The Conference weekend was inspiring, uplifting, stimulating and tiring. Two of of us took Horsham Amnesty's group vote to the AGM

and used the weekend to take part in workshops, discussions and debates.  We were inspired by courageous human rights defenders such as Reem al-Assil from the Syrian Non Violence movement who lit the candle and opened the conference with a very moving speech remembering a friend and fellow activist who had been tortured and killed in Syria. 

We attended the working parties and listened to the passionate debates on the resolutions. The full decisions are available to read by opening the document "AGM Decisions" which you will find below.

It was difficult to decide which workshop to sign up to. In the end we chose "Afghan Women: in the news for the wrong reason" and "India: empowering and protecting human rights defenders in coal-mining areas" and will report back on what we heard to the next meeting. 

Mark Thomson, chair of the APT (Association for the Prevention of Torture) gave the keynote speech focusing on Amnesty's new "Stop Torture" campaign due to begin in May.