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:
All are welcome to these free talks.
Norwich Amnesty 50th anniversary
This significant milestone coincides with the 60th 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