Weekly Action and News 12/08/2022
Manchester Amnesty Weekly Action and News
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China: Missing and Arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang.
48 individuals from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups have been allegedly interned in camps or sentenced without a fair trial and sent to prison in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). They have been included in the Free Xinjiang Detainees campaign bringing the total to 120 individuals. These cases are representative of the perhaps 1 million or more men and women estimated to have been detained in the region since 2017. The Chinese authorities must immediately release all people arbitrarily detained in internment camps and in prisons in Xinjiang.
Event this weekend
Sunday, 14th August, 2-3pm, St Anne’s Square, the refugee subgroup will hold our final craftivism – inspired “orange heart” event to raise awareness about rights of refugees. We will be joined by members of Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) who spoke at our April meeting. We will display our banner and hearts (which link via a QR code to information about refugees) for an hour. Then we will take the hearts down and give them away to passers-by. Please join us. More information from alison.wearden@gmail.com
Group activities
A free music event took place at Overdraught Manchester in Levenshulme on 6th August, in support of Julian Assange and other whistleblowers. There was information about press freedom and censorship, and Manchester Amnesty member Lima Al-iskalachi addressed the crowd.
Forthcoming Manchester Amnesty events – Save the dates!
Saturday 27th August, 12-4pm Manchester Pride Parade. Please watch the weekly newsletters for details of when and where the Manchester Amnesty contingent will meet. All are welcome
A guided walk led by Steve Roman, to raise funds for Manchester Amnesty, will take place on Saturday 8 October, from 1.30-3.30pm. The accessible walk will cover sites connected with the growth of Manchester as the world’s first industrial city and its importance as a centre for peace and radical political activity, focussing on Human Rights. We will provide details of the walk, including the cost (likely to be around £7.50) and how to book your place, in a future newsletter.
Good news
Three lots of good news from the USA this week.
On August 1, 2022, following a complaint by Amnesty International USA, the New York Police Department was ordered to release data on the use of facial surveillance technology against Black Lives Matter protesters.
On August 3, 2022, with 58 percent of votes cast, voters in the state of Kansas rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s abortion law that would have severely restricted the right of access to abortion.
On August 1, 2022, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentence passed in 2005 in South Carolina on Quincy Allen, and decided that his sentence should now be determined at a new hearing. The judge who issued the death sentence did not consider various extenuating circumstances, including a childhood marked by violence and the defendant’s learning difficulties.
Manchester Amnesty Subgroups and other work
If you would like to join any of our subgroups, please contact the current convenors for joining details.
UAE – Kathryn Fletcher, bussk@btinternet.com.
Anti-racism – Hazel Errey, hazelerrey@gmail.com,
Refugees – Alison Wearden, alison.wearden@gmail.com
HR in UK – Matthew Sherwood, m.j.sherwood@outlook.com
Craftivism - Kathryn Fletcher bussk@btinternet.com.
Other areas of work are led by:
Crisis and Tactical Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen Rebecca Shaw, r.h.shaw.7@gmail.com
Europe/ Turkey, Fatih Segmen, fsegmen@yahoo.com
Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians Mike Reed mikewreed101@gmail.com
Individuals at Risk (quarterly letter writing) Anne Walker anne.walker9@ntlworld.com
LGBTQ rights – Manchester Pride 2022 coordinator – Steve Lindsay stevenjameslindsay@gmail.com
Alison Wearden
Communications Secretary
Manchester Group of Amnesty International
Please contact me with items for our Weekly Action and News email, or with ideas for longer articles for the quarterly Manchester Amnesty Group Bulletin.
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