This is the fourth batch of pictures of the tapestry which is in the entrance lobby to the Chapter House in Salisbury Cathedral.
Article 16: Men and women have the right to marry and found a family. No on should be forced to marry. This panel by Carol Corke on behalf of the Isle of Wight group.
Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property. This panel is also by the Isle of Wight group, this time made by Sue Logan.
Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. And this panel is from our very own Salisbury group made by Fiona Donovan.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This includes sharing ideas with people from other countries. Another panel from the Mid Gloucester group, this time by June Styles.
Article 20: Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. This panel was made not by an Amnesty group but by the Harbour Project in Swindon.
The Harbour Project welcomes and supports refugees and asylum seekers in Swindon. To those who’ve risked their lives, families and homes fleeing war and persecution, they provide friendship and hope for a future.  They have been working tirelessly since the Kosovo crisis in 2000. Today, they are aiding people from across the world.
This is the third set of detailed pictures from the tapestry currently on display at Salisbury Cathedral at the entrance to the Chapter House where a copy of Magna Carta is displayed. It illustrates the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A picture of the whole thing is on an earlier blog with a short video.
Article 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This panel prepared by Rona Keene of the Bristol group.
Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor attacks upon their honour and reputation. Another panel by Cari a member of the Frome group.
Article 13: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement. Prepared by the Farringdon group.
Article 14: Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. People lose this right if they do not respect what is written here. Another panel from the Southampton City group.
Article 15: Everyone has the right to a nationality. Another panel from the Bristol group this time prepared by Sarah Heath.
Any errors or if you want to add a name please let us know .
This is the second batch of detailed pictures from the tapestry. See a previous blog showing the full thing in all its glory and also a short video clip.
Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. This panel contributed by the Southampton group.
Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. Made by Caroline Butler on behalf of the Cheltenham and Gloucester group.
Article 8: Everyone has the right to legal help when rights granted by a country to its citizens are not respected. Rachel Berry made this on behalf of the mid-Gloucester group. She also did No: 5.
Article 9: No one should be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Made by Cari and Judy, members of the Frome group.
Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. Made by Caroline Butler, the Regional Representative, for the groups in the south.
As before, if there are errors or anyone wants to add something, please get in touch or send a comment through this site.
In a previous blog we showed the now complete tapestry which is on display, with kind permission of the Cathedral Authorities, outside the Chapter House where one of the extant copies of Magna Carta is displayed. The tapestry illustrates the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified in December 1948 in Paris. In this, and subsequent blogs, we will be showing detailed pictures of the panels with appropriate attribution to their creators. We will be showing them in batches of five. Overall credit must go to Caroline Butler, the South Region Representative (AI), whose idea this was and who worked hard to bring this tapestry to its successful conclusion.
Most reading this will not be in the Salisbury area and thus may not be able to see it, but it has generated a lot of interest from visitors to the Magna Carta. We hope in due course that it will go on to be displayed elsewhere in the south region.
This is Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Prepared by Liz James-Froud on behalf of the Bath Group.
Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, belief, race or origin. Prepared by Liza Lishman a member of the Swindon and Marlborough group.
Article 3: Everybody has the right to life, liberty and security of person. This panel prepared by someone from the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch group.
Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Dot Atkins of the Isle of Wight group.
Article 5: No one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This panel prepared by Rachel Berry of the Mid Gloucester group.
If there are any corrections or additions, please get in touch. The next set of panels will be posted up soon.
The government would now like the UK to join in the bombing campaign against Isis positions and David Cameron gave a lengthy speech in Parliament setting out his justifications for that course of action.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, another terrible conflict is in progress and yet this receives almost no coverage in the press. Thousands have died (one estimate is 5,700) including an estimated 400 children, and airstrikes by Saudi Arabian forces are bombing the country on a daily basis. Schools and hospitals are bombed and cluster bombs are being used in contravention of international treaties.
Paveway missile sold to the Saudis
The difference is that Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of our weapons – indeed an estimated half of all weapons sales by the UK go there – so they are an important customer. Little is said to criticise them and readers of this blog will be aware of our attempts to get our government to take a more robust line in view of their multiple human rights abuses.
… ordinary people are bearing the brunt of an increasingly brutal conflict. Severe water shortages combined with airstrikes, sniper attacks and a fuel blockade have rapidly turned this conflict into a humaniitarian crisis, with over one million people displaced from their homes. The need for food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care is growing daily.
Many clinics and hospitals have been destroyed, and those that are still functioning are in urgent need of more medical supplies. Yemen: A country under siege
AI and Human Rights Watch are in no doubt that UK and US supplied munitions are being used to cause this mayhem in Yemen. Up until now we have received nothing but bland assurances from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and from our MP. But recent events including changes to the Ministerial code and a downgrading of human rights in policy matters, seems to indicate that it is profit before humanity which is the key factor.
