Belfast and Beyond

8:46am It may be Sunday morning after the Saturday night before, but there's a big crowd in the auditorium for the continuation of the great democratic process. AIUK's national conference isn't like a party political affair when the...

This session is chaired by James Savage, manager of AIUK's programme for individuals at risk , and presents an opportunity to hear directly from and to speak to some of those overseas human rights defenders on whose behalf and with...

5:30pm We are about to get serious – serious topics, serious votes. I'm already feeling seriously grumpy. I picked a 200/1 outsider for the Grand National in the Amnesty sweepstake. Then I missed the race (too busy protesting against...

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...

2:20pm Given the enormity of my cooked breakfast this morning, I really didn't need the pasta, chips, salad, carrot cake and two cups of coffee that constituted my lunch. But hey, a campaigner has to eat and at least it helped fuel my...

11:15am The four working parties are the fora where much of the substantive debate and discussion about each of the proposed resolutions takes place. It's where the key arguments for and against are put, where amendments (friendly or...

10:03am Glyn Isherwood, AIUK's treasurer, comes to the podium to lead us through our annual examination of the numbers. With economics dominating the world's headlines, backs are a little straighter and eyes a little less glazed-over...

9:10am Kate Allen, AIUK director takes the stage. She casts her mind back to 1999, one of the last times we gathered in Swansea. Amnesty's campaign for former-General Pinochet of Chile to be brought to justice; the refugee flows out of...

8:40am A powerful Amnesty video opposing torture is screened. A shocked set of delegates eventually remembers to applaud. Hell of a start to Saturday morning. AIUK Chair Tom Hedley welcomes delegates to the Taliesin theatre for the...

Do you want to support refugees and other immigrants? Can you be on call for one night per week from 5 PM until 9 AM? If so, then you could be a Refugee Action Group (RAG) helpline volunteer. The Refugee Action Group (RAG) is setting...

Amnesty's annual exercise in democracy is about to get underway. Yes, it's Grand National weekend and I find myself on a far-flung, redbrick university campus. It must be time for AIUK's National Conference and AGM. This year, 450...

Article 10, the right to peaceful protest, do we still have it in this country? Watching videos of the demonstration against the G20 yesterday, and the way it was handled by the police would make you doubt this. I know that there were...

BREAKING NEWS: Prof William Schabas, head of the Irish Human Rights Centre at NUI Galway and an authority on international justice, is reporting that, through a confidential source in the Registry of the International Criminal Court...

Gathering intelligence – the story so far Final session of the SDLP seminar on 'Policing and its oversight at times of threat', held Belfast, March 28 2009. Report continued from: 'Is this the start of our troubles?' Brian Rowan is a...

Its always a very difficult tight-rope to walk between cultural sensitivity and insisting that the rights of women and minorities are respected. However I will come down firmly on the side of upholding human rights, this is...

(continued from 'How do we respond to a time of threat? Lawfully.' ) Dame Nuala O'Loan is a solicitor and former law lecturer and was Northern Ireland's first Police Ombudsman from 1999 to 2007. She is the Irish government's special...

Policing and oversight at times of threat – how to respond (report continued from: Omagh: 'You can kill 31 people and get away with it' ) Chaired by Margaret Ritchie MLA, this was the second of three sessions presented at the SDLP...

The Omagh bombing, the Panorama programme and the needs of victims (report continued from Omagh bombing: 'Sir Hugh can't have it both ways' ) Michael Gallagher lost his 21 year-old son Aiden in the Omagh bomb . With other families he...

The Omagh bombing, the Panorama programme and the needs of victims Chaired by Alban Maginness MLA, this was the first of three sessions presented at the SDLP seminar, 'Policing and its oversight at times of threat', held on Saturday in...

John Ging looks and sounds like someone you know well already, his was the voice of outrage over the extremities of the gaza incursion in January 2009. John Ging, Director Operations in Gaza for the UN Refugee and Works agency ex Irish...