MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THEST ALBANS GROUP OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONALHELD ON WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11TH, 2015
1.PRESENT: Dakheel Alqahtani, Shrooq Alqahtani, Irene Austin, Mike Bennett, Louise Chick, David Dickson, Sue Grieve, Maureen Huckle, Judy Jacques,Amanda Jones (new member,) Katharine Mears, Marie Middelstorb, Philip Nixon, Jackie Seaton, Mir Shafi,Peter Smith (Secretary),Hilary Tyrrell, Penny Williams (Chair).
Apologies for Absence: Sue Fakes, Karla SiswickEmmylou Walters.
2. SYRIA:
Hannah Slater, AIUK Country Coordinator for Syria, gave a compelling account of the horrific civil war in Syria, which has been called the worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War, Her very well informed powerpoint presentation gave up-to-date key figures relating to the conflict, some of whichare given here.
Syria has a population of 22 million. An uprising began in March 2011 against the Baath Party
which had ruled since 1958. Since then 191,000 people have been killed.There are 3.8 million refugees and 7.6 million internally displaced persons, of which 50% are children. There are 12.2 million people in need of humanitarian aid. Preventable diseases are spreading.There are widespread torture, extrajudicial killings and abductions. Chemical weapons were used in August 2013.
The extreme organisation 'Islamic State' has occupied large areas of Syria and Iraq and declared them an Islamic Caliphate. It too has practised barbaric extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture and slavery. However it's often not realised thatit has also attracted some support in the areas it controls because it has introduced a state administrative infrastructure instead of chaos and is creating some jobs.
Some figures for the refugee crisis were given: There are now 3.8 million refugees from Syria living in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey (most in Lebanon: 1.7 million and Turkey: 1.6 million.) Some of these countries feel themselves forced to restrict access to more refugees,
fearing for the stability of their countries. There are 380, 000 particularly vulnerable refugees which the UN has identified as needing to settle in another country. 77, 638 resettlement places have been offered globally so far. There have been a total of 217,724 asylum applications between April 2011 and December 2014 from Syrians arriving in Europe of which the UK has had 5,942. It is estimated that 3,000 Syrians died making the journey to Europe in unsafe boats in 2014.
The UK, though being the second most generous donor of money to help Syria, has promised to take the pitiful number of 500 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees: just 90 have so far arrived. Some Amnesty UK and City of Sanctuary groups are lobbying local councils to agree to take refugees. This can be considered by any group.
Our Group is most grateful to Hannah for coming to give her most vivid and sobering talk.
3. GROUP ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING:
.... Finances and Fundraising: Penny, as treasurer, presented the Group accounts for the calendar year 2014. They had been circulated. They showed that we are in a sound financial position with an opening balance in 2015 of a total of £2364.58 in our 2 bank accounts. During the year we have given £1,800 including our subscriptionof £72, to AIUK. It was queried why we had an entry for £99 for AI books in 2013, but nothing in 2014. It was explained that the £99 related to copies of the AI Annual Report we have presented to our local MPs and libraries for a number of years now. AI is no longer routinely producing this in hard copy. Peter will enquire about the current situation.
It was agreed to keep the Group membership subscription at £7.50 waged, £3.50 unwaged. Please see the slip with these minutes.
..... Group Officers: Penny is happy to continue as Treasurer, Sue Fakes as Media Officer.
Both were confirmed in post. Peter is stepping down as Secretary; Louise (Chick) kindly undertook to take on the job on a 3-month trial basis. As a result she would no longer be on the chair and minute-taking rotas. (Irene will circulate revised rotas.) The remaining chairs would be Irene, Katharine, Judy (who had kindly volunteered)and Penny.. It's expected that Chairs will take a more active part in preparation for meetings.
.... Group Planning Pack from AIUK. Our campaigns in 2015.
In the Group Planning Pack AIUK invites us to choose from the campaigns it can offer in the current year. A list of our campaigns in 2014 had been circulated to remind members of the campaigns we were subscribed to in that year. After discussion it was agreed that our campaigns in 2015 would be:
Katharine: Women's Rights in Afghanistan and The Death Penalty ( 2 separate campaigns.)
Louise (Chick): Stop Torture, Control Arms, and Forced Evictions (3 separate campaigns.)
Irene: Asylum, Refugees, Migrants and Syria (Country campaigning within
the Middle East and Gulf Region) (2 separate campaigns.)
Judy: My Body, My Rights.
Hilary and Philip: Israel/OPT (Country campaigning within the Middle East and Gulf Region.)
Peter: Central America Region, including our adopted individual at risk Fray Tomás González of the La 72 Migrants Shelter, Mexico.
