Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting held on 14 February 2018

1. Present: Margaret George, Georgie Wong, Karen Cooper, Chris Clarke, Meike Koops, Duncan Trotter.
2. Apologies: Wailim Wong, Linnea Glynne-Rule, Hetty Tye, Chris Ramsey. In the absence or Chris, Chris Clarke chaired the meeting.
3. Matters arising from the Minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2018: 7.i the Holocaust Memorial exhibition in the cathedral went well. There was a question raised as to whether it was well-enough publicised by the cathedral, eg there could have been a banner outside the cathedral inviting people in. 7.ii Chris had spoken at Callywith College and received a donation of £25.
4. Secretary’s report: i. Winter 2017 Groups News had arrived and was distributed. ii. Amnesty is organising a campaign to ‘celebrate the suffragette spirit’ which will be in the form of a map celebrating women who are Human Rights activists. It was agreed that we should nominate Georgie for this, in view of her long service to the work of Amnesty. iii. The Feb email for local groups included several actions to do via the internet, also news of the ‘Freedom to express yourself’ exhibition which ties in with the book of the same name which has just been published. It was agreed the we should enquire at Waterstones whether they could use the exhibition to promote the book. iv. The groups planning pack had arrived. We agreed to continue with all our current campaigns and additionally Meike will take the lead on the Women’s Action Network. The planning pack contains a useful calendar which highlights relevant dates through the year. We agreed to check it at each meeting.
5. Treasurer’s report: Karen has now taken over as treasurer. We have £1099.30 in the bank, having paid the rent and the affiliation fee and sent £400 to HQ. Karen hopes to change the bank account so that we can do internet banking. Margaret agreed to call at HSBC to ask about it there also about changing the signatures for cheques.
6. Death of Iris Warne, former group treasurer: Georgie spoke about Iris, who died on 14^th January. She was a founder-member of the Truro and Falmouth group, a fantastic fund-raiser and longstanding treasurer of the group. It was agreed to ask if supporters would like to give a donation in her memory, and suggested that any money raised should go towards buying new tables for our stalls (our current trestle tables being quite fragile). Margaret would ask supporters to do this, and meanwhile get a table before the next meeting so it can be decided if that is what we need.
7. Campaigns:

North Africa – no report as Hetty and Linnea were not present.

Central America – Georgie had brought letters to sign on behalf of a Mexican journalist..

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Chris had sent letters on an urgent action case concerning Khalida Jarrar, whose administrative detention order has been renewed.

Former Soviet Union – letters had been received from Russia about a case, and forwarded to Barrie Hay. Margaret had brought a copy of the FSU newsletter. Amongst a lot of bad news there was a positive article about Uzbekistan where according to Human Rights watch there have been positive steps taken towards Human Rights under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

1. Forthcoming events – Georgie has booked a street collection in Truro for Saturday 26^th May. She will approach the city council about getting a date for a Mayor’s Coffee morning.
2. AOB i.Chris had sent a petition (‘UK Protect Children’s Rights’) which is calling for the cost of children registering as  British citizen be reduced to the actual cost, introduce a fee-waver for those whose parents cannot afford the fee and charge no fee for children assisted by a Local Authority.

ii. the I welcome campaign is calling for MPs to support a Private Members Bill to be heard on 16^th March aimed at allowing child refugees and asylum seekers to be able to bring their family in to the UK. Margaret had already written to Sarah Newton about this but had no response. She would write again and encourage others to do so to their MP.

1. Next meeting will be on Wed 7^th Feb, 7pm at Sambells Café. NB this meeting has been moved forward as the church is not available on 14^th Feb.