Archive for category: Meeting Minutes

During the Covid-19 period when physical Open Meetings do not take place a Summary of the items that would have been on the Agenda, together with information and updates is noted below and will be available on the Amnesty Norwich website.

Norwich Amnesty Open Meetings

We are not sure when we will be able to restart physical open meetings but based on current predictions we have booked Wednesday the 21st July at the Charing Cross Centre.

Our AGM is normally held in February to allow discussion of resolutions being considered by the Amnesty UK AGM.
However as noted below, this is in June this year and online.
Amnesty members will need to vote online following instructions recently issued by Amnesty UK.
The Norwich committee will consider the date of our delayed 2021 AGM.

Actions and Letter Writing by the Group

North Africa cases

The Norwich group continues to support the Amnesty North Africa region by working on cases mainly in Egypt,and cases in Tunisia and Morocco.

We receive a regular newsletter from the Egypt  Country Organiser, Debora Singer, with  information that we can use on Egyptian cases that can be supported

We also receive information from the North Africa Regional Organiser Beverley Foulkes-Jones, often as Urgent Actions requiring an immediate response by those who have signed up for this network.
Recent news
is that on 12th March the UN Human Rights Council issued a joint statement on Human Rights in Egypt signed by 31states including the UK. The statement highlights “restrictions on freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly, the constrained space for civil society and political opposition.”  It also condemns the use of counter-terrorism laws to punish peaceful critics.  The statement follows major lobbying by Amnesty International and other international NGOs.  It is hoped that the statement could lead to stronger UN action such as a UN monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt’s human rights violations.
Egyptian authorities dismissed the joint statement as “groundless discourse based on inaccurate information.”  However, Amnesty sees it as a clear message to the Egyptian authorities that the world will no longer turn a blind eye to their relentless campaign to crush peaceful dissent.

Urgent Action

Egypt Feb 2021

Following his arrest on 1 February, researcher and master’s student Ahmed Samir Santawy was subjected to enforced disappearance for five days. During this time, security forces beat him and kept him blindfolded, while interrogating him about his social media engagement and academic research. On 6 February, the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered his detention pending investigations into terrorism-related charges. He has been denied contact with his family, raising concerns about his wellbeing and health amid COVID-19 outbreaks in Egypt’s overcrowded and unhygienic prisons.

If you join the Urgent Action Network you will be able support actions by letter or email for cases such as this.

Not Good News

Monk Wael Tawadros (known as Father Isaiah)  was at imminent risk of execution by the Egyptian authorities when Amnesty launched a campaign to stop his execution but unfortunately,  he was executed recently without notice to his family. He was subjected to serious human rights violations including enforced disappearance, torture and unfair trial. A court convicted and sentenced him to death in April 2019 on the basis of his torture-tainted “confessions”. The sentence was upheld on appeal.

Better News

Three staff members from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Mohamed Basheer, Karim Ennarah, and Gasser Abdel-Razek, respectively, Administrative Director, Criminal Justice Unit Director and Executive Director were arrested in late November 2020 after meeting with a number of western diplomats in Cairo. They were released on 3rd December 2020 after major international activity including Amnesty and UK officials. However they are still subject to travel bans and had their assets frozen.

Giulio Regeni: latest news

We are continuing to work on the long term case of Giulio Regeni, a murdered Italian student working in Egypt for a Cambridge University PhD and who was almost certainly killed by the security forces in 2016.
The recent news that the Italian prosecutors have formally charged several named Egyptian security officers with his murder and a trial will take place in Italy. Their trial will be in abstentia as the cooperation of Egypt is needed to bring them to  court. Nevertheless this is a step forward and shows that this is still an active issue in Italy. We have been asked to  continue to write letters and we have issued revised draft letters to the Writing Group

We are continuing to work with the Cambridge Amnesty group who marked, in January 2021, the 5thanniversary of his murder, with a vigil. We  sent a Christmas card, on behalf of the Norwich group, to his family expressing solidarity and our support.