This might change because now that British made weaponry is turning up in Yemen thus causing some concern in the FCO. They are beginning to question the wisdom of supplying the Saudis who then use the stuff to kill ordinary civilians. We could just be indicted for war crimes. They are also worried that we are helping create the conditions for an Isis type organisation to establish themselves in Yemen.
So while speeches are made about bombing Isis, we are busy supplying the weaponry to create another catastrophe on the Saudi peninsular…
Sources:
MSF;Â The Independent;Â Belfast Telegraph;Â Business News;Â HRW
Group members presented their Citizenship roadshow in Shaftesbury
Last week, fresh from attending the Citizenship Conference at South Wilts, group members took the Amnesty presentation on the road to a new venue to us, St. Mary’s Girls School at Shaftesbury, as part of their series of talks by local and national organisations. Despite an attendance of some 90 sixth-formers, it was possible to encourage interactivity, and the students proved very knowledgeable and interested in our work, and showed an encouraging level of social awareness. Nearly all signed greetings cards for prisoners, and some stayed to continue conversations with us about Amnesty after the event. Thanks are due to the school for an event we hope we can repeat in the future.
If any secondary school in the South Wiltshire area would like the team to do a presentation on the work of Amnesty and human rights, please get in touch via this site.
Tapestry to be moved to the Cathedral in the next week or so
HRA. Watching brief ahead of government plans to scrap/alter it. We will get materials from AIUK. It is likely to be a major part of our activities next year if the government do go ahead with either abolition or a major overhaul
Discussed Write for Rights and the four people we will campaign for agreed
Carol signing will take place on 21 December (photo of last year)
Farrant Singers in Park Street
Statistics on website hits and social media were presented (see statistics tab for the report)
The Human Rights Act is under threat and we await the current government’s plans for its replacement which must be due very soon. Rights Info has produced a short video which is worth a look which you can access from their web site or from this link.
Plans by the Conservative Government to modify the Ministerial Code are ‘seriously concerning’ according to Rights Watch.
The ministerial code issued in 2010Â says;
Overarching duty on Ministers to comply with the law including international law and treaty obligations and to uphold the administration of justice and to protect the integrity of public life
The plan is to omit from the new code including international law and treaty obligations. Phillippe Sands QC, a professor of law at University College London described the changes as ‘shocking’. The government claim that this is merely a matter of simplification.
Why it matters
It matters because of the promise by the Conservatives in their manifesto to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with the British Bill of Rights a draft of which has yet to see the light of day. Removing the international law will reduce the respect for judgements by international courts such as the European Court in Strasbourg.
Another aspect is that going to war and the use of things like drones are covered by international treaty and the UN Charter and not by UK laws. Removing the international element therefore leaves ministers free to use this kind of weaponry unfettered.
In 2014, the government – then in coalition – wanted to remove what was termed an ‘ambiguity’ in the rules. This has now been changed to simplification.
An observer of these events was Paul Jenkins who was a Treasury solicitor and he witnessed the intense irritation felt by the Prime Minister over our need to comply with foreign legal obligations. This was largely in connection with the arguments over prisoner voting but the prolonged tussle over Abu Qatada was also likely to have been an irritant as well.
In a letter to the Guardian, the former legal adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Frank Berman QC said ‘it was impossible not to feel a sense of disbelief at what must have been the deliberate suppression of the reference to international law.’
What is troubling about these changes is that they have to be seen in context. We have restrictions on Freedom of Information; reductions in the ability of people to receive legal aid; court charges; and the threat to the Human Rights Act. We will soon have the ‘snooper’s charter’ which will enable the security services to eavesdrop communications however they wish.
All these changes add up to an assault on the ability of individuals to hold the executive to account. Ministers were quick to celebrate the anniversary of Magna Carta when it suited them but now seem keen to reduce freedoms wherever they can.
Sources: The Guardian; Rights Watch; the BBC; Financial Times; Daily Mail
Last week, three members of the Salisbury group visited South Wilts Grammar School for their day long Citizenship Conference held every year jointly with Bishop Wordsworth’s School.
We had the opportunity to present Amnesty to three groups of students, amounting to about 50 in all, who had chosen to hear from us, along with a number of other organisations from political parties to charities.
The impression we received was of a lot of interest in our work, and we emphasised the importance of the concept of human rights, and asked the students to think about how these might impinge on their own lives as well as on the prisoners whose causes we espouse.
The short AI film ‘The Power of a Signature’ as always received a positive reaction as did the invitation to sign the Stop Torture petition cards. We hope the students enjoyed the occasion as much as we did.
We will be taking the show on to St Mary’s School, Shaftesbury next month
Article 16: Men and women have the right to marry and found a family. No on should be forced to marry. This panel by Carol Corke on behalf of the Isle of Wight group.
Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property. This panel is also by the Isle of Wight group, this time made by Sue Logan.
Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. And this panel is from our very own Salisbury group made by Fiona Donovan.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This includes sharing ideas with people from other countries. Another panel from the Mid Gloucester group, this time by June Styles.
Article 20: Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. This panel was made not by an Amnesty group but by the Harbour Project in Swindon.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 