GROUPS NEWS THE NEWSLETTER FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK SPRING 2017 LOCAL, STUDENT AND YOUTH GROUPS INSIDE OPPOSING TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN PROTEST RALLIES See page 3 © Marie-Anne Ventoura GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE NEW WORLD ORDER It has been a momentous year for human There were also opportunities for rights, in the UK and abroad, so our 2017 Amnesty activists to show off their National Conference and AGM was a time campaign props. A giant effigy of Mary to take stock of a changing world. Murdoch – Hull’s first female GP and a The event started with Brendan Cox, women’s suffrage campaigner – roamed widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, lighting the conference centre, while a pair of PEOPLE TO PEOPLE the Amnesty candle and reminding all six-foot long, furry, bright yellow arms WRITE FOR RIGHTS present of the importance of activism and reached out to welcome refugees. See page 4 mutual solidarity in local communities. Amnesty’s creative coordinator, Dan The keynote discussion focused on hate Jones, hosted an Activism Showcase crime in the UK and the discriminatory with prizes for the Queen’s University policies of the Trump administration Belfast group for their contribution in the USA. The audience learned that to the My Body My Rights campaign, hate crime is hugely under-reported, and and for the Newcastle and Cambridge that even supposedly minor abuse such groups for their speedy organisation as name-calling can have catastrophic of rallies against President Trump’s results if people experience it every day discriminatory travel ban (see page 3). without let-up. Naureen Shah, from The Bingley Grammar and Freman Amnesty USA, stressed the importance College youth groups also received of putting international pressure on prizes for their campaigning and President Trump. fundraising activities. Discussion of AGM resolutions included More than 500 Amnesty members a thorough and passionate debate on the attended the AGM at the East Midlands human rights of sex workers. A proposal Conference Centre in Nottingham on for Amnesty International UK to review 8-9 April. The resolutions and voting I WELCOME its policy on the subject was defeated figures are on the website. PROTECTING REFUGEES’ RIGHTS overwhelmingly. www.amnesty.org.uk/agm See page 7 EDITORIAL NOTICEBOARD It is strange how coincidence sometimes THE MARSH AWARDS FOR connects us up with disturbing incidents. HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM 2017 When Peter Benenson, the splendid Three enterprising Amnesty groups have founder of our movement, died in 2005, each won £500 to help them implement a deeply moving memorial meeting was their ideas to inspire activism and raise organised in St Martins in the Fields. A awareness of human rights in their large congregation of Amnesty supporters communities. The winners, announced at and human rights activists assembled on our AGM in April, are: the church’s hard wooden pews where Peter • Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch had first dreamed up the idea of Amnesty group, who plan to use a Love is a Human International back in 1961. Right selfie frame to involve members of It was the fateful morning of 7 July 2005. the public in spreading a human rights At that moment four men were exploding message on social media. ‘As well as bombs on the London Underground taking our own photos, the main aim between Aldgate and Liverpool Street, would be to get people within the frame Russell Square and King’s Cross, Edgware and then photographed on their own Road and Paddington and on a double phones or cameras,’ the group said. decker bus in Tavistock Square, killing over • Clyst Vale youth group, who want to 50 people and injuring 700. The city was expand their human rights education in total lockdown. programme with local primary schools. On 16 June last year I was giving an After last year’s successful education Amnesty talk to the pupils of Wapping activities with Year 7 primary school High School near my home in the East pupils, they now plan to invite Year 5 End of London. At that very moment, as NEW: I WELCOME and 6 pupils to Clyst Vale college for a I was talking about rights and justice, EXHIBITION PACK day of creative activities on human rights a neo Nazi was attacking, stabbing and Passers-by were stopped in their tracks by themes. This will be followed up in the shooting dead Jo Cox, the Labour MP and Amnesty and Magnum’s compelling photo primary schools with more learning about dauntless campaigner for a better world, in exhibition I Welcome when it was first human rights and a competition. her constituency in West Yorkshire. Jo lived displayed outside on London’s Southbank • Royal Holloway University student