If you wish to join the writing group working on this case the contact is chair@norwichamnesty.org.uk

Activist Survey

The Activism Sub Committee of the Board is overseeing the survey on the demographics of AIUK lead activists.
We  have completed the survey and await feedback from Amnesty UK.

We have just issued our own membership survey. See details later in this summary

Amnesty East Anglia Region

A group for Amnesty UK activists in East Anglia  has recently been formed by AIUK to coordinate and help links between individual local groups.
Racism at the International Secretariat  and AIUK   Received from AIUK
I am sorry to let you know that we have had some media coverage in relation to accounts of racism at the International Secretariat and at Amnesty UK It’s possible that you may have already seen the articles in The Guardian  but in case you have not, I wanted to bring it to your attention  so that you are not caught unawares if approached by friends and family on this. This link is here, but please do only read this if you want to.
AI UK was already planning to implement antiracist training and education widely across the organisation and we await more information about this very important matter.  The current CEO  Kate Allen has recently retired and a reorganisation of the UK office is underway and which will we expect to  deal with this as a matter of urgency.

Ian Gibson

I am sure that many of you will now be aware of the very sad news that Ian Gibson,  a longstanding supporter of Norwich Amnesty, has died at the age of 82. There is a very comprehensive obituary in the Guardian and online.

New immigration Bill

Amnesty UK provided a detailed guide on how to respond to the recent government consultation paper and several committee members spend some time in completing this complex document which we hope will improve this legislation.

Amnesty Children’s Human Rights Network

The Norwich Group supports a variety of actions including an ongoing action for Aser Mahomed who was arrested when 14 years old and imprisoned in 2019 following a confession extracted under torture.

Aser Mohamed

In October 2019, a criminal court sentenced Aser to 10 years’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood group and attacking a hotel in January 2016.  He was 14-years-old at the time of his arrest.
Aser’s lawyer filed a cassation request to the criminal court at the end of 2019 and is still waiting for the court to set a hearing date. The process usually takes 12 to 18 months.  No hearing date has been set.
Aser suffers from a chronic allergy which gives him respiratory problems.
In February 2021, Aser was transferred to Liman Tora prison to take his exams. His sister has visited him and reports him feeling desperate and sad, and being thinner with black rings round his eyes.
Amnesty International is calling for the Egyptian authorities to quash his conviction, immediately release him and launch investigations into his enforced disappearance and torture allegations.

Several members and supporters wrote on Universal Children’s Day 20th November 2020 to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the case as part of Amnesty UK Children’s Human Rights Festival November 20th – 22nd and took part in the online sessions.

As part of the AIUK strategic plan for the next 10 years the Children’s Network will become an element of a developing Youth Strategy aimed at bringing more young people into the organisation as activists. There is more detail about this in the Resolutions  being considered at the AGM  on 19thJune. See Ordinary Resolutions 01,04 and 05.

News from Amnesty UK

We receive a  quarterly  newsletter,  “Amnesty Local Groups News” which has lots of ideas about fundraising and information about events and actions by groups around the country. It is now online rather than hard copy   which we used to distribute at open meetings.    The May 2021 edition includes a photo of a Norwich amnesty action on the front page.

The  link  to a PDF version is below;  http://email.amnestyuk.org.uk/files/amf_amnesty/project_58/GNL_Spring_2021_for_web.pdf

Digital Training

Amnesty are offering training in how to use social media in our work.  We are lucky to have an active member who manages our website and twitter account but the committee would benefit from help from other media savvy members and supporters so if you are interested in this training please contact us, on Chair@norwichamnesty.org.uk

National  AGM

19-20 June 2021

The 2021 AGM will be a digital event hosted at the Amnesty UK offices in London Amnesty members will have received voting information about this recently.

