Minutes of Group Meeting February 9th 2015

Attending: Paul, Helen, Claudia, Paddy, Beatrice, Elizabeth, Thierry.

Apologies: Carmel, Liz, Pearse, Carolyn, Leo.

Minutes: January minutes were noted. There were no comments .

Group Planning Pack 2015:

The group agreed to continue working on My Body, My Rights: Stop Torture:  IAR Jacqueline Montanez:  receive Urgent Actions: write actions every 3 months on West Africa: write actions approx. every 3 months on Jayyus village & El Salvador disappeared sisters.

Action:

The group wrote actions for the Peruvian land rights case of  Maxima Acuna whose family is facing threats & forced eviction.

Quiz:

Carolyn has produced a flyer for the quiz which received  positive feedback from the group. It will be sent to the mailing list.

Stop Torture Walk:

Beatrice to email mailing list to try & determine numbers attending to organise transport. The walk is on 14^th March leaving Donard carpark at 10am.

Recent events:

NI Regional Conference. Very positive feedback from the group. Groups thoughts were that it was well attended, great location, very well organised.

Conscience Clause:  Elizabeth advised she’d attended the conscience clause demonstration.

Raif Badawi: A number of the group attended the vigil at the City Hall.

Upcoming events:

My Body, My Right: The launch will be 25^th February – further details will be emailed.

International Women’s Day : There will be a march “No peace Without Women” leaving Writers Square at 1pm.

March meeting: Claudia advised that Noa Kleinman, USA country coordinator will speak to the group in March about our IAR Jacqueline Montanez.

AIUK Conference & AGM  will be 18-19 April at University of Warwick.  Beatrice advised to anyone interested in attending to apply asap to try to get one of the local group concessionary places. The group will look at the resolution in April meeting.

Syria:

Paul discussed the group being involved with AIUK proposed work on Syria refugees. Martin McGuinness has spoken of NI taking in Syrian refugees so this is more on the agenda than in the past. Belfast NGOs are having a conference early May to discuss the issue. Further details to follow.