AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – Hornsey and Wood Green Group

Minutes of the Meeting of 16th September 2015

Attendance: Argyros Alexander, Dennis Bradley, Jane Bywaters, Ros Cranston, Paul Duployen, Isabel Manley, Francine Miller, Jean Scott, Herbert Trent.

Apologies: Gina Mackenzie, Maureen Paton Maguire.

Minutes of the last meeting / Matters Arising:

The minutes of the August meeting were agreed.

[There is a late correction: The balance on 19th August was not £1,903.34 but £1,393.74.]

Guest Speaker

Stephen Young, one of the two London regional representatives, talked about the upcoming London conference to be held on 3rd October. The main focus of the conference is to be Refugees and the Human Rights Act. 150 people have so far booked places. He also mentioned the Embassy Crawl on 26th September organised by the Wandsworth Amnesty group which will focus on the My Body My Rights campaign.

Campaigns:

Death Penalty – The government of Zambia has commuted 332 death sentences to life imprisonment. In Iran there were 694 executions between 1st January 2015 and 15th July 2015.

In Oklahoma Richard Glossip was scheduled to be executed on 16th September but reprieved at the last minute. (NB. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has now issued an indefinite stay of execution for Richard Glossip and two other men over concerns about the drugs to be used in their executions.)

NAFRAN – The August task is about Ali Arras in Morocco who was tortured while in detention. There are two Urgent Actions in Egypt – Mahmoud Abu Zeid (aka Shawkan), a photo journalist detained for photographing the Rabaa Adaways sit-in, and Mahmoud Hussein, a student arrested for wearing a T-shirt with an anti-torture slogan on it who has been in detention for over 500 days and severely beaten. The September task concerns another Egyptian case, Israa Al-Taweel. This student was shot in the back at a protest in January 2014 and now using crutches. She is being denied treatment without which she may not be able to walk again.

We also signed a greeting card to Wafae Charaf, a young woman jailed in Morocco for “falsely reporting” torture. Her 28th birthday is on 8th October.

China - The Ai WeiWei exhibition at the Royal Academy is now open.

My Body My Rights – The Monthly Action for September is about the total ban on abortion in El Salvador and the long prison sentences that have been imposed on women suspected of having abortions. We are asked to make a “key of freedom” which will be attached to a sculpture that will feature in a concert in El Salvador, part of a week of action organised by Amnesty El Salvador. One of the Write for Right cases this year will be for Teodora del Carmen who has spent more than 7 years in jail for being convicted of aggravated homicide after suffering a still-birth. She is serving a 30-year sentence imposed in 2008.

Stop Torture – The EU is currently reviewing the law which prohibits trade in items used for torture. Dennis has sent the suggested letter to Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills) asking him to close the current loopholes in this legislation. Amnesty will be organising

protests at the Defence and Security Equipment International Arms Fair to be held in London from 15th to 18th September.

Correspondence:

Dennis has received a responce from the Foreign Office to his letter about Palestine and the International Criminal Court (July Monthly Action). The letter says that our government has encouraged Israel to cooperate with the preliminary examination into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories since June 2014, but notes that Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

AIUK is now consulting on proposals to update its constitution. This runs until 2nd November. More information can be found at www.amnesty.org,uk/2015Review. There will be a meeting about this at the HRAC on 9th October.

Finance/Fundraising:

The current balance is £898.74p, after paying the donation of £500 to AIUK agreed at the last meeting.

The next fundraising event by the group is the annual London-wide Street Collection on Saturday, 10th October. We will also be collecting at East Finchley Underground station on Wednesday 7th October. AIUK has identified several London national members who could be additional collectors.

Ros will be taking part in a half marathon at Congleton in Cheshire on 3rd October and hopes to make this a fundraising exercise for Amnesty.

We have now finalised arrangements for a Write for Rights event at St James church in Muswell Hill in conjunction with the Barnet and Enfield group on 11th December.

Diary Dates:

For further information about these events, contact Dennis Bradley at .

·  Protest at the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping – organised by AIUK on Tuesday, 20th October, from 11 a.m. at the King George VI Memorial Steps on The Mall.

·  “A Joke Too Far” – Evening of comedy organised by Islington & Hackney Group, Thursday, 19th November, 7.30 p.m., at The Hackney Attic, 270 Mare Street E8 1HE. Tickets £12.50 from www.picturehouses.com.

·  Write for Rights Event – organised in conjunction with Barnet & Enfield Group, 12.30 – 3.30 p.m. at St. James Church Muswell Hill on Friday, 11th December.

Next meeting: Wednesday, 21st October, at the Muswell Hill Quaker Meeting House, Church Crescent, N10, 8.00 pm.

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