Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
We attach the death penalty report for this month thanks to Lesley for her work on this. The news about 
Reggie Clemons is most welcome after years of campaigning, with the decision to ‘vacate’ the previous judgement. It shows that persistent campaigning does work. The decision by Mongolia to end the death penalty is welcome especially when you consider the barbaric activities of their neighbour.
On the dark side, Saudi continues to execute with a promise to put 50 people to death.
The film, Timbuktu, is to be shown in the Salisbury Arts Centre 
this Thursday evening 3 December. The film is extremely topical both because of the horrific activities of jihadists in Paris and today’s news of a terrorist attack in Mali which is where Timbuktu is. This is the latest in our joint presentations with the Arts Centre. The film has received many favourable reviews and mostly 4 stars.
Timbuktu has entered the English language as a place which is remote and unknown yet recent events have brought the country and the town into the limelight.
There will be a short presentation by an Amnesty director before the film starts and afterwards, an opportunity for people to sign a petition or some cards.
Tickets from the Arts Centre via the link above or by phoning 01722 321744.
The November minutes of the Salisbury group are now available thanks to Lesley.
Correction: the Death Penalty vigil took place on 17 October and not November as stated in the minutes
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
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.
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.
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.
Group welcomes speaker on #Korea. On Thursday 13 November, the group was pleased to welcome a Korean speaker as part of our activities to keep the problems in North Korea in the limelight. Bona Shin is a member of a large community of Koreans who live in London, the largest such community in Europe. There are thought to be around 32,000 living in the UK and 691 of whom from North Korea.
Other speakers have mentioned the difference between Pyongyang and the rest of the country. People who live in Pyongyang are the elite and they are reasonably well fed by North Korean standards. It is the rural areas which are impoverished and where people struggle to survive. She said there are no disabled people in the capital either: they are all moved out to the rural areas.
She mentioned the propaganda initiative recently where the North Korean embassy hosted an art exhibition. Developments in the last week or so at the UN where there are attempts to get the regime and Kim Jong un indicted for crimes against humanity.
There are reports of the infamous Yodok camp being closed and prisoners being moved to Camp 14 or Camp 16 as part of the propaganda by the North but this cannot be confirmed at the time of writing. Bilateral talks may begin with the EU on the question of human rights.
There are still survivors from the Korean war which Britain contributed large troop numbers second only to the USA. There is a British Korean Veteran Association
The meeting took place tonight with a speaker from South Korea.  A full report will appear soon.
#stoptorture And a reminder that we are running a stall on Saturday 15th in the Market Place to highlight the issue of torture around the world. If you can come along and sign or better still, help for an hour that would be great. It will be the first outing of the torture wheel based on the Philippine’s security services wheel used to decide on how they are going to torture a suspect.
On Saturday 11 October we shall be manning a stall in Salisbury market to highlight the human rights situation in #Nigeria. In particular, the case of Moses Akatugba who was tortured by Nigerian police to secure a conviction. He was 16 when arrested, shot in the hand, beaten, and hung in an interrogation room for hours. Pliers were used to extract his finger and toe nails. His alleged crime was to steal three mobile phones. Unfortunately, this ill-treatment is now a commonplace in Nigeria and there are reported to be ‘torture officers’ in police stations.
Executions were resumed in June last year when four men were executed in Benin city. The bodies were not returned to the families for burial nor is the location of the graves known.
Amnesty has serious concerns about the increasing use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in Nigeria. Recent research by Amnesty indicates that police and military personnel routinely use torture and other ill-treatment to extract confessions and to punish and exhaust detainees.
Nigeria fact sheet (pdf)
You can also read about corruption in Nigeria here: Human Rights Watch: Nigeria
We look forward to seeing you in the market place on 11th.
