Scottish Human Rights

Update 9/8: Our comedy podcast’s now on iTunes , so it’s super-easy to subscribe. What are you waiting for? So, you’ve heard about our hilarious new comedy podcast we’re producing for the Edinburgh Festival with The Guardian . But you...

Sometimes its nice to get out of the office and onto the streets – gets you back in touch with what this campaigning mallarky is all about. Yesterday marked two years in jail for Binayak Sen – a remarkable man who has spent decades...

Amnesty is going all arty in Aberdeen this month. First up is the We Are All Born Free exhibition , part of Amnesty’s celebrations of the recent 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The UDHR was signed on...

Yes, the Scottish blog is back after a wee break. Sorry, there just haven’t been enough hours in the day (or days in the week for that matter). One of the things that’s been keeping me busy is the launch of the exciting new interactive...

Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1982 for the murder of white police officer Daniel Faulkner on 9 December 1981. Although he has consistently maintained his innocence he has spent almost all of the last 26...

I had a lovely three weeks off around Christmas and New Year. Didn’t do much except enjoy the good things in life – food, drink, books and company. So my initial response to the alarm clock on Monday morning was that surely here was a...

The 60 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday means that its been a heck of a busy week. We kicked it off with the " Our World – Our Rights " conference last Saturday. 150 folk gathered in the (rather...

Anniversaries. You know for ages that they’re coming up and then suddenly you’re dashing around at the last minute looking for a suitable demonstration of your affections. Apparently the 60th anniversary is the diamond one but while...

In last week’s blog I told how myself and Bernard O’Hear (Amnesty’s Country Co-ordinator for China) weren’t allowed to present the Chinese Consulate with 2,500 campaign postcards collected in support of Hu Jia during the Edinburgh...

We’ve been waiting for ages for the Chinese Consulate to respond to our invitation to discuss our Edinburgh Festival campaign for imprisoned human rights campaign Hu Jia . During this year’s Festival 2,500 people filled in action cards...

My in-laws are Polish. They live, perhaps not surprisingly, in Poland. I remember visiting a couple of years back and being in the company of some friends/acquaintances (can’t quite remember) who had a small child. My own little girl...

Latin. I could never be doing with it. Granted it was never seen as a core subject at my comprehensive school in Glasgow and somehow I managed to miss a lot of the token Tuesday afternoon classes – for which you would probably get an...

Amnesty's Scottish office has uncovered evidence of a case of extraordinary rendition in Scotland. Admittedly the extra-judicial transfer for the purposes of torture took place in 1684. And the barbaric state willing to sanction the...

Educating our kids – it’s a big business, but its so much more than that. And so it was that the intrepid Amnesty team found themselves at the Scottish Learning Festival – an annual conference to enhance the learning and teaching...

So U Win Tin is finally free. The 78-year old, Burmas longest serving political prisoner, had experienced harsh prison conditions for 19 years for calling for political change, but refused to accept an amnesty from the Government as to...

On Saturday 30 August, Amnesty joined thousands of people in support of LGBT rights in this year's Pride Glasgow march. It turned out to be the biggest Scottish Pride event on record, with a staggering 5000 people marching through the...

Just as soon as we get this Festival nonsense out of the way. Yes, with 34 events and two exhibitions the Edinburgh Festival is rather dominating life in Amnesty's Scottish office at the moment. There's also a daily Festival blog...

Until this year I’ve never had any particular reason to note July 25th in my diary. Now I have two birthdays marked in, although sadly there’s not a lot to celebrate. The first birthday is that of Hu Jia – the subject of this year’s...

Its pouring with rain, but not too cold, and my things-to-do list is as long as my arm. That means it must be July and the Edinburgh Festival is nearly upon us. How to describe our annual cultural jamboree without drifting off into...

On Tuesday I got the chance to get out of the office, away from all the “doing”, and join a group of academics at St Andrew’s University for a much needed chance to “think”. The group in question were psychologists from various...