Amnesty UK AGM Sheffield - 22 June 2024

Our Chair attended this year’s AIUK AGM in Sheffield, on behalf of the Sutton Group (and as the newly appointed London Region Activism Representative). The AGM was a one-day event, which was originally scheduled to last for two days. Attendance was up at around 140 compared to 2023, with a further 30-40 online.

Jaz O’Hara from The Worldwide Tribe spoke briefly about her work with refugees, especially those from Eritrea. Dr Anjhula Bais, Chair of the International Board, spoke about the structure of Amnesty, and said “local activism is the heartbeat of our movement.”

Sen Raj (Chair of the Board), Sacha Deshmukh (CEO), Andy Townend (Treasurer) and Owen Collins (Chair, Building a Powerful movement subcommittee) all gave their reports. Main points were:

• Amnesty has 70 Sections, but only covers one third of the World’s population
• Several Sections are unable to fundraise directly
• The AIUK Charitable Trust gave £9M in 2023 and £10.5M in 2024 to Amnesty work around the World
• And is the third largest contributor of funds after the Netherlands (largest) and the USA Sections
• There will be more focus on growing activism, both locally and nationally

The main business of the day was debating 14 resolutions, 9 of which were submitted by local groups working closely with the Amnesty Futures lobby group. Resolutions that were carried include (Resolution # and pass rate %):

• O2 The International Secretariat to be asked to research into indigenous communities in Guyana (97%)
• O3 AIUK to continue to give significant priority to worldwide Individuals at Risk work (99%)
• O4 AIUK to increase the scale of regional / country-focused campaigning by AIUK members and activists (97%)
• O5 AIUK to improve communications between local groups and national members (99%)
• O6 AIUK to put in place a full-time Local Groups Officer, together with a system of effective monitoring of local groups (97%)
• O7 AIUK to introduce a series of digital campaigning workshops for beginners (97%)
• O8 AIUK to put in place a Training Programme for local groups and other activists (99%)
• O9 AIUK to seek urgent measures to support, re-vitalise and increase the number of local groups (99%)
• O10 AIUK Board to request the AIUK Charitable Trust to delay the sale of the HRAC until a proper consultation has taken place (63%)
• E1 AIUK to reinstate the two-day AGM / National Conference format from 2025 onwards (95%)

Of these, Sutton’s two resolutions O6 and O7 were carried overwhelmingly. The main emphasis of most of the resolutions was to put in place a structure and resources to revitalize local groups and activism in general, and it is hoped the AIUK Board will implement these over the coming year. To help ensure this happens, three members of the Amnesty Futures lobby group were also appointed to the AIUK Board, and will take their seats in September.

As with all AGMs, there were plenty of opportunities to network with other activists, country coordinators and local groups. A good new feature this year was the “Activism Village”, in which all parts of AIUK were invited to have stalls. All the Country Coordinators World regions were represented, along with Theme Networks (e.g. Children’s, Anti-Racist, Feminist and Disability). Local Groups also had one stall, encouraging delegates to join their local group. At the end of the day, there was a Protect the Protest campaigning event (see picture).

All in all, definitely a good day for AIUK activism, and particularly for local activism!