November 2024 update

1. Some great news on one of the individuals that we campaigned for - two officers have been sentenced for the murder of Marielle Franco a prominent left-wing politician killed in a drive-by shooting in 2018 along with her driver.  See article here for details of the arrest: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7neyw2459o.

2. A further individual - Ihsane El Kadi - a journalist in Algeria was also released from prison.  This is great news.

3. Nataly Anderson provided us with an update on her case regarding child kidnapping/abduction. We hope to put together a motion next year for Amnesty to take on her case as a UK individual.  We all agreed to sign a letter to the authorities as part of our Write 4 Rights campaign.

4. We signed letters (thanks Monica) for both Paraguay anti-civil law and also Maryam Mansour which we know does eventually make a difference.

5. Steph will write letters for three Hong Kong individuals that Amnesty is recognising as prisoners of conscience - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/china-hong-kong-amnesty-international-recognizes-three-activists-as-prisoners-of-conscience/ and will bring them to our W4R meeting on 2 December.

6.  We have just about enough supporters for our Write for Rights Stall on Saturday, 7 December. I will send out a more detailed email to those coming separately.  More are welcome to join us!

7.  Monica will also be drafting letters to the authorities for our own W4R meeting on Monday, 2 December (thanks Monica).

8. Our November speaker event was cancelled at the last moment.  This was caused by not having our usual room available (double booking) and internet connectivity at the Church being so poor that we couldn't connect to Teams.  Sorry for anyone who may have tried to attend.  In future, if we have a speaker, we shall ensure the organiser remains at a location where internet connectivity can be guaranteed (e.g., from home!).  Our apologies to Cherry.  We hope to have her come and speak in the new year.  

9. In connection with 8 above, we're thinking of creating an Amnesty Woking Zoom account which costs £12.99 per month (and can be unsubscribed on a monthly basis) or £10.99 per month if we pay annually.  We can discuss it at our W4R meeting on 2 December.

10. We need to discuss payments to Trinity Church for use of the room at our next meeting.  If we pay for the room (currently we donate), then perhaps we can be sure of having the room booked when we need it.  In addition, we also need to agree how much we will transfer to Amnesty UK - we have a healthy balance so we should be in a position to agree to transfer a fair amount of it.

11. There has been some recent news and concern by Amnesty Iran about an Iranian university student who dared to protest in her underwear against the harsh rules about women's attire. We too are concerned about her safety.  https://x.com/amnestyiran/status/1852759513494909228?s=46&t=x4gBf3iPDFwSIiVmjFuCaQ.  

There is further online action as follows: 

Nasser Zefzafi- Morocco- https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/two-decades-in-prison-for-speaking-out/.

So a fruitful meeting was held despite technology challenges.  Our next meeting will be at Trinity Church as normal - starting at 7:30pm.  I am hoping we can book a larger room as there could be quite a few of us and the Curtis Room is quite small. We shall confirm if the room changes nearer the time.  

Looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Best wishes,

Steph, Monica, Keith 

Co-Chairs Amnesty Woking Group