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Group news


Some events the group will be involved in

November 2024

From time time we list some of the events the group will be involved in. This is partly for those people who might be thinking of joining us. Coming along and making yourself known is the best way to introduce yourself. Membership of our group is free but if you join Amnesty International there is a fee.

We welcome new members especially in this, our 50th year since formation. We are, sadly, the only surviving group in Wiltshire and we hope people from outside Salisbury feel able to join.

Upcoming events:

  • Not an event as such but a tree will be planted in Victoria Park soon to commemorate out anniversary. We are not able to be at the planting itself (!) but we hope to convene a photo shoot at some future date,
  • Carol singing. [Completed – see post]. This has been an annual event and we kick of on 9 December in Victoria Road. We are delighted to welcome the Farrant Singers to do the singing and we cover 3 or 4 roads in the vicinity,
  • Vigil. Group members take part in the Vigil in the Butter market in Salisbury (by the Library) starting at 5pm for half an hour. This is to promote peace in the Middle East. See previous posts on this subject. This Saturday 16th, will be our 50th such Vigil,
  • We will be holding a schools event on 26th but this is not open to all,
  • Write for Rights in the Cathedral cloister on 1st December for around 2 hours in the morning, [Completed]
  • Further ahead, we will be at the People in the Park event in May. Details in due course,
  • We hope to arrange an Evensong with the Cathedral next year.

We look forward to seeing you at one of these events.

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King Charles gives GCVO to King of Bahrain


Award of GCVO invites many critics because of poor human rights in Bahrain

November 2024

The award of the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order to King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa of Bahrain by King Charles has brought criticism and controversy. The list of human rights failures in Bahrain is a long one. It includes the lack of a free press, no genuine political opposition, the use of torture, critics who are harassed and arrested and there are problems with an independent judiciary. Individuals are executed after confessions secured following the use of torture. There is little religious freedom. Freedom House has described the kingdom as one of the more repressive regimes in the region. Since violently crushing a popular prodemocracy protest movement in 2011, the Sunni-led monarchy has systematically eliminated a broad range of political rights and civil liberties, dismantled the political opposition, and cracked down harshly on persistent dissent concentrated among the Shiite population.

Of course it is unlikely that King Charles was directly responsible for this award and may even felt uncomfortable with it. It is almost certainly a political decision because Bahrain is a key defence ally. CAAT has described the range of contacts between the two kingdoms and the importance of Bahrain as a purchaser of arms.

This has become a feature of British foreign policy and ideas of an ‘ethical foreign policy’ seem a long time ago. The Royal family are frequently used to promote ties and friendly relations with the various monarchs who still rule most of the Gulf states. Arms sales and the supply of oil are crucial elements of the British economy and effectively means ethical and human rights issues have to take a back seat. The Secretary of State said in parliament on 21 October 2021 that ‘[t]he Government are clear that more trade will not come at the expense of human rights’. However, as CAAT notes, arms sales to Bahrain continue apace.

Human rights violations and violence continue in the Kingdom and arms sales continue seemingly unhindered. Awarding the King an award is just icing on the cake. The problem is that it represents a kind of seal of approval. Is the Kingdom ever going to improve if it feels that Britain will continue to supply arms, use the Royal family in this way and make these awards? Or will it feel it can carry on persecuting its people and continue to deny basic rights with impunity? After all, the Bahrain’s own web site proudly proclaims ‘Bahrain is committed to safeguarding human rights, actively engaging in impactful initiatives that underscore its dedication to ensuring the well-being and freedom of its citizens and residents.’

Charles was told in a letter by the exiles: “It is personally difficult for us to view this honour as anything other than a betrayal of victims who have suffered at the hands of King Hamad and his brutal regime.”

Sources: Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; Hansard; the US State Department; the Guardian; CAAT; Freedom House; Government of Bahrain; Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

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The Death Penalty Debate: Kamala Harris and Executions


Five executed in one week. Kamala Harris silent

September 2024

After spending one and a half hours unsuccessfully trying to find a vein, sticking the needle into various parts of his body including arms, neck and feet, they suspended the prisoner upside down for 20 minutes in the hope of finding one but failed to execute him and returned him to his cell. Two years later they used nitrogen hypoxia after which he shook for 2 minutes and after six minutes of gulping, he died. Thus ended the life of Allan Eugene Miller on Thursday last week (26th September).

This is not a description of an execution from some barely civilised country but in USA in the state of Alabama. It was one of 5 executions last week the others being Emmanuel Littlejohn; Travis Mullis; Marcel Williams and Freddie Owens.