Kashmir

Norwich put forward  a resolution at the 2020 AGM on the situation in Indian administered Kashmir which was approved and passed to the International Secretariat who must approve any campaign. The IS have recently responded that they do not have plans to take any action, partly because the AI India office has been closed by the government.  We hope that our government use their influence to persuade the Indian government to allow Amnesty to reopen the office and to operate freely and this may allow Amnesty to  carry out research and consider a campaign about Kashmir.

Amnesty UK Future Strategy 2022-2030

The Amnesty UK Board have developed a draft Strategy for 2022 -30 for consideration at the 2021 UK AGM on 19th June and the Global AGM later in the year. The Norwich committee received initial consultation papers but with very little time to respond to a long and complex documents and we were unable to do so. We believed that there would be a second round consultation but in fact the reviewed document was approved by the UK Board in March and is contained in Ordinary Resolution 01 which is being considered at the AGM in June. The nature of the organisation will change quite radically so it is worth looking at the  resolution.

You can access the resolutions at:

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2021-04/AGM%202021%20resolutions.pdf?rBK5e3I4I_n2MX_0Pv0WX2Crs23oye7d=

or search” Amnesty AGM 2021 Resolutions”

The priorities set out in the strategy are;

• Economic Social and Cultural Rights
• Antiracism
• Freedom of Expression
• Human Rights  Frameworks
• Individuals and communities at risk
• Human Rights Crises

Amnesty National members will have received the information about the AGM  and can respond as individuals by voting on all the resolutions. The Norwich committee will consider a group response to Ordinary Resolutions 01-06.
National amnesty members can contribute to this by emailing their views  to chair@norwichamnesty.org.uk  by Monday 7th June.

Fundraising and Finance

Fundraising has not been possible during the lockdown and we hope to reinstate our fundraising activities over the next few months.

Christmas Cards

In the past we have sold Amnesty Christmas cards through the Charity Card outlet More information to follow about sales in 2021

Street Collection

A date of Saturday 2nd October has been booked with the City Council   More information to follow.

Quiz and Dips

This was suspended during the lockdown but we hope to reinstate it later in the year.

Future Events and Activities

Write for Rights

We regularly support the national annual Amnesty campaign where we meet and write letters and postcards to governments and to Prisoners of Conscience. We have booked St Peter Mancroft as the venue on Saturday 11th December.

Peace Vigil

This is held outside St Peter Mancroft on the first Saturday of each month and has been subject  to Covid restrictions.

Some Amnesty members attend this monthly silent vigil to raise awareness of global issues around the subject of Peace. It is organised by the Norwich Quakers and can normally be joined without needing to book. Please check with Quaker website  for details of forthcoming vigil dates. https://norwichpeace.org/?page_id=4056

Cambridge Amnesty Zoom meetings

A number of  Zoom talks were arranged by Cambridge Amnesty last year and some Norwich members took part and reported that they were excellent.
Details of a future talk is noted below.

Cambridge Amnesty

The talk coming up next is  on Artificial Intelligence used in Surveillance in USA and China is on 10 June.

Please see details at:

• https://www.amnesty.org.uk/groups/cambridge
• Email Sue Woodsford for the link: sue.woodsford@ntlworld.com

All are welcome to these free talks.

Norwich Amnesty 50th anniversary

This significant milestone coincides with the 60^th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International in  May 1961 and the committee is considering how we might celebrate our  anniversary in Norwich. More information to follow.

Amnesty Bookshop

The good news is that the bookshop on the Unthank Road has reopened after the lockdown and welcomes customers and donations.

Membership Survey

We have just issued a short online survey to the 140 or so people who are on our local  amnesty members and supporters mailing list. It should take less than 5 minutes to complete and will help the committee plan future events and the information that we send.

https://www.norwichamnesty.org.uk/membership-review-2021/

Please complete the survey if you can.

We hope that you find this summary useful. Please contact us if you need more information or have comments.

