Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

 Minutes of Meeting held on 11 Feb 2015

1. Present: Hetty Tye, Margaret George,  Wailim Wong,  Chris Ramsey,  Shirley Sweeney, Val,  Georgie Wong, Olivia Byass, Bud Byass.

2. Apologies :  Lucky Kaur, Robin Sellwood, Linnea Glynne-Rule, Karen Cooper, Megan Bridgeland,  Carys Hill.

3. Matters arising from the minutes of  14 Jan 2015:

   4.ii three second year and two first year students form truro College will be going to the regional Conference. 6.Wailim will contact Amelia to check she is still able to go to the Stop Torture training on 14 Feb. It was agreed to ask if such events could be done by teleconferencing. 9iii Karen has not heard back from Golden Tree Productions re staging of 'Even if we lose our lives'. Bud will contact Cube Theatre - Hetty will send her the transcript and guidance notes. 11v Chris spoke at the Baptist youth group and got a lot of cards signed.

4.  Secretary's report:

1. The Feb monthly action concerned the General Election and standing up for Human Rights. Margaret had ordered posters and pledge cards. We are urged to contact candidates to get them to support Human Rights. It was agreed that we would try to attend hustings rather than organising our own. There is a link on the AI website for contacting candidates on this. It was reported that 38 degrees are holding a meeting in Truro on 14 Feb and several members said they would try to attend.

2. The Planning Pack had arrived. Margaret and Hetty will get together to fill in the section about our commitments for 2015. There was also a document rounding up the work done on behalf of Afghan women.

3. Margaret had been contacted informally about whether we would want to have a stall at Truro Pride on 29 Aug. It was agreed that this would fit in well with the 'My body my rights' campaign.

   5.    Individuals at Risk:

1. Georgie had not had any reply from our cases in Central America. Tilly will be at the Regional Conference, so we can talk to her and see what else we might do.

2. On Egypt, Linnea had sent letters to sign on behalf of the 2 Al-Jazheera journalists who are to be retried (Peter Greste having been released and returned to Australia.)

6.  Stop Torture campaign:  Robin had contacted the cathedral about holding a silent vigil outside but had not made progress after it went 'to the board'. Chris will phone his contact and see what is possible. It was agreed that this does not have to be at Easter - it could coincide with out street collection, or be held elsewhere.

7. Israel and Occupied Palestinian territories:  i. Chris reported that the big issue is that Palestine has joined the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over the Occ Territories, so can investigate the actions of both Israel and the Palestinian Authorities. The US has passed a law saying that if the ICC investigates the Israelis it will stop paying aid to Palestine. Canada is also hostile. AI is very active lobbying other countries. ii. There was a letter to sign on behalf of Abdullah Abukramer and activist who is a prisoner of conscience who was convicted after children were persuaded to sign statements written in Hebrew. iii. Chris has contact with a Spanish group also working on the villages which are repeatedly having houses demolished. iv. Chris had emailed Falmouth Poly re showing 'Open Bethlehem' but no response as yet. v. in March there will be action on water rights in the Occ Territories.

8. Xmas stalls: we discussed the outcome of the 3 stalls in 2014 (document attached). It was suggested that we might try having a stall just for signing cards, eg in Lemon St Market, or a suitable cafe. Agreed to look into this.

9. Future events:

1. 21 Feb SW Regional Conference in Exeter. Several members will be attending. Margaret Wailim and Hetty will get there early to help set up.

2. Chris hopes to attend the AGM, 18-19 April.

3. Truro street collection is booked for 6 June.

4. Margaret will contact Truro City Council re another Mayor's Coffee morning late June or early July. Also contact Falmouth to see if they do similar.

   10.   Treasurer's report:  Linnea had sent copies of the annual accounts, plus a commentary which was discussed. Copies of these documents are attached.

   11. AOB:

         Wailim has written an article about our group for the next edition of the Truro magazine.

   12. Next meeting: this will be on 11 March.