'Day of solidarity and defiance' mass rally supporting peaceful protesters in Egypt and wider region
SATURDAY 12 FEBRUARY
TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON, 12-2pm
TV link with Egypt, social media photo uploads, live tweeting via #feb12Global
Thousands of Amnesty International supporters, Egyptian activists, trade unionists, students and others will come together at a mass rally in Trafalgar Square in central London this Saturday (12 February) to mark a “Global Day of Action” in solidarity with protestors in Egypt and the wider region who are demanding greater human rights.
With a large screen providing a TV link-up with protestors in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the event is being billed as a “Trafalgar to Tahrir” act of solidarity, with social media activists live-tweeting and uploading solidarity images in real time.
Saturday’s event - organised by Amnesty International and supported by the ITUC, Human Rights Watch, the NUS, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists among others (full list at: http://amn.st/feb12global) - is part of a series of global solidarity demonstrations on 12 February being held in around 20 countries, including Australia, USA, Spain, France, South Korea and Norway.
In Trafalgar Square demonstrators wearing red, black or white clothing and face paint (the colours of the Egyptian flag) will assemble at 12 noon to hear speeches from Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation chair Bianca Jagger, CAABU Director Chris Doyle and young Egyptian activists, among others.
Salil Shetty said:
“We are gathering in Trafalgar Square and public places like this around the world to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Egypt and those across the region who are standing up for their human rights.
“Their demand and ours is for an end to repression and for fundamental human rights reforms so that all people can live in dignity. We stand in solidarity with the protesters and we stand in defiance against those who oppose human rights change.
"We want the people of Egypt to know that while governments outside Egypt may be wavering in their support for change, the people's movements are not.”
In recognition of the part played by social media activists in the protests, people who cannot be present at the event are being asked to upload solidarity images to http://amn.st/feb12global. Some of these images will be displayed on the Trafalgar Square screen during the rally.
The event is being communicated on social media via the hashtag #feb12Global and will be live tweeted @amnestyuk
Note to editors
If you are intending to send a reporter or photographer, please contact Amnesty’s media team to confirm your attendance and arrange on-the-day interviews and photographs.