David Bissonnet

Chair Norwich Amnesty on behalf of the committee

Contact email:  chair@norwichamnesty.org.uk

During the Covid-19 period when physical Open Meetings do not take place a Summary of the items that would have been on the Agenda, together with information and updates is noted below and will be available on the Amnesty Norwich website below. We hope to have a physical meeting in the early New Year subject to Covid guidelines.

Web: www.norwichamnesty.org.uk
Contact Email: info@norwichamnesty.org.uk

Actions and letter writing by the Group

Write for Rights 2020

This years Write for Rights campaign starts in December with a range of cases you can take part in.

We won’t be able to have our usual day in Norwich for people to come and write with us but are hoping to arrange a virtual event.

You can see this years cases and how to take part on our specula Write for Rights page.

North Africa cases

The Norwich group supports the Amnesty North Africa region by working on cases mainly in Egypt, and some recent cases in Tunisia and Morocco. During the lockdown information about cases and sample letters are posted on the Group website,
We receive a monthly newsletter (or Ezine) from the North Africa Regional organiser, Debra Singer, with case information that we can use and in the September E-zine there are 3 Egyptian cases that can be supported:

1 Aser Mohamed – see below in the Children’s Network section

2 Ibrahim Ezz El -Din -a Housing Rights activist see below

3 Case 173 Azza Sollman – a lawyer and Woman Human Rights Defender

Ibrahim Ezz El-Din in prison in Egypt URGENT

We have been writing about Ibrahim for some time
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din’s birthday is on Sunday 15th November 2020. He will be 28. By then he will have been in prison in Egypt for 17months simply for standing up for housing rights.
To mark this occasion, Amnesty are planning a birthday Twitterstorm on Sunday 15th November 2020. This summary may not reach you in time to participate but there will be other opportunities to support Ibrahim.

The aim is to reach the Egyptian authorities with our message to free Ibrahim. We want them to know that we are concerned about him. In addition, we expect this message will reach his lawyers and family and they will tell Ibrahim himself so it will serve as solidarity.

This is a short film about the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE1WXKEdoLo&feature=share

We are continuing to work on the long term case of Giulio Regeni, a murdered Italian student working in Egypt for a Cambridge University PhD and who was almost certainly killed by the security forces in 2016. Updated information and addresses have been recently sent to the writing group supporting this case. If you wish to join the contact is chair@amnestynorwich.org.uk

Other Individual cases in Egypt that Norwich has supported included an
Urgent Action for detained lawyers Mohamed el-Baqer and Journalist Alaa Abdelfattah
Mohamed el-Baqer is a prisoner of conscience, held solely for his human rights work

Please join us on these ongoing actions Find information on the website or contact info@norwichamnesty.org.uk

Amnesty Children’s Human Rights Network

The Norwich Group supports a variety of actions including an ongoing action for Aser Mahomed who was arrested when 14 years old and given 10 years imprisonment in 2019 following a confession extracted under torture.

Recent message from Debra Singer the Egypt case coordinator

The 20th November is Universal Children’s Day.

Aser Mahomed

Please write to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at Office of the President, Al Ittihadia Palace, Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
Send a copy of your letter to the Egyptian ambassador to the UK- His excellency Mr Tarek Ahmed Ibrahim Adel, 26 South street, London, W1K 1DW)

Set out the background to Aser’s case and asking him on Universal Children’s Day to quash Aser’s conviction, to immediately release him and to launch an investigation into his enforced disappearance and torture allegations.

Further state that pending his release Aser should be provided with the means to communicate with his family and lawyers and that the authorities should take measures to protect Aser’s health. Aser suffers from a chronic allergy that causes respiratory difficulties which puts him at particular risk of Covid 19 according to the World Health Organisation’s list of vulnerable groups.
Thank you for your ongoing support for Aser.