Marie: India (Country campaigning within the South Asia Region.)
Emmylou Walters, who had looked after the death penalty campaign, had written to say that she couldn't come along to meetings at the moment, having just given birth to her son Arthur. We signed a card of congratulations to her, hoping to see her again when a little leisure returns!
We subscribe to one extra urgent action a month and it was agreed we continue with that. We're also happy to receive the occasional action from Debbie, who continues to work on Russian actions, though has now formally stepped down from the Group.
Philip has taken the General Election material we've received from AIUK to look at.In connection with the election Penny had suggested that it would be good if a volunteer could
write a letter to the prospective parliamentary candidates in St Albans with Amnesty's concerns
in the election. A volunteer is sought for this.
4. TWO POSSIBLE FUTURE EVENTS: SOME INITIALTHOUGHTS ON BHOPAL AND REFUGEES.
Jackie had contacted the Bhopal Medical Foundation which would be happy to send a speaker to speak to us about the Bhopal industrial disaster. This would be good but it might be even better to make the disaster the theme of our next event with the Univ. Herts Law School. Thelegal repercussions of such an event might well be of interest to them. The Foundation has a video we might show, also a film A Prayer for Rain',which with a running time of 96 minutes would be too long for inclusion in the University event but might justify an evening showing somewhere. Jackie and Irene, who looks after the University contact will liaise about the best way forward.
Irene is keen to make our meeting on June 10th a focus on the plight and position of asylum seekers and refugees in this country, close to Refugee Week (June 15-21). She has volunteered to take over the Syrian campaign because of the enormity of the Syrian refugee problem. To our knowledge there are not a great number of refugees in St Albans, so that it is not a burning local issue - there are probably more in Luton and Watford, but we can try to raise awareness of problems associated with asylum seekers in general: the detention of women in Yarl's Wood for example,the inadequate training of asylum caseworkers which results in so many appeals being made against their decisions and - upheld! Irene suggested that we get a speaker from Amnesty and Yarl's Wood and open up the meeting She would explore linking with other local groups and will follow up contacts with the University of Luton and British Red CrossWe might write to our MEPs about the tragic drowning of refugees who try to cross the Mediterranean in unsafe boats.
5.MONTHLY ACTION: Saudi Arabia: Raif Badawi: We write again in great concern for Raif, who was sentenced harshly, among other things to 10 years jail and 1,000 lashes for creating a liberal website which the authorities said 'insulted Islam'. The first 50 lashes were given on January 9. This has caused a world wide outcry and more weekly lashes have been postponed three times. At the time of writing these minutes it is not clear if and when they will be resumed. We ask the authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally, and to ensure that his conviction and sentence are quashed.
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6. MISCELLANEOUS:
.... It was agreed that Hilary and Philip should invite their friend Daniel Eyre, who works on the Nigeria desk at the AI International Secretariat to speak at our March meeting (March 11).
They are also assisting in the arrangement of a hustings at Trinity URC Church on April 23rd. Organisations prominent in this arrangement are Oxfam, Friends of The Earth, and Trinity itself.
It's expected that written questions to the parliamentary candidates can be tabled.
Hilary and Philip didn't have a specific Israel/OPT action this month but drew attention to 2 reports from AI about the recent conflict in Gaza: Families under the Rubble. Israeli Attacks On Inhabited Homes. November 15, 2014; and Nothing Is Immune. Israel's Destruction of Landmark Buildings in Gaza. December 9, 2014.
.... Irene has been having training in school speaking for AIUK, which she found well organised, and hopes to start in September, liaising with Reg Pyne of the Welwyn/Hatfield Group.
.... Reminders were given of 2 meetings:
Stop Torture. Day at AIUK HQ on Saturday 14 February.
The Group has put aside £200 to help with the expenses of any Group member who would like to attend the AIUK Annual Conference and AGM, to be shared if there is more than one. The Conference takes place 18-19 April 2015 at Warwick University. [ Booking closed on Monday 2nd March.]
.... Please note that AIUK will be sending out the monthly mailings for groups, which will include all that month's actions, to all contacts within the Group who look after campaigns,
for the contact to take out his or her relevant campaign. This way AIUK hopes to keep\more members aware of general group issues included in the monthly mailing.
.... Peter is thrilled with the ingenious card and so generous book token, presented to him by Louise on the Group's behalf on his retirement from the secretaryship.
7. NEXT MEETING:
Wednesday March 11th at 8 pm at the Friends' Meeting House, 7 Upper Lattimore
Road, St Albans, AL1 3UD. Our guest speaker will be Daniel Eyre from the Amnesty International International Secretariat. Please come so that he has as big an audience as possible.