These are the activities planned for the coming months

April 2025

This is a list of forthcoming events the Salisbury group will be engaged in over the coming months. Each of them would be a good opportunity to approach us if you were thinking of joining. To join us is free but to become a member of Amnesty International UK there is a membership fee. The group, as well as campaigning for prisoners of conscience, is increasingly concerned with the erosion of rights in the UK. Britain has a proud history of protest and such activity has led to a number of reforms: a look at this list will give you a taste of the numbers that have taken place over the centuries. The essential truth is that those who have power do not like relinquishing it. Recent governments have introduced legislation making it harder to protest and have given the Police even more powers to arrest or interrupt demonstrations. It is more than ever important to be part of organisations like ours to stand firm against governments and their paymasters who want to clamp down on opposition.

Several of our local MPs are reported in They Work for You website as ‘generally voting against’ human rights matters. Danny Kruger, the MP for the newly created East Wiltshire constituency (which starts about a mile north of Salisbury), would like to see the Human Right Act abolished. Protecting our rights is therefore truly important as we cannot rely on our elected representatives to do it for us.

Events

• Market stall in the Market place, Salisbury on 3 May starting at 9am and finishing at 1pm. If you have any items for the stall, please bring them along on the day.
• People in the Park where we will have a stand on 17 May for most of the day. This would be an ideal opportunity to make contact.
• We are continuing with our school visits (this won’t be an opportunity to drop by of course) and something we see as important*. The last one of the current programme is in June.
• A presence on the EcoHub stall in the Market place on a Tuesday. Dates to be confirmed but likely to be late summer/autumn. Dates will be posted on here, on Facebook (@Salisburyai) and on Bluesky once agreed .
• A coffee morning at St Thomas’s Church Salisbury on 5 July from around 10am. Home made cakes available and in the centre of the City.
• Don’t forget that we take place – with other groups in Salisbury – in the vigils which take place in the Market place by the Library every Saturday. They are for peace in the Middle East and in particular Gaza where over 50,000 have now died, the majority of whom were women and children. Thousands more are unaccounted for under the rubble. We have just held our 70th such event. They start at 5pm for half an hour.

Later in the year we will be holding:

• Death penalty action on the World Day Against the Death Penalty – see Amnesty’s recently published report for 2024 – on 10 October. See also our monthly reports on the death penalty the latest of which has just been posted.
• Write for Rights will be on 30 November.

Other events which are not yet settled are:

• Evensong at the Cathedral. The Cathedral has the Prisoner of Conscience window and the Amnesty candle on display. Agreed date under discussion.
• Refugee Week. Details not known yet. See our latest Refugee report.

*If by chance you are a teacher reading this at a school in South Wiltshire and would like to discuss a visit as part of your school’s citizenship programme, please get in touch.