Next meeting Monday 20 Nov

ALL WELCOME TO TALK ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA

All are warmly welcome to our meeting this coming Monday 20 November, 7.30pm when we'll be hosting a talk with Q&A about the current human rights situation in India, given by Cherry Bird, Amnesty UK's Country Coordinator for India. The venue is Friends Meeting House, Horse Fair, Banbury OX16 0AH (next to Church House Restaurant). 

Amnesty International is currently not able to operate in India, such have been the restrictions on its activity. Whether Amnesty can operate freely in a country can be taken as a pretty strong indicator of the human rights environment there. Amnesty's most recent  overall review of India, for 2022, says:

Laws and policies that were passed without adequate public and legislative consultation eroded the rights of human rights defenders and religious minorities. The government selectively and viciously cracked down on religious minorities, and explicit advocacy of hatred by political leaders and public officials towards them was commonplace and went unpunished. Punitive demolitions of Muslim family homes and businesses were carried out with impunity. Peaceful protesters defending minority rights were presented and treated as a threat to public order. Repressive laws including counterterrorism legislation were used rampantly to silence dissent. Authorities intimidated human rights defenders using digital technologies, including unlawful surveillance. Adivasis and marginalized communities including Dalits continued to face violence and entrenched discrimination.

There are various areas of current campaigning activity in response to this situation, including in relation to human rights violations in Kashmir, with which our Group has been involved. Cherry will be covering these as part of her talk.

We hope you'll be able to attend. Please feel free to bring friends and family members along. It's not necessary to be an Amnesty member or to have attended any of our meetings before.