Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
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.
June 2023
We are pleased to attach the minutes of the group meeting which took place on 8 June 2023 thanks to group member Lesley for compiling them. They contain reports on the refugee situation and on the death penalty as well as details of forthcoming events.
June 2023
Past event
In today’s (8 June 2023) copy of the Salisbury Journal is a piece about our forthcoming talk and it refers readers to this site to get details of the published reports about the apartheid system in operation in Israel. A link to those reports and some further background can be found here. The talk takes place on 13th June starting at 7:30 pm in the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street. It is free with a parting collection.
There is another post with a link to the UN report.
May 2023
We are pleased to attach a copy of the minutes of the May meeting, thanks to group member Andrew for compiling them. They contain details and links to current activities and concerns including immigration, the current laws being processed through parliament to limit campaigning activity and the forthcoming talk about apartheid in Israel . The People in the Park event took place after the meeting.
May 2023
The Salisbury group, in partnership with Salisbury Concern for Israel Palestine SCIP, are planning a talk on the Amnesty report on the apartheid system in operation against the Palestinians in Israel. The Amnesty report is detailed and follows other reports by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch on the same subject. There is also a UN report which comes to the same conclusion.
The talk will take place at the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street, Salisbury on 13 June starting at 7:30 and will be given by the Amnesty’s country coordinator for the area. There will be an opportunity for questions after the talk. The event is free with a parting collection.
April 2023
We are pleased to attach the minutes of the April meeting thanks to group member Lesley for producing them. It contains a number of activities and reports of interest. We shall be holding our annual fund raising stall in the market place this Saturday 23rd and if members and supporters have any thing to sell that would be appreciated. Bric-a-brac is popular, good books, china and pottery are also wanted. No electrical goods.
It will also be an opportunity to make yourself known if you are interested in joining us.
We are pleased to attach this month’s death penalty report for the period mid March to Mid April thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. Note that China is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details are a state secret.
This week, the Playhouse is performing the Beekeeper of Aleppo and members of the Salisbury group will be present before the performance and during the interval. It will be a good opportunity for anyone interested in the group’s activities to make themselves known.
March 2023
The Salisbury Journal is a local paper in the United Kingdom and is fond of publishing self-promoting puff pieces by our local MPs, so a forthright article by Martin Field in the March 16 2023 edition is worth highlighting. It concerned the controversy surrounding the suspension, and subsequent reinstatement, of Gary Lineker who presents the Saturday night BBC programme on football called Match of the Day. It arose following the publication of Illegal Migration Bill the previous week and Gary’s tweet comparing aspects of the bill to the actions of the National Socialists in ’30s Germany. The tweet