The April meeting minutes are here thanks to Karen. They contain a lot of useful information about the death penalty and North Korea in particular. There is a group meeting this Thursday 14th
April minutes of the Salisbury group available
Display goes up today in the Cathedral
We today erected the display in the cloister at Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the signing of Magna Carta and to illustrate the #StopTorture campaign.
It will remain in place for many weeks. There is also a panel on the Human Rights Act.
#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.February minutes
The February minutes are below thanks to Karen. A full agenda as you see with a lot going on.
Meeting
The monthly group meeting took place tonight at 7.30 in Victoria Road as usual. There was a discussion on the Magna Carta arrangements among other things. Agenda is below (Word).
#MagnaCarta
UPDATE:Â Where to obtain tickets for 12 March now at the end of that item.
Our group is planning a number of events to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. We have been working with the Cathedral in Salisbury which has one of the surviving copies of the document. Our focus will be on its relevance to the present day and in particular, the Human Rights Act #HRA and its place in modern politics.
We have several projects planned and we will update these pages as time goes on. But for the moment, this is a brief introduction to what we have planned:
- A standing display in the cloisters of the Cathedral outside the Chapter House where the Magna Carta is kept. This will
Torture wheel feature images to illustrate the #StopTorture campaign and will have the torture wheel, based on the one used by the Philippine police. In case you have not come across this, it is a wheel on which the various methods to torture their victims are displayed. They then spin the wheel to decide on which one to use. This display will be set up in March and will run for at least a month. To read more about the torture wheel follow this link.
- On 12th March at 7pm we will be delighted to welcome Dominic Grieve QC MP who will speak on the relevance of the Human Rights Act today.  In June 1999 he was appointed Conservative spokesman for Scotland and in September 2001 the Conservative spokesman for criminal justice and community cohesion as part of the Shadow Home Affairs team. From 2003 to 2009 he was Shadow Attorney General.
Dominic Grieve QC MP Under the coalition Government Dominic Grieve became a Privy Counsellor and appointed the Attorney General for England and Wales and the Advocate General for Northern Ireland and he held that post until July 2014.
He has spoken often on human rights matters arguing that despite the Conservative leadership’s recent announcement of fundamental change to both the HRA and the national relationship with the ECHR, there is much that remains undebated and misunderstood about both.Â
He will try therefore tonight try to lay out reasons why – while not free of imperfections – the ECHR and its direct application in our law through the HRA is of enormous benefit to our country and our collective wellbeing.  He is determined that this argument can and must be made with some passion because he believes that it goes to the heart of our identity as a nation and of our national interest.
It will be an interesting talk and will follow the annual Choral Evensong in aid of Amnesty in the Cathedral.  Tickets: apply to magnacartaevents@salcath.co.uk.
In the summer on 15 June, we are planning, with the Playhouse, an event where an actor will read selected passages from the Charter and then a panel of guests to discuss their significance. The guests are likely to be Kate Allen, the Director of Amnesty UK, Prof Guy Standing author of The Precariat and writer and researcher, Ben Rawlence. This will be in the afternoon so it’s a date for the diary at present. Details will be both here and at http://www.salisburyplayhouse.com.
On the morning of the 15th, there will be a 6th form conference involving local schools and Kate Allen has been invited to that.
Signing
We held a signing on Saturday morning and invited people to sign cards on behalf of four prisoners of conscience. It had been held over from Christmas because we had too many other things on so we were not confident of large numbers. Our other concern was the events in Paris which has hardened some peoples’ attitudes to terrorism in all its forms. Some people equate human rights with ‘supporting terrorists’ and there is the occasional remark along the lines that ‘they must have done something or they wouldn’t be arrested’.
We needn’t have been worried on either count and there was a steady stream of people to sign cards all morning. The cards are generalised greetings fashioned from Christmas cards but with anything religious removed. The only limiting factor in fact was that the table was too small to accommodate the numbers. We secured around 150 signatures and the cards will be posted in batches.
Thanks to all those in the local group who helped.
January meeting
Here are the minutes of the January meeting with thanks to Karen for producing them. Notes that copies of this and previous minutes are also in ‘About us’.
Two extras links have been added to the list of organisations at the bottom of the page.
Monthly meeting
UPDATE
The last meeting was on Thursday, 8th January. An agenda is attached. The minutes of the December meeting are also attached. Note that you can see all recent minutes by going to the ‘About Us’ tab on the front page.
We discussed:
- the results of the carol singing which had been very successful
- there was the December Death Penalty report
- we discussed North Korea and the increasing interest in that country, and in particular the human rights situation there, was noted
- the website numbers were given and that we now have 60 followers
- there was an update on the Magna Carta events and there is to be a meeting soon with the Cathedral to start doing more detailed planning
- the complete lack of interest by any of the sixth forms in the area to submit an essay was noted. This was extremely disappointing in view of the efforts made with leaflets and contacting the schools ahead of time to promote it.
- details on the Cathedral service are awaited
Minutes will be posted here as soon as they are available.
