exiled Silenced Voices is a mobile exhibition. persecuted by the Turkish government filled former editor-in-chief of Turkish newspaper If any groups would like to share it, please the pews of Huddersfield Parish Church. Cumhuriyet previously jailed for his work, contact [email protected] Alongside them were photos of human saw the photos and tweeted: ‘Thank you Thank you to Reverend Simon Moor and rights defenders – including Idil Eser and for supporting Turkey’s jailed and wanted his team at Huddersfield Parish Church for Taner Kiliç of Amnesty Turkey – who are journalists. We appreciate your solidarity.’ their support. facing trial on trumped-up charges. Other thank-you messages came from One of the photographs featured Kerim Turkish journalists Tarik Toros, Mahmut Balci, who attended the exhibition. Kerim, Akpinar, Turan Gorurtilmaz and Celil Sagir. a former columnist with Zaman Daily closed ‘We have been overwhelmed by the down by the Turkish government, fled the response,’ says Paul. ‘Many visitors were country in 2016. Holding his photo, he visibly moved by the experience. The talked about the dangers his colleagues project – from idea to implementation – face and the importance of activism. took six weeks and it has all been worth it.’ ‘We wanted our exhibition to convey The group continued their creative work the impact of all these journalists being by videoing group members writing solidarity removed from society and being stopped in cards to imprisoned journalists and posting their role of telling truth to power and the them on social media to spread awareness of people they are meant to serve,’ says group cases and encourage more support. Watch on secretary Paul Cooney. YouTube (search ‘Kirklees solidarity letters’). 3 OUR SHARED FUTURE A summer spent protecting refugees’ rights and celebrating all that unites us Many groups marked this year’s Refugee causes. The audience heard from Beatrice group hosted an interactive, multi-media Week, 19-25 June, with events. On 20 Smith of Rwanda, who settled in the UK exhibition Escape to Safety. Staged in June, the Southampton group’s Music for in the 90s, and recent arrival to Colwyn Blackpool’s St John’s Church, it offered Refugees concert included performances by Bay, Osmar Muslim from Syria, who spoke people a 15-minute opportunity to the Blue Sky Choir, Salty Sea Dogs and The about losing his brother, how tough refugee experience what it is like to be a refugee. Southampton Folk Orchestra. The audience journeys are and then of the welcome in Over 168 people visited; some reviewed signed cards of welcome to refugees and a Wales. School children sang Under the it: ‘Emotional, intense and factual’ and petition to support reuniting child refugees Same Sun, a song written for Amnesty, and ‘Harrowing, makes you think – we just with their families in the UK. Mererid Hopwood read her poetry. Bishop aren’t doing enough’. Outside, a pair of six- The Bournville group ran a busy stall Gregory spoke of his wish to resettle more foot long, furry, bright yellow arms proved at CoCoMAD, a community festival in families in North Wales and Amnesty UK popular, as did the drumming group, which Cotteridge. Children coloured in 70 doves, director Kate Allen revealed more about included member John Morrow. representing freedom, and sat them in a the crisis and how to help. Visitors were In July, the Chester and Wrexham group tree branch. Over 200 people supported also able to view the I Welcome exhibition ran two Welcome Refugees with Open the petition to end indefinite detention by Magnum photographers detailing the Arms events in Wrexham and Chester town of asylum seekers.