Truro and Falmouth Amnesty International Group

Minutes of Meeting held on 8 Nov 2017

1. Present: Margaret George, Chris Ramsey, Shirley Sweeney, Georgie Wong, Hetty Tye, Karen Cooper, Chris Clarke, Rob Hall, Meike Koops.
2. Apologies: Wailim Wong, Linnea Glynne-Rule.
3. Matters arising from the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 Oct 2017: 2d.the HR defenders in Turkey are due back in court on 22 Nov. Chris had brought a letter to sign.
4. Secretary’s report: i. a letter had been received from Sarah Newton in response to our letter urging action over child refugees. ii. The November Groups mailing included news of our colleagues in Turkey – Idil Eser and 10 others released pending their trial, but Taner Kiliç still held in prison. The launch of the Write for Right on 6 Dec at Westminster (MG had written to Sarah Newton to invite her to attend), the I Welcome campaign, which included information about the second reading of a Private Member’s Bill on rights of child refugees to bring in their family members. The reading is on 16 March 2018 and we are asked to urge our MPs to attend to support it. MG has written to S Newton and will circulate a copy of the letter for members in other constituencies. There was advance notice of the National Conference and AGM on 7-8 April in Swansea and of nominations sought for the Amnesty Board.
5. Treasurer’s report: Linnea reported that we have £1351.22 in the bank, but a cheque for £407.28 for the cost of the Xmas cards and the donation agreed for the Myanmar refugees had not yet been paid in.
6. Campaigns:

North Africa – Hetty had brought letters to sign on behalf of James gardet, imprisoned in South Sudan, Ahmed Mansoor in UAE, and Azza Soliman in Egypt, whose case we have taken up to work on regularly. We have arranged for the Egypt AI coordinator Hugh Sandeman to visit the group on Wed 17 January, which means that in January our regular meeting will be on 17^th (not the second Wed of the month). Hugh will stay with Hetty.

Central America – Georgie reported on Mexico where it is the third anniversary of the disappearance of the 43 students and the country is needing more help after the recent earthquake. A photographer has been murdered. An indigenous woman is standing in the Presidential elections. Shirley spoke about the shocking coverage of the situation in Mexico on the programme ‘Unreported World’ and recommended the programme as worth watching. In Guatemala the trial of former dictator Rios Mont has restarted. In El Salvador, Beatriz Garcia has died. Violence is increasing with 109 deaths per 100,000 – the most violent country outside war zones. The law has changed to permit men to marry underage girls who are pregnant. Chris said that in the USA there are some states where there is no lower age limit for marriage. Nicaragua has signed the Climate Change agreement, which leaves only Syria and the USA which have not signed. The S Edinburg group held a very successful exhibition on Central America.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: the country coordinator Gary Ettle has been taking part in the olive harvest on the West Bank.

Former Soviet Union -  cases had been circulated by email.

1. Forthcoming events –
2. Saturdays 25^th Nov, 2nd Dec at High Cross, and 9^th Dec on the Piazza in the Mayor’s Charity marquee. The rota was passed round and Margaret agreed to ask our supporters to help. There was discussion as to whether we could do a Write for Rights card-signing at the Museum. Georgie would try to investigate.
3.  
4. AOB i. Meike had prepared a summary on Data Protection for AI groups (attached below for information). Margaret said that in the next email to supporters she would add that anyone not wishing to receive emails from her should let her know. General emails are always sent out bcc.

ii. Georgie reported that Wailim had given a talk on the media at the Tiverton group

iii. Margaret mentioned the damage done to Nazanin Zagari Ratcliffe’s case by Boris Johnson.

1. Next meeting will be on Wed 13^th Dec, 7pm at Sambells Café, Truro Methodist Church. NB the January meeting will be on 17^th Jan.

SHORT guide to data protection (for information, see 8.i above)

Definitions:

Personal Data

Name, Address, Date of birth, Contact details, bank account details, interests, photographs

Sensitive Personal Data

As above, plus data about health, religion, political opinion, trade union membership, racial or ethnic origin, sex life, criminal activity

Data Controller

Person, group or organisation processing (collecting, holding and using) personal data

Data Subject

Living person whose personal information is being processed

Fair Processing Notice

The FPN or data protection statement describes who will be holding personal information, why it is collected and who it will be shared with.

No Data Controller “owns” personal data.  It can only be held for the specific purpose and time frame that has been agreed with the data subject.

Data Controllers must:

1. Inform the Data Subject how and why their personal data is being held, in writing or verbally, usually at the time of collecting the data, or when asked.

Example: When collecting names for a petition, tell those signing that their names will only be used for the petition and not held or shared for any other purpose.  Have a FPN in place that you can show subjects.

1. Hold all data securely and not share it without the data subject’s consent.

Example: Someone asks you to send them further information about a campaign by email and gives you their name and email address.  When you email the person, you should not copy in any other recipients, and you should not pass the email address on to anyone else.  You should not email the person again, unless they have specifically stated that they want to receive information beyond that campaign.

1. Disclose what information they hold when requested by the Data Subject.

Example: You receive an email back from the person in the example above, asking you if their personal information is being held by AIUK.  You should treat this as a Subject Access Request (SAR) and forward it to AIUK’s Data Protection Officer immediately at: dataprotection@amnesty.org.uk

Short rules:

1. Treat all personal information you receive as you would want your own information treated.
2. Keep it safe and secure
3. Don’t share it
4. Tell subjects how their data will be stored and used

Can I ignore this?  What’s the worst that could happen? Breaches can cause damage and distress to supporters and result in criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £500,000.