This month’s #deathpenalty report is attached thanks to Lesley. It makes depressing reading especially concerning countries in South East Asia and #Pakistan.
Death penalty report
Monthly meeting
The monthly meeting took place tonight, Thursday 19 March at 7.30 as usual. It was held over from last week as we had the Cathedral lecture and service. A fuller report will appear soon.
Amnesty award
It was announced in the Salisbury Journal this week that a group of students at Burgate School in Fordingbridge, Hampshire has won the Amnesty International Youth award for the ‘most committed’ category. Every congratulations from the Salisbury Group.
New link added to the list: Globalconsilium
Magna Carta and Human Rights Today
Around 160 people attended the Cathedral this evening to hear Dominic Grieve QC MP give a brilliantly lucid lecture in support of the Human Rights Act. He traced some of the key clauses of the Magna Carta and showed how they had continuing relevance today. We hope to include a transcript of his lecture soon. His lecture followed the annual Amnesty evensong which also was very well attended with around 120 people.
#Morocco film
UPDATE 25TH MARCH
The film Bastards (12A) was shown this Wednesday 25 March starting at 7.30 and the audience reaction was very positive indeed. There were many questions to the producer Deborah Perkin.
This is a fascinating and highly-acclaimed documentary about one Moroccan woman’s struggle to legitimise her daughter and the director, Deborah Perkin will be there to answer questions. The film follows an illiterate young woman who took on her own family and the Moroccan justice system for the sake of her illegitimate child. It is a gripping, moving and uplifting documentary from the cutting edge of Islam.
Deborah Perkin is the first person to film in a court in Morocco, a country which leads the world in its legal efforts to give women and children more rights under Sharia law.
In Morocco, as in all Muslim countries, sex outside marriage is illegal and women bear the brunt of society’s disapproval. But what is the fate of the children of those single mothers? They cannot attend the better schools, are turned away from infant immunisation clinics and refused government posts. Jobs, housing and a huge range of social advantages are denied them. They are despised outcasts, condemned to a life of discrimination. Bastards is the first film to tell this story from a mother’s point of view.
We shall have a petition to sign about torture in Morocco. Morocco is one of the five countries highlighted by Amnesty International in its #StopTorture campaign. We are pleased to say many people signed our petitions at the end of the showing. Thanks to the Arts Centre.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 