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Edinburgh Festivals

Andrew Maxwell

The Edinburgh Festival is the biggest arts event in the world. And each year Amnesty International is right at the heart of it, with a non-stop programme of comedy, exhibitions, discussions and campaign actions. We make sure that your freedom of expression can be used to speak out for others.

Amnesty's At the Festival programme provides Festival-goers with a range of simple ways to stand side by side to fight for justice - through buying tickets for our comedy events, attending discussions with leading authors, taking action for our nominated Festival prisoner of conscience. Amnesty's At the Festival programme makes standing up for human rights easy, enjoyable and effective.

In 2008 we have expanded our activities again.

Events

We Are All Born Free exhibition'We are all born free'  Artists and illustrators from all over the world offer their personal interpretation of the articles, making them easy to understand for young readers. If you have missed the exhibition, you can still buy the book, which will be launched in October.

iyad'Heroes and Heroines' exhibition  This exhibition celebrated 12 men and women who have dared to speak out against human rights abuses in the face of repression. At a special showing, Kate Allen, director of Amnesty UK highlighted one of the Heroines of the exhibition: Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist and human rights activist, murdered in October 2006. Additionally, the Palestinian refugee poet, Iyad Hayatleh, read three of his poems in English and Arabic. See some pictures.

The exhibition also included profiles of Anushka Anastasia Solomon, Pablo Pacheco Avila, Shirin Ebadi, Chris Abani, Arundhati Roy, Shi Tao, Lydia Cacho, Wangari Maathai, Aung San Suu Kyi and Woeser. 

burma playThe Burma play: A comedy of terror  This tragicomic play related more than a century of Burmese history thanks to the comedians Cilla Baynes and David Bowen, with Omar Sattaur's musical accompaniment. It was also performed on the 8.8.08 at the City Chambers to mark the 20th anniversary of pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma. Find out more

Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK directorHow universal are human rights? A lecture that interrogates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its 60th year. What impact has this hopeful vision achieved? And what challenges stand in the way of fully achieving this goal? Find out more


SUFF
 Stand Up For Freedom The aim of these events was focused on China and this was a success: over 500 action cards for Chinese prisoner of conscience, Hu Jia, were signed and will be forwarded to the Chinese authorities. Besides, with the Cooperative Bank funding all the staging equipment and overheads, every penny raised went directly to fund Amnesty projects. Click here to see some pictures

Author Iain Banks Imprisoned writers series   Now firmly set as a Book Festival tradition, the Imprisoned Writers Reading invited contemporary writers to express their solidarity with persecuted authors around the world in reading a piece of their work (poem, speech, story...). This year, each day highlighted a different theme, referring to one article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Halima Bashir2Amnesty International lecture  This year, the Amnesty Lecture was delivered by Halima Bashir, a young doctor in Darfur who experienced appalling horrors before she escaped. She's published her autobiography, 'Tears Of The Desert', and in conversation with her co-author, the journalist Damien Lewis, she recounted key episodes from a life that has swung from happy (if materially deprived) village childhood, to traumatised early adulthood and latterly to a (heavily qualified) contentment in at least being able to tell her tragic story.

Image of Amnesty bloggers logoFestival Blog This year we will utilise Amnesty's smashing new blog platform to present daily news, views and gossip from the front line of our Edinburgh Festival activity.

slaveScotland's Slaves Report  At a discussion on the 20th August, Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK introduced the latest Amnesty report on people trafficking in Scotland. Click here to download the report. Click here for background information on people trafficking.

Freedom of expression award winners 2008Freedom of Expression Award  This year, the winner of the Freedom of Expression Award is 'Deep Cut'. The play related the story of four young soldiers who died from gunshot wounds at Deepcut Barracks between 1995 and 2002, and of their parents' campaign for an inquiry into the deaths. Find out more

Festival Campaign

human rights activist Hu Jia

Each year our Amnesty at the Festival programme highlights one remarkable individual who has been persecuted for no other crime than the peaceful expression of their views - and provides Festival goers with the chance to do something about it.

This year we were promoting the case of Hu Jia, a human rights actvist who has been charged with 'inciting subversion', in what appears to be the latest attempt by the Chinese authorities to silence domestic activists' public criticism of China's human rights record.

During the Festival, we successfully collected over 2300 signed cards, which will be forwarded to the Chinese consulate in Edinburgh. You can still take action!

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Contact

For press information including our Festival Press Pack please contact John Watson on scotland@amnesty.org.uk or +44 (0)844 800 9088.