Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
March 2024
The fourteenth vigil was held in the Market Square attracting strong support as usual. There was coverage in the Salisbury Journal. The vigil is to promote peace in Gaza.
There was another on Saturday 16th (brief report soon). Over 30,000 have now died in the conflict with thousands more injured. Thousands more are missing presumed dead.
February 2024
We are pleased to attach the minutes of the group’s meeting in February 2024 thanks to group member Lesley for compiling them. We should say that these are quite long for minutes but as we do not have a newsletter, they contain information in a more expansive way than you would find in just minutes, for example information on refugees and the death penalty.
New members are always welcome and at the end you will find details of upcoming events where you can make yourself known to a member of the group. As the only Amnesty group left in the county, we do welcome people from all of south Wiltshire.
The Salisbury and South Wiltshire group is 50 this year
January 2024
We are pleased to attach the minutes of our last meeting held on Thursday 11th January with thanks to group member Lesley for preparing them. They give details of forthcoming activities. New members are always welcome and perhaps the best thing if you are thinking of joining is to come to one of our events and make yourself known. It is free to join the local group but if you wish to join Amnesty International UK there is a fee.
August 2023
In place of a meeting in August, we hold a summer party and this is a photo of this year’s. We were lucky with the weather as rain was forecast but it held off until quarter an hour of so after everyone had left!
The Salisbury group is the only Amnesty group in Wiltshire sad to report and if anyone from Wiltshire or north Dorset would like to join us we would be pleased to welcome them. Just keep an eye on the website or on Facebook or X as it now is (Twitter) for details of our next event.
July 2023
We are pleased to attach minutes of the meeting held in July 2023 thanks to group member Lesley for producing them. As well as giving details of our activities past and future, it has items of more general interest for example, progress with government bills which will have an impact on human rights, a report on the refugee situation and a report on the death penalty around the world.
We have several events planned and this is a list for your diary. Note that not all are definite yet and are awaiting confirmation in some cases. Once known, they will be posted here.
Next group meeting on 10th November at the new start time of 2pm
Since the Salisbury group was formed, it has met in the evenings but at our last meeting (October 2022) it was decided to change it to 2pm from now on. There was a mixture of reasons, some don’t like coming out in the evenings, others have commitments in the evening which made attendance difficult. We have heard that several supporters are more likely to come at that time – we shall see.
If you are interested, let us know via a message on this website, via the Facebook site or by direct contact of course. Venue will be made clear on the agenda, but it is likely to be in Victoria Road for the foreseeable.
We look forward to welcoming anyone new or returning supporters.
We held our market stall in Salisbury market yesterday after an absence of three years. We had plenty of stuff to sell but overall, the results were down on previous years. Time was when we got to the stall at 7:30 there was already a crowd of a dozen or so and it activity was pretty hectic for the first hour. Those days seem to be gone and the first hour was very quiet. Activity began to pick up towards midday and we may think of extending the timing by an hour next year.
The City Council has also changed the location and instead of being adjacent to the main market, we were placed well off to the east of the market place. Also there are two stalls placed cheek by jowl with another charity which also did not help. Times are hard of course and this month (April) was when all the cuts and energy bills came into effect. So all in all …
We had an enjoyable day and many thanks to group member Ria who took the unsold items away for another go at a car boot sale. Other items, including a quantity of hardback Booker shortlist novels, went to Oxfam who were delighted apparently. Thanks also to all group members who came and manned the stall through the day.
Photo: Salisbury Amnesty
After an absence of 2 years, we are back with our popular stall in the centre of Salisbury. As you would expect, we have masses of stuff including quality books, clothes, CDs, china items and so forth. We look forward to seeing you there.
If, by chance you are thinking of joining the group, please make yourself known to one of us on the stand.
We are pleased to attach the minutes of our March meeting prepared by group member Andrew.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 