The case of Marcel Williams, 55, is particularly troubling since he was almost certainly innocent. Despite copious blood at the scene, none matched his DNA. Key evidence was either lost or destroyed. Witnesses had an incentive to give false evidence to receive a $10,000 reward.

Republican prosecutors seemed to have become more aggressive in pushing for the ultimate penalty. This may be linked to current politics and ‘Make America Great Again‘ rhetoric from Donald Trump. During his time as president, he altered the composition of the Supreme Court which now has an ultra-right super-majority.

Anyone who has followed Clive Stafford-Smith or read his books will know the process is far from perfect in many states in the Union. Poor trial procedures, withheld evidence, packed juries and defendants represented by inexperienced lawyers are not at all unusual. Many states have abandoned the death penalty but a number still keep it of which Alabama is one. It is no accident that despite only representing 13% of the population, 34% of black people are on death row.

There are many who believe the penalty is a deterrent. The problem of course is that mistakes cannot be put right. As the Death Penalty Information Center points out, since 1973, 200 former death row prisoners have been found innocent of all charges.

The issue has become a political one. It has been noted that Kamala Harris, the deputy president standing for election to become the president this November, makes no mention of abolition in her speeches or literature. She opposed the penalty in 2019. However, the promise to do so has not survived. This shift partly results from a change of mood following some high profile police murders. Trump is solidly in favour as part of his ‘tough on crime’ policy. There is a lot of discussion in the American press and there are suggestions that such a principled stand was not popular even with fellow Democrats.

Sources: Death Penalty Information Center; Washington Post; The Guardian; NBC; Amnesty International; Mother Jones.

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We are 50!


The Salisbury group is 50 this year

September 2024

NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY

And we want to celebrate it with a photo. We were formed not too long after Amnesty International itself was created and we are, sadly, the last group left in Wiltshire.

We shall be assembling at 2:30 near the Guildhall in the market square tomorrow, October 3rd for a group photo. It should only take 30 minutes or so and we are inviting all members and supporters who can make it, to come and join in.

In some ways it is sad that we still need to exist. The hope after the Second World War and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was high. People believed human rights would become the norm in societies around the world. It hasn’t turned out that way. Atrocities still continue in Africa, the Uyghurs are still persecuted in China, war rages in Ukraine, bombing continues in Gaza and human rights violations continue around the world in Syria, Iran, Burma and Saudi Arabia.

One of our continuing campaigns is the ending of the death penalty around the world (see our reports on this site). You will also see from our site and elsewhere that the UK is a major supplier of arms to states which are engaged in abusing their citizens. This has been a vexed issue at present concerning arms to Israel. It is an irony of the post war world that the UN Security Council is comprised of the world’s major arms suppliers. So there is still a need for human rights work.

Come and join us on 3rd!

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Salisbury Market Square Vigil: 39th Gathering for Peace


Vigil continues

September 2024

The 39th Vigil was held yesterday (31st August) in the market square as usual. Over 30 attended with a scattering of people joining in as they passed. The death toll is over 40,000 and there seems little sign of a peace deal. Efforts last week seem to have come to nought. There has been a short cessation of hostilities to enable the UN to carry out polio vaccinations.

ADDITION: the brutal murder by Hamas of six of the hostages has sent shockwaves around the world and has led to tens of thousands of Israelis to protest over the government’s failure to secure a peace deal and the release of the remaining hostages.

We shall be there again next week starting at 5pm in Salisbury market place next to the Library. All are welcome.

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Refugee report – June


June 2024

As the General Election approaches, immigration continues to be on the agenda, although different interests claim different levels of concern.  Immigration is the top concern for 27% of the population (54% among Conservative voters in 2019 to 15% among Labour voters.)  The latest YouGov poll places it behind the cost of living, health and the economy. 

The Migration Observatory has a comparison between Conservative and Labour policies.  Notably, with regard to small boats, the Labour Party has said it wants to spend money currently earmarked for the Rwanda scheme on enforcement activity instead.  It would establish a new ‘Border Security Command’ to prosecute gangs operating small boat routes and enhance security cooperation with the EU, and negotiate a deal with the EU to return asylum seekers to EU countries.

The Election has placed some ongoing legislation in difficulty, particularly the Illegal Migration Act (2023), some of which is already law, but some parts not yet enacted have been described by practitioners as ‘messy’.

The Government is still pushing the Rwanda plan (interesting to note that the Australian Government, which came up with a similar idea, has recently had 5 Rwandans on their shores).  ‘Operation Vector’, to give it its title, remains in the Conservative manifesto; the cost of the project so far is believed to be about £240 million, though the Parliamentary Public Affairs Committee, quoting National Audit research, record it would cost £500 million by 2033 if implemented.

