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Minutes. January Meeting

Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting. 13 January 2016

 

Present: Georgie Wong; Chris Ramsey; Megan Bridgeland; Wailim Wong; Karen Cooper; Linnea Glynne-Rule; Chris Clarke

Apologies: Margaret George; Rosy Bott; Shirley Sweeney Hetty Tye;

 

  1. MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
  • It was reported that Amnesty International’s financial year ended in December

     
  1. TREASURER'S REPORT
  • 2015’s accounts are ready and will be emailed. Our expenditure exceeded our income by approximately £100 – but 2014’s  income was boosted by help from students during street collections + the fundraising Stop Torture concert
  • £264.44 was made from the sale of Amnesty goods and Christmas cards
  • We still need to pay our 2015 affiliation fee to Amnesty + send £200 contribution
  • At present there is approx £1300 in the account
  • It is difficult to calculate exact income from donations collected on stalls

     
  1. Campaigns:
  1. North Africa:
  • Write for Rights campaigned on behalf of Ali Arass (Morocco). Linnea will send a card
  1.  Central America:

Mexico

  • Cristel Piña  has been acquitted and released from jail.  A full investigation into her complaint of torture is still pending.
  • Yecenia Armenta, who has spent 3 1/2 years in prison for a crime she did not commit, will turn 40 on 3 February. We signed a card for her

Guatemala

  • 12 members of US Congress wrote a letter to interim President, Alejandro Maldonado urging him to ensure the protection of human rights defenders at the El Tambor mine, operated by a local subsidiary of US-based mining firm Kappes, Cassiday & Associates. It also called for an investigation into the assassination attempt on activist Yolanda Oquelí.
  • Women’s groups met to discuss the repres­sion and violence facing women rights defenders, especially indigenous women. They focused on the links between violence against women and Guate­mala’s business model based on privati­zation, mining and exploitation of natu­ral resources. According to Global Witness, Guatemala is one of the 10 most dangerous countries for land and environmental activists

Mexico and Honduras

  • Both on list of top 10 deadliest countries for journalists. Of the 110 journalists murdered in 2015, 8 were killed in Mexico and 7 in Honduras.  Mexico ranked seventh and Honduras tied for eighth place
  • The recent Central America newsletter has been emailed to us
  1. Israel/Palestinian Territories
  • Open Bethlehem Project have made  Jimmy Carter,  Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai  citizens of Bethlehem and have issued them with Bethlehem passports.
  1. Stop Torture
  • Brief discussion on repeating last year’s action – possibly at The Drummer statue
  1. My Body, My Rights
  • Lucky is compiling possible campaigns – these will be discussed next meeting

     
  1. FUTURE EVENTS
  1. Street Collections: 
  • proposed a Saturday in June (not 25) for Truro and Sep for Falmouth. Discuss combining these with more events
  • Wailim to investigate festivals in Cornwall with view of having stalls
  1. Regional conference
  • Programme will be emailed shortly
  • Speakers include:
  • Human Rights defender from  Kyrgyzstan, based at York University project
  • Steve Simons from AI – talk about AI’s approach to refugee crisis
  • Ade Couper (AI Board) –AI future strategy and constitutional changes
  • Delegates will be offered 2 sets of workshop which will  include: country coordinators from Morocco and China; drugs policy and Human Rights; Asylum Justice Campaign; growing our media presence; student groups etc
  • Still need to decide on a street action

 

  1. Venue for Future Meetings
  • Decided to hold future meetings in Sambells Café, Truro Methodist Church which has range of appropriate facilities. Chris R to book this for 2016. Karen and Chris R to update social and printed media

 

  1. AOB
  • Chris R will attend regional reps meeting in London. Hoping to get feedback on abortion policy and more information on group planning pack
  • Letter from Kate Allen celebrating success of many of AI’s campaigns looked at. Suggested we include this type of information on future information stalls

 

Next meeting, Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

NEW VENUE: Sambells Café, Truro Methodist Church,    18 Union Pl, Truro, Cornwall TR12

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