Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting. 13 January 2016

Present: Georgie Wong; Chris Ramsey; Megan Bridgeland; Wailim Wong; Karen Cooper; Linnea Glynne-Rule; Chris Clarke

Apologies: Margaret George; Rosy Bott; Shirley Sweeney Hetty Tye;

1. MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

• It was reported that Amnesty International’s financial year ended in December
  
   

1. TREASURER'S REPORT

• 2015’s accounts are ready and will be emailed. Our expenditure exceeded our income by approximately £100 – but 2014’s  income was boosted by help from students during street collections + the fundraising Stop Torture concert
• £264.44 was made from the sale of Amnesty goods and Christmas cards
• We still need to pay our 2015 affiliation fee to Amnesty + send £200 contribution
• At present there is approx £1300 in the account
• It is difficult to calculate exact income from donations collected on stalls
  
   

1. Campaigns:

1. North Africa:

• Write for Rights campaigned on behalf of Ali Arass (Morocco). Linnea will send a card

1.  Central America:

Mexico

• Cristel Piña  has been acquitted and released from jail.  A full investigation into her complaint of torture is still pending.
• Yecenia Armenta, who has spent 3 1/2 years in prison for a crime she did not commit, will turn 40 on 3 February. We signed a card for her

Guatemala

• 12 members of US Congress wrote a letter to interim President, Alejandro Maldonado urging him to ensure the protection of human rights defenders at the El Tambor mine, operated by a local subsidiary of US-based mining firm Kappes, Cassiday & Associates. It also called for an investigation into the assassination attempt on activist Yolanda Oquelí.
• Women’s groups met to discuss the repres­sion and violence facing women rights defenders, especially indigenous women. They focused on the links between violence against women and Guate­mala’s business model based on privati­zation, mining and exploitation of natu­ral resources. According to Global Witness, Guatemala is one of the 10 most dangerous countries for land and environmental activists

Mexico and Honduras

• Both on list of top 10 deadliest countries for journalists. Of the 110 journalists murdered in 2015, 8 were killed in Mexico and 7 in Honduras.  Mexico ranked seventh and Honduras tied for eighth place
• The recent Central America newsletter has been emailed to us

1. Israel/Palestinian Territories

• Open Bethlehem Project have made  Jimmy Carter,  Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai  citizens of Bethlehem and have issued them with Bethlehem passports.

1. Stop Torture

• Brief discussion on repeating last year’s action – possibly at The Drummer statue

1. My Body, My Rights

• Lucky is compiling possible campaigns – these will be discussed next meeting
  
   

1. FUTURE EVENTS

1. Street Collections: 

• proposed a Saturday in June (not 25) for Truro and Sep for Falmouth. Discuss combining these with more events

• Wailim to investigate festivals in Cornwall with view of having stalls

1. Regional conference

• Programme will be emailed shortly
• Speakers include:
• Human Rights defender from  Kyrgyzstan, based at York University project
• Steve Simons from AI – talk about AI’s approach to refugee crisis
• Ade Couper (AI Board) –AI future strategy and constitutional changes
• Delegates will be offered 2 sets of workshop which will  include: country coordinators from Morocco and China; drugs policy and Human Rights; Asylum Justice Campaign; growing our media presence; student groups etc
• Still need to decide on a street action

1. Venue for Future Meetings

• Decided to hold future meetings in Sambells Café, Truro Methodist Church which has range of appropriate facilities. Chris R to book this for 2016. Karen and Chris R to update social and printed media

1. AOB

• Chris R will attend regional reps meeting in London. Hoping to get feedback on abortion policy and more information on group planning pack
• Letter from Kate Allen celebrating success of many of AI’s campaigns looked at. Suggested we include this type of information on future information stalls

Next meeting, Wednesday, February 10^th, 2016

NEW VENUE: Sambells Café, Truro Methodist Church,    18 Union Pl, Truro, Cornwall TR12