The small boat numbers continue to be high at over 10,000 arrivals this year so far.  Ironically, 316 migrants arrived in 5 boats on 6th June.  The main countries of origin continue to be Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, now joined by Turkey.

There has been a drop in the grant rate for asylum seekers in the last year (down from 74% accepted to 62%).  This may be exacerbated by the ongoing backlog clearance, where the hardest cases will be left to last.  In Q1 only 43% were allowed, which will no doubt add to the number of appeals.

Refugee Week starts on 17th June.  The theme is Our Home.  The organisers have a list of events, plus things you can do at home (some quite simple).  

Andrew Hemming

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Arms to Israel


UK continues to issue arms licences to Israel

June 2024

The conflict in Gaza continues and 36,700 Palestinians have died and well over 80,000 have been injured many seriously. In the last four months alone, 12,300 children have been killed. The death toll inflicted on Gaza is out of all proportion to the atrocity committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found that there is a plausible case for Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. The response by the deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell is to say that ‘the ICJ does not have jurisdiction [over Israel]’ (source, Government briefing, ‘UK Arms Exports to Israel,’ May 2024). Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, is quoted as saying that Israel ‘is committed to complying with International Humanitarian Law’ and hence did not recommend that licences be suspended. Today, 12 June 2024, the UN has issued two reports accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity including the use of torture.

Meanwhile, over 100 licences for arms have been issued to Israel since October 7, 2023. Quite what is licensed is difficult to discern. Eight are ‘open’ licences and the statistics do not give the value of the exports. In 2022, the value of arms exports to Israel amounted to £42m. The UK is not a major supplier and the US sends around ten times as much including fighters and artillery.

The ICJ action raises serious questions for the government which may well be different after July 4th. Essentially, governments continuing to arm Israel risk being complicit in genocide which is a specific crime under the convention.

Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and a Palestinian human rights organisation al-Haq, have joined a legal action by Global Legal Action Network for a judicial review. The position of the Labour Party (who may be in government soon) is unclear but the party has had a difficult relationship with Israel and has had to weather many accusations of antisemitism which it is keen to dispel.

There are signs of movement and in March, over 100 MPs and a number of Peers signed an open letter to the government calling for and end of arm sales to Israel. Lord Cameron has been critical of them commenting on the blocking of aid and turning away entire lorries on spurious grounds such as shipments containing ‘dual use’ items (medical scissors).

The question is largely a moral one. Should we continue to supply arms to a state which is causing such damage, bombing entire blocks of apartments, almost destroyed all hospitals and killed so many men, women and children? By not allowing journalists entry, objective assessments of Israeli claims of targeting Hamas fighters is hard to verify and we simply have to rely on IDF statements.

However, the conflict shows no signs of coming to a satisfactory conclusion. A hard-line Israeli government – which has become even more so after the recent resignation of Benny Grantz – is determined to see the complete extinction of Hamas, an objective almost impossible to achieve. The violence in Gaza will be breeding the next generation Hamas fighters. Violence on the West Bank has grown markedly worse. A two-state solution looks impossible to achieve. The continued supply of weapons principally by the US but also by the UK, is simple adding fuel to the fire. More important perhaps than the actual supply of military materiel, is the implicit support that the the licences give to the Israeli government, a government which is disinclined to end the violence.

Sources: CAAT, Guardian, Amnesty,

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Repost on the subject of Rwanda


April 2024

James Robottom: The Safety of Rwanda Act, Slavery and the Common Law
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Palantir and the NHS


Human rights concerns with the use of Palantir software in the NHS

February 2024

The current issue of the Amnesty magazine (Spring 2024) poses some human rights questions concerning the use by the NHS of the American firm Palantir to create a data platform. With recent revelations surrounding Fujitsu’s Horizon program used by the Post Office and which destroyed the lives and livings of nearly a thousand sub postmasters, we should take a careful look at the firms being used to do this IT and data work. 

And looking at Palantir is not a pretty sight. Founded by the CIA, its primary interest is treating people as suspects or targets. Its software is used by both NSA and GCHQ and is designed as a surveillance tool. It is used by some police forces in the US in what is called ‘predictive policing’ which has a dubious history. It was used for workplace deportation raids also in the US as part of Donald Trump’s actions against immigrants. Another troubling use is by the Israeli military to ‘help the country’s war effort’. 

A key investor is Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal who is, paradoxically, hostile to the notion of an NHS and to government aid programmes generally. He is a funder and supporter of Donald Trump.

The Amnesty article says ‘Any company linked to serious human rights abuses should be excluded from tendering for NHS contracts on grounds of ‘professional misconduct”. Essentially, the British public needs to be reassured that information gathered by Palantir won’t be harvested by them for other purposes. 