group, in Wapping. Her children go to the same in December. The powerful images tell the who plan to raise funds for Amnesty and school as my grandson. story of refugees, past and present. We promote the I Welcome campaign by Yesterday, on 22 March, it was freezing have now produced a portable and smaller offering a post-exam relaxation activity to cold. In the driving rain Amnesty activists scale exhibition for supporters to show in their fellow students. After the exams and organised a protest and commemoration local venues. before the end of term, the group will sell in Parliament Square, a few yards from For more info and additional materials, picnic boxes packed with edible goodies the House of Commons. We dressed in see page 14. and information about the refugee crisis. funereal black, held wreaths of white roses and gathered round a giant memorial ‘gravestone’ in memory of the thousands of Yemeni men, women and children killed in Guide booklet missing? the past two years by British-made cluster Owing to an error at the printing firm, some copies of the bombs, carried in British-made jet planes I Welcome exhibition pack were sent out without the 12-page and dropped on Yemeni schools, hospitals guide to putting on an exhibition. and other targets by the Saudi Airforce. Kate Allen made a powerful speech to a If the guide is missing from your pack, please contact us crowd of journalists and film crews. and we’ll send you a copy. Call 020 7033 1777 or email Precisely one hour later, 100 yards from [email protected] the spot where we had gathered, ‘Khalid Masood’ drove a car into a crowd of tourists on Westminster bridge and stabbed to death a police officer on duty outside LISTEN HEAR Parliament. A new series of our In Their Own Words podcast is out A sinister pattern of gloom and doom now. It features released prisoner Albert Woodfox; Khadija foretold? No, just coincidence. A jarring Ismayilova, a journalist in Azerbaijan; Steve Kelly, who shock close to home. But in Amnesty we became a human rights activist after his brother was know that in the darkest times the best of tragically killed in the Hillsborough disaster; and Atena humanity shines through. We know which Farghadani, women’s rights activist in Iran. side we’re on, and what to do next. Spring Listen to and share their stories at is in the air. Everything’s coming up roses. www.amnesty.org.uk/in-their-own-words-podcast Dan Jones, 23 March 2017 2 RALLIES AGAINST THE TRAVEL BAN Thousands of people joined protests across the UK against the US President’s travel ban – and Amnesty groups were there in force London, January 2017 © Marie-Anne Ventoura On 30 January President Donald Trump Richard Kotter from the Newcastle group centre to oppose Trump’s ban. And the signed an order banning nationals from addressed around 2,000 protestors in the York City group joined a rally carrying seven predominantly Muslim countries city alongside two city councillors. Katie banners and placards. from entering the USA and suspended the Condon, from Durham University’s group, There were also protests in Glasgow, country’s refugee resettlement programme. was there: ‘It made me feel good to vent Dundee, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Cardiff, The response was immediate. Thousands my anger and to see that there are a lot of Belfast, Aberystwyth, Sheffield, Oxford, of people, including Amnesty groups and people who felt the same way.’ Brighton, Gloucester, Leeds, Liverpool, supporters, joined protests around the globe. Members of the Manchester group joined Leicester, among others. Many received The organisers of the London rally around 3,000 people gathered in the city extensive media coverage. estimated that more than 30,000 people demonstrated at Westminster with signs saying ‘No to racism, No to Trump’, ‘No Hate, No Fear, Refugees Welcome Here’, and ‘Dump Trump’. Ahead of the protest, Amnesty’s Kate Allen blasted the ban as ‘appalling’ and said: ‘Theresa May has shown an appalling lack of leadership by failing to condemn the move’. Liesbeth ten Ham from the Cambridge City group told over 1,000 protesters it was time to ‘campaign hard’ against the ban at a rally in Cambridge. ‘We’re here to make our voices heard – our government and elected MPs should stand up for human rights for all.’ Manchester Liesbeth ten Ham, Cambridge City 3 WRITE FOR RIGHTS For the 14th year, Write for Rights has grown again, with over 4 million messages and appeals sent to support individuals and communities at risk – 126,114 of those were from the UK Helping to launch the campaign were in Iran, was the focus with messages of plate, cake and letter from Kate Allen to activists from universities across support written for her husband Richard Gunnel Ingham, who has worked for the the country at the annual Student Ratcliffe.