Amnesty UK Children’s Human Rights Festival November 20th – 22nd

The Festival of Children’s Rights is made up of 3 online sessions, each exploring an issue of what it is like to be a child in the UK today. Register and book through the link below

Friday 20th November at 6pm: Children’s Voting rights
Children are one of the groups with the least political power globally, but decisions that are being made without our say are detrimental to our future. It is essential that all children and young people have the right to vote and participate in democracy if they so wish.
In this session, we will discuss barriers to children participating in the political process, and whether an age limit is intrinsically discriminatory.

Saturday 21st November at 12noon: Tackling Racism in Education
Racism is a serious human rights issue, impacting all areas of our lives, including the classroom. In this session we will be joined by ‘The Black Curriculum’ and ‘Kids of Colour’ to discuss their work and how we can tackle racism in education.

Sunday 22nd November at 12noon: Covid-19 and Children’s Rights
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives significantly, however children’s lives have been affected in many ways that were not discussed publicly. Many children have been denied their basic rights throughout the pandemic, such as right to food and shelter, right to education, right to family, right to leisure and right to safety. Despite this, children were not allowed to ask questions during major press conferences. Once again, children were disempowered and not heard.

In this session, children will be able to ask questions about the Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s plans to uphold their rights that they were not given the opportunity to ask throughout the pandemic. MPs from different parties will be answering those questions.

(Adults will be able to participate but not ask questions).

Tickets
Tickets are available for each session individually, so to attend all three, please book tickets for each. The tickets are separated into adults and under 18s to ensure that under 18s are most attendees, please book the appropriate tickets for you.

News from Amnesty UK

We receive a newsletter, for local and student groups’ Amnesty Groups News which has lots of ideas about fundraising and events from groups around the country. We expect to receive the Autumn edition soon but the latest one had some useful links such as;

• Home learning about Human Rights www.amnesty.org.uk/education-resourceswww.amnesty.org.uk/education-resources
• Free Online course in Human Rights and Covid www.acdemy.amnesty.org/learnwww.acdemy.amnesty.org/learn

Amnesty UK Future Strategy 2022-2030

The Amnesty UK Board are developing a draft Strategy for consideration at the 2021 Global AGM The Norwich Committee have received initial consultation papers and will comment. This will lead to further development of the strategy in the New Year. The papers are for Amnesty members only at the moment and contain some quite radical views about the future of the global and UK movement. If Amnesty members wish to have more information please contact chair@amnestynorwich.org.uk

Fundraising and Finance

Christmas Cards

We were selling Amnesty Christmas cards through the Charity Card outlet which this year is in St Peter Mancroft and is open from 20th October (but has now closed until 3rd Dec) until the 12th. The Amnesty Cards have all been sold but they will be on sale in the Amnesty Bookshop on the Unthank Rd which will be open until Christmas

Future Events and Activities

Write for Rights

Our regular support for the annual Amnesty campaign, where we meet and write letters and postcards to governments and Prisoners of Conscience, will be a virtual event this year possibly in conjunction with St Peter Mancroft. Details will follow. This year’s cases that you can write about, and the associated links are in the Norwich amnesty website and the campaign runs until 31st December.

Peace Vigil outside St Peter Mancroft on the first Saturday of each month. The next Vigil is Saturday 6th of December, 12 noon to 1pm. Some Amnesty members attend this monthly silent vigil to raise awareness of global issues around the subject of Peace and organised by the Norwich Quakers and which can be joined without needing to book.

Cambridge Amnesty Zoom meetings

A Zoom meeting arranged by Cambridge Amnesty took place on.12th November and was a talk by Paul Bridges on AI’s Anti-Death Penalty campaign., A longstanding Amnesty concern. For example, Egypt has executed103 people in 2020 so far and 59 since October!
Details of future talks will be provided

We hope that you find this summary useful Please contact us if you need more information or have comments

David Bissonnet
Chair Norwich Amnesty on behalf of the committee

Contact email chair@norwichamnesty.org.uk