Report of Perth Amnesty Group’s activities 2020

Activities: Throughout this difficult year, month on month, members continued to write letters, emails, Facebook and Twitter posts and sign online campaigns and petitions in support of Human Rights Defenders and Individuals at Risk. We protested Human Rights violations in designated priority areas for the Perth Group’s priority regions; Middle East; North Africa/Horn and East Africa, as well as across the world.  Examples are cases in Egypt, Eritrea, Syria, Palestine, IOPT, Ethiopia, Iran, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the USA and the UK.

Meetings: The last face-to-face meeting was held in March 2020.  Thereafter our monthly meetings were online on ‘Teams’. As a Group we were able to follow through on most of our agreed activities for 2020, as above, and opportunities for taking on new and different challenges such as the designated IAR case for Saudi Arabia and Write for Rights.

Press:  One of our members, Barrie Rutherford, took up the position of Press Officer. He has been assiduous in getting articles posted in local newspapers e.g. the Perthshire Advertiser.

Fundraising: A highly successful walk of the Lairig Ghru raised £1,644 for which all those taking part must be commended.  A ramble as a welcome relief mid-lockdowns was organised for Group members not as a fundraiser though.  Sadly the April showing of ‘A Private War’ in the Norrie Miller Studio in collaboration with the Film Society had to be postponed.

Webinars: The Scotland Regional Coordinator, Mal Dingwall-Smith, organised a series of webinars on a range of pertinent Amnesty Human Rights activities and topics e.g. Policing in Scotland; Human Rights in Zimbabwe; Write for Rights – a special event to coincide with Human Rights Day.

Jane Gibreel, Chair, Perth Amnesty Group

January 2021