Amnesty International Salisbury Group

Minutes of the Monthly Meeting on Thursday 10th January 20197.30 pm 4 Victoria Road

1 Chairman’s WelcomePresent: Tony, Andrew, Ria, Michael S, Eddie, Fiona, Peter and LesleyApologies: Michael P

AH

2 Minutes of previous Meeting - These were agreed. LC

3 Treasurer’s Report - £710.18 (Bank Account) £30.06 (Cash)Two donations of £50 had subsequently been received from RH and from a member of the Farrant Singers at the Carols Evening.

MP

4 Campaign Reports

Death Penalty

Please see the Salisbury Group Website page for the full international update covering the USA, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Kuala Lumpur, UK/Pakistan, Gaza, India and Saudi Arabia.

Of particular note:

In New Hampshire, USA, Supporters of the repeal of the death penalty appear to have a veto-proof majority in the Senate for the next legislative session, easing the road for the potential passage of the measure to becoming law, and overcoming its earlier blocking by Governor Chris Sununu.

In Belarus, reports were received that Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy, on whose behalf the DPLWG have campaigned, were executed – most probably on 19th or 20th November. The news broke when the families were informed that the executions had taken place.

Documents are reported to reveal that the UK Foreign Office is supporting specialist civilian courts in Pakistan that prosecute terrorist suspects in a ‘rule of law’ programme that has led to dozens of death sentences. A parliamentary response stated the Government had spent £10.39m on the Programme, with the bulk of the money coming from the Overseas Aid Budget. Reprieve has said it is impossible for

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the UK to support civilian terrorism courts in Pakistan in accordance with international law because the courts do not meet recognised standards.

The Hamas-controlled military court in Gaza has sentenced six people to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel on a failed covert operation in Gaza on 11th November in which six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed. Numerous rights groups have condemned the verdicts. The Palestinian national Independent Commission for Human Rights has called for death penalty verdicts issued in Gaza not to be enforced. The PCHR rejects the death penalty and has stated that the Gaza Strip lacks the guarantee of fair trials.

In Saudi Arabia the trial of 11 people charged with the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, 5 of whom face the death penalty, opened and was quickly adjourned in Riyadh.

Urgent Actions

Saudi Arabia – An Amnesty Urgent Action, published in the Guardian, called for texts to be sent on behalf of Israa al-Ghomgham, facing execution for her involvement in peaceful protests. Her trial continues on 13th January. (Circulated to DPLWG 16.12.18.)

Belarus – UA17/18 – There is grave concern that Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Viachaslau Sukharko, the first two prisoners to be sentenced to death in Belarus, and the only known men remaining on death row, are now are risk of imminent execution. (Circulated to DPLWG 20.12.18.) This month’s Group Urgent Action.

Campaigning

No events focusing on the Group’s death penalty campaigning, were organised for this month. A campaigning update is expected from the Anti-Death Penalty Project.

North Korea

TM advised the Group of a website - NK News.Org – a source of current news regarding the country. Reference in the current issue is made to the lack of developments or solutions to the nuclear arsenal; Kim Jong Un’s failure to visit Seoul in 2018; the expectation of a second summit meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the arrest of the two Canadians in China.The Group were informed that the New Malden Community do not organise visits for individuals but offer regular Open Days. RH

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hopes to attend an Open Day in due course – TM will email forthcoming dates when they become available.

Refugees

The Exhibition of Refugee Photographs is now available to view at the Salisbury Methodist Church until 3rd February. The Group will need to dismantle it on 4th February. A letter from PC was published in this week’s Salisbury Journal. It was agreed that the Exhibition was particularly timely in the light of recent statements by the Home Secretary about ‘migrants’ crossing the Channel.

A firm date for the Vigil will be set at the February meeting which is planned for March or April. FD will order additional placards.

A meeting will be held at Andrew’s house at 2.30 pm on Wednesday 30th January to plan for Refugee Week – 17th-23rd June.

AH

5 Social Media Report

PC reported on social media statistics for December. The main points were:

The web site was fairly quiet partly because of lack of content over the Christmas period. We had 166 views, the lowest level for some time. All-time views were at 12,386 with an increase of 1 with our followers to 371

He also reported on the annual figures for the past 4 and a bit years:

2014 (part) 2015 2016 2017 2018(1,386) 2,829 2,599 2,745 2,788

Top post in December was the report on Daniel Trilling’s talk followed by the announcement of the talk. In 2018, the plight of the Salisbury refugee who was sent back to Afghanistan was most read, followed by the post discussing the case against human rights - see https://salisburyai.com/2014/12/05/the-case-against-human-rights/

For 2018, most views were from the USA, possibly because of the monthly report Lesley does on the death penalty

Twitter was quiet also with 1,593 impressions with the Trilling talk the top tweet

PC

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Facebook on the other hand performed strongly with 411 engagements. The most popular was the Christmas tree display at St Thomas’s followed by the photo of the Droits de l’Homme photo in Montpellier station, France

No change with Tumblr

The North Korean video and photograph and video continue to perform well and the still photo on Flickr has just gone through 5 thousand views. The video has now been viewed 1001 times on that platform and 3,032 on YouTube taking it to over 4 thousand overall.

(Full information can be found on the Website)

6 Monthly Action – There are no National Actions for January.

7 Write for Rights

It was agreed that the response from the public to this year’s card signing event was disappointing, and that alternative approaches should be considered.

The following suggestions were made:

The Mid Glos Group had held an indoor session offering coffee and mincepies.

The Cathedral might be a more suitable venue for a signing. AH will contact the new Dean to suggest a meeting to introduce our local Amnesty Group.

Cards should possibly be single-sided to save postage, and include a pre-printed message.

The possibility of reducing the number of prisoners in order to focus more on the individuals – or an individual - was raised.

It was suggested that the signing should involve greetings cards to the prisoner(s) only rather than including the option of Amnesty action cards to officials.

Further discussions will be held in due course.

All

8 Public Meetings

Concerns were expressed regarding the lack of attendance at

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public meetings organised by the Group.

The suggestion was made that the Group might do better to focus on events such as Vigils.

It might be possible to link in with other Organisations running a series of talks or lectures – eg Salisbury Literary Festival, Sarum College, Salisbury for Europe.

In the meantime:

AH was awaiting details of the new programme to be offered by Ice and Fire.

PC will contact Paul Mason who is about to publish a new book Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being, in which he considers that the idea of universal human rights is under threat, with a view to the possibility of his coming to speak in Salisbury.

9 Citizenship Day

The Group had met to begin the process of mapping out a revised version. A further meeting will be held at Fiona’s house at 2.00 pm on Monday 21st January.

FDAHRW

10 Amnesty AGM

The AGM will take place in Nottingham on 13th-14th April. Ria will attend and will choose any workshops available that are relevant to the Group – eg Write for Rights, the Death Penalty, Refugees, North Korea.

RW

11 AOB

FD reported that the underside of the pull-down table on the train on which she had travelled from Stockholm to Copenhagen had carried a message from Amnesty.

L and PC reported that all major train stations in France this year had large displays celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

TM reported that his proposal for monthly Prisoner of Conscience information to be displayed at St Thomas’s is to be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the PCC.

12 Forthcoming Events

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● Exhibition of Refugee Photographs – current – 3rd February

● Refugee Vigil – to be arranged for March/April

● Cathedral Evensong – date TBC

● Arts Centre Film – 8th March 2019

● Market Stall – 8th June 2019

● Refugee Week – 17th-23rd June 2019

Next Meeting: Thursday 14th February 2019 Time: 7.30 pm Venue: 4 Victoria Road

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