AGM '09: 'Show of voting cards, please' - individuals at risk & Burma (#7)

5:00pm  After the preparatory debates in the working parties of earlier today, the conference now moves on to take resolutions in plenary session and to either endorse or discard the proposals.

First up for debate are two fairly non-controversial motions about re-emphasising the work that local AI groups can carry out on behalf of individual victims of human rights abuse.

The second resolution is proposed by a man whose own father was once a prisoner of conscience in Latin America and who had benefitted from Amnesty campaigning on his behalf. AIUK has other, formal mechanisms for communicating the decisions of its annual conference, so I don't intend to compete by detailing here the outcomes of these or subsequent votes.

Next for discussion is a motion calling for greater prioritisation of campaign work on Burma, given the parlous state of human rights in that part of south-east Asia. The applause which greets the speech from a local group member proposing the motion is pretty resounding.

However, an AIUK Board member outlines some of the potential difficulties which the resolution could generate, such as a confusion between the role of national sections and the international secretariat in lobbying the UN and the possible clash with other priority campaigns over the coming year. Such are the difficult choices which the AGM is empowered to make.