Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting held on 19 July 2014

1. Present:

   Amelia Scanlan,  Margaret George,  Linnea Glynne-Rule,  Hetty Tye,  Georgie Wong , Karen Cooper, Rosy Bott, Tim Clarey, Richard Price, Gavin Bark.

    

2. Apologies : 

   Chris Ramsey,  Robin Sellwood,  Wailim Wong , Lucky Kaur,  Shirley Sweeney.

    

3. Matters arising from the minutes of 11 June 2014:

   5. Kazbah Stop Torture music event. This was an excellent event which attracted a wide cross-section of the public. There was an excellent atmosphere. Amelia was thanked for the work she put in organising it, together with Karen who did the publicity. £233.20 was collected from entries and donations and a lot of action cards were signed.

   Mazey Day - Margaret and Shirl went over to help the Penzance group.

   Mayor's Coffee morning. This was also a success. We had plenty of plants, books and cakes for sale, and there were letters to sign on behalf of torture victims. It was attended by the Mayor, Loic Rich and the mayoress who were both interested in Amnesty's work. £83.02 was raised. Thanks to all who helped.

4.    Secretary's report:

1. The July monthly action concerned the International Day of the Disappeared and in particular an action on behalf of Khalil Ma'touq a Syrian Human Rights lawyer who disappeared  on 2 Oct 2012. Members each had their photo taken with a 'Free Khalil Ma'touq slogan, to be made into a  collage and sent to his family.

2. The summer copy of the Amnesty magazine had arrived

3. Margaret had been contacted by Sarah Newton MP, following the discussion Hetty and Lucky attended with her and the Minister for Modern Slavery,  asking  for help in selecting 2 young women to attend a conference on problems of violence affecting young women. Hetty and Margaret will attend on Sat. Amelia took the details as she knows some young women who may want to apply.

5.    Individuals at Risk:

1. Georgie had circulated the Central America newsletter, and reported that there were actions to do on Claudia Medina Tamariz, a torture victim in Mexico .

2. It was reported that Wailim had received details of the case of 3 women in Egypt, arrested at a university protest. After discussion as to whether we should take on this case, Linnea agreed to be the contact person.

3. As Chris was absent there was no report on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

4. Linnea had brought  letters to sign re our Turkmenistan case.

6.  Stop Torture campaign:

1. There is to be a 'Stop Torture' skills day on 4 Oct which Amelia hopes to attend

2. Hetty had heard from Gitty about an online appeal about Uzbekistan. Amelia will contact Gitty to see if there is more information/ actions on this.

3. Karen had heard of an action in Belgium which seemed effective - a popup shop called Toolz, which was a display of the ordinary everyday things used by torturers . She also suggested that we could mount  a vigil outside the cathedral, showing the names of countries which have signed that they will not use torture but in fact they do.

7. Future events :

1. 23 August - bookstall in Lemon Street market. For this we need books and helpers. A rota was started by Georgie. It will run from setting up at 9 until taking down at 3.00. It was agreed to sort out the books at Robin's on Thursday 21 August at 10.00 am.

2. It was agreed to try to have a street collection in Falmouth on 11 October, and Xmas stalls in Truro on 22 Nov and 13 Dec. We already have a stall booked for the Mayor's Charity event on 6 Dec.

3. August - Margaret has spoken to Giles Horne re booking a bookstall in Lemon Street Market. He is checking the diary and will get back to us.

4. Autumn event at Tremough - showing of film 'Echo the pain of many' -Georgie has contacted Georgia Booth to try to get dates when she could come down.

    

   8.   Treasurer's report:

   Linnea reported that with the money collected recently we will have £1332.28 in the bank. We may need some of this for expenses in organising an autumn event, and we also need to pay for Xmas cards when we order them. Linnea said that some members still do not realise that the sub has gone up to £7.50.

    

   9. AOB

   Margaret had been looking into the availability of banners/flags we could purchase for the group and had sent a link to Karen. She suggested group members look out for such things (eg outside Penroses) to get an idea of what we could have. The flag needs to be freestanding and wind-resistant.

          10. Next regular meeting: this will be on Wed 10 Sept. This will be the AGM.