Meeting report

The group met yesterday for its regular monthly meeting and the following items were discussed:     

• It was sad to record the death recently of group member Ursula Milner-White who has been a stalwart supporter almost from the start of the local group.  The group expressed its sympathies to the family and its thanks for the support Ursula gave to us over many years.  She was a regular at stall signings and rarely missed a meeting
• Lesley reported on the workshop which was held at the last meeting and tabled the activity chart.  There were a number of actions some of which were discussed during the meeting
• Death penalty report.  See separate blog on this
• Vigil.  There is to be a vigil at St Thomas’s and the date has changed.  Jonathan is to advise of the new date and time.
• North Korea.  Karen gave a brief update on the UN Report of the Commission of Enquiry on Human Rights in the People’s Republic of North Korea which documented the appalling situation in that country.  It is Kim Jung Un’s birthday on 15 April and we are planning an event on that day to highlight the situation there
• John Glen MP.  An invitation sent last month to Mr Glen to come and discuss his desire to see the Human Rights Act abolished has not so far received a response.  A reminder will be sent
• Conference.  Peter presented the initial plan for the human rights Magna Carta event being planned for September or October 2015.  The idea is to link the 800th anniversary to human rights today.  Partners and speakers and sponsors are now being sought.  More details in future postings
• Web site.  Members will notice we have a new dedicated web site now and the address is in the url field.  We may pay a small sum to have the word ‘wordpress’ dropped.  The new site is a great improvement on the Amnesty hosted one which has limited functionality and was difficult to use.  Members are asked to include the link http://amnestyai.wordpress.com at the bottom of emails and on other material to help promote the site.  It will be possible for more people to contribute items to the site if they wish
• Venue.  There was a discussion about the venue of future meetings and the results of these discussions will be posted here soon.  Thanks to Fiona for hosting this meeting
• DoNM.  10 April at a venue to be notified.

Minutes will be posted here once they are received.