Amnesty Local Groups – September 2020 Edition
Fears of abduction for Thai activist in exile
Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a Thai activist in exile, was reportedly abducted by unknown persons from outside his apartment building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A known dissident in Thailand, who often exercised his right to freedom of expression online in exile, Thai authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 2018. Wanchalearm Satsaksit is among nine Thai activists who sought exile in neighbouring countries, that have gone missing in recent years. Two of them are confirmed to have been killed. Cambodian authorities must thoroughly and effectively investigate his disappearance and seek to establish his whereabouts, as provided by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
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Lebanon Blast
Shortly after the devastating explosion in Beirut, Amnesty International called for an independent, international investigation, a crucial step towards ending the corruption and impunity in the country. We are currently working cosely with Lebanese human rights defenders to support them in their work and amplify their voices here in the UK. Please read and share these two blogs: “20 Minutes of Life and Death in Beirut”, by Rana Khoury, and “Lebanon: Drastic Problems require Radical Solutions” by Jon Dagher. We will keep you posted on how the work on Lebanon further develops.
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Hello from the Europe team!
We are three country coordinators: Helen, Anna and Ulrike, covering all of Europe including the Balkans and Turkey. We are campaigning for Women’s rights and LGBTQI Rights which are under threat in Poland. We are campaigning against discrimination and forced evictions of Roma communities throughout Europe and against police and vigilante violence. We are standing up for the rights of Refugees and Human Rights defenders and for justice and rule of law. One of our long term cases is Eren Keskin, a brave and principled Human Rights lawyer in Turkey. Eren has faced repeated harrassment from authorities just for doing her job, and she is now at risk of impriosnment. Another is Elzbieta Podlesna , fearless LGBT rights campaigner and activist charged with ”insulting religion” and threatened with 2 years in prison on absurd charges.
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Updates
Art as activism
Covid-19 stopped the Southampton City group meeting up, but not campaigning together. They collected photos on their daily walks and built three mosaics of Marielle Franco – the subject of one of the group’s case files. Marielle was a courageous human rights defender, she worked tirelessly to defend people’s dignity, especially that of the most marginalized. She was murdered in 2018. We are campaigning for an investigation to be carried out fully and transparently. The mosaics have been deposited in the ‘Covid-19 Stories’ collection of Southampton’s SeaCity Museum.
Local groups under lockdown
Local Groups have been forced to innovate during lockdown and many have managed to develop and learn. Ian Myson has written a blog for us explaining how the Banbury group have managed virtual meetings, the pros and cons, and talks us through the impact.
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Israel/ Palestine campaigning opportunity
We have had some positive developments in our local campaigns to bring about a prohibition of trade with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Now seems like a good time to approach your local authority on this issue, and we have prepared a template letter as well as a legal opinion. If this is a campaign you and your group are interested in, please contact Rebecca, Crisis and Tactical campaigner.
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Step up your activism!
The work of our Country Coordinator team is fundamental to what we all do as a part of Amnesty International. Working directly with Amnesty researchers, with local groups and with communities, our forum of around 50 Country Coordinators lead on almost all of our country work and Individual at Risk cases that fall outside of our priority campaigns, driving real human rights change worldwide. Do you want to get more involved with running campaigns across the UK? We’re currently recruiting for several positions in the CC forum.
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Annual General Meeting Key Dates
- Board Q&A:
14 – 27 September - Resolutions virtual discussion:
Saturday 19 September 9am –6pm - Proxy votes deadlines:
Vote opens 21 August / Vote closes 9am on 8 October - Date of the AGM:
Saturday 10 October 10 – 11am
Visit amnesty.org.uk/agm for all AGM information or contactagm@amnesty.org.uk