news from north of the border

It’s on days like this when us London-based folk take our hats off to our colleagues north of the border: if ever there were a group of people who knew how to multi-task, it’s Amnesty’s Scotland office. 

While maintaining Amnesty’s high-profile presence at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival with deft and grace, yesterday the Scotland team published a major report about the impact of trafficking in Scotland which generated oodles of coverage.

The Herald gave the story a prize spot by placing the story on its front page while one of our colleagues, Naomi McAuliffe graced the sofas of GMTV in Scotland.

Meanwhile today the team have announced the great short-list of the plays that have been submitted for Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award – a prize we award each year to the plays which contribute to increasing the general public’s human rights awareness.

Speaking of expressing human rights issues through drama, Amnesty’s gearing up to award another theatrical competition for this year.  The Protect The Human playwriting competition is in its second year and has already received more than 125 scripts.  The range of plays submitted has been incredible: from the impact of domestic violence to the human cost of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

I don’t envy the judges who include the excellent actor Chiwetal Ejefor, (who I greatly admire – read that anyway you like!) and Amnesty’s Dan Jones. They’ll decide on the finalists and then the winning play, which will be announced on 10 December.

We’ll keep you posted.

Til the next time