American companies have had their eyes on the NHS for many years and have spent considerable sums trying to get contracts. It was likely to be a key issue in the UK/US trade deal negotiations post Brexit, now a lost cause. Palantir offered to assist the Covid-19 response for a fee of £1 (not one million) because it gave them an ‘in’ and the ability to build a datastore. 

As we have learned from Horizon and the Post Office, as well as other IT disasters, there are many concerns about IT firms, their actual ability to do what they claim they will do, their integrity and the security of the data they collect. Major firms like X, Facebook, WhatsApp and others have shown a cavalier attitude to online safety for the young and other vulnerable individuals. We also have British politicians and ministers openly hostile to human rights issues and some would like to see the Human Rights Act abolished. This is a toxic mix. We will have the usual platitudes and reassurances about ‘online safety is our number one concern’ and other bromides, the reality being that it is way down their lists of priorities. 

The people organising these contracts, the civil servants and the various ministers, have next to no experience of placing contracts or having anything like the expertise needed to keep an eye on this as was explained in Ian Dunt’s book How Westminster Works: and Why it Doesn’t. Twenty ministers came and went during the Post Office, Horizon scandal and did – or were able to do – nothing. 

To use a firm with the history that Palantir has, with the history of blunders surrounding IT contracts and with ministerial oversight feeble or missing altogether is to court disaster and is a huge risk for the confidentiality and security of our private medical information. 

The Salisbury and South Wiltshire group is 50 this year

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Book burning v. human rights


Riots and protests over burning of the Qur’an in Denmark and Sweden but few protests about China’s dreadful treatment of the Uyghurs

August 2023

Various individuals in Sweden and Denmark have sparked serious unrest and violence as a result of burning the holy book and a considerable degree of opprobrium has been heaped on both countries. The prime minister of Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador last month. News of the burnings have featured in the media for some time. The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was stormed and the country’s flag was burned in Pakistan. Although the burnings have been carried out by a small number of individuals, they have generated considerable fury among Muslims and caused a degree of concern in the Nordic countries who wish to maintain the right to free speech and protest.

Clearly it is upsetting for Muslims to see a book they cherish being treated in this way.

Uyghurs

In China the appalling treatment of the Uyghur people continues apace. There is no word to describe the actions of the Chinese since the Uyghurs are not subject to genocide. Mostly, they survive the treatment they are subject to. However, the persecution has intensified over the past few years. There is forced sterilisation, the demolition of thousands of mosques, and children taken from their parents. They have been isolated from the rest of the world and the only means of communication was shortwave radios and these too have been seized. The Qur’an is seized wherever it is found. The entire population is subject to repression and detention in so-called ‘re-education’ centres where torture and physical violence is routine. Over a million are held in these camps and access to the region is strictly controlled by the Chinese government. Thousands are arrested on spurious grounds for ‘crimes’ of being a Muslim, sending messages or texts with quotations from the Qur’an or for having more than three children.

There is an attempt – seemingly a successful attempt – to extinguish the culture of the Uyghurs in what amounts to cultural genocide. Children are not allowed to be given names such as Fatima or Aisha because they are deemed ‘too Muslim’. The region is subject to heavy surveillance making any kind of social contact almost impossible.

What has been surprising however is the relative silence from the very same countries who are angry about the book burnings and who made a huge fuss about the Satanic verses. It would be expected that in the face of the appalling treatment of mainly Muslims in Xinjian, there would be an outcry of deafening intensity. Indeed, in 2019, when mainly western countries tried to get a UN motion to allow independent observers into Xinjiang, it was countries – mostly Moslem countries – like Saudi, Algeria and Egypt who blocked it. The contrast between the response to the burning of a handful of Qur’an in Stockholm and the seizing of what may be tens of thousands of copies in Xinjiang is remarkable. It is difficult to explain it. Some suggest it is China’s increasing investment in these countries which is leading to a reluctance to make much noise. This hasn’t prevented these same countries engaging in critical activities against western countries who are also significant investors so that explanation seems unlikely.

It is astonishing that in the 21st Century we are witnessing one of the world’s biggest crimes against humanity, yet very little is made of it. Countries who might be thought to have sympathy through a shared religion with the Uyghurs, are strangely silent. A huge fuss is made of a few individuals burning the holy book but the much more systematic attempt to annihilate a kindred culture and incarcerating over a million individuals in the process, engenders little protest.

Testimony from survivors in this piece from Substack [added 21 August 2023]

Sources: Observer, Time, Washington Post, International Bureau of Investigative Journalists, CAAT, BBC

[Readers might wish to know of a recently published book Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, by Tahir Hamut Izgil, published by Jonathan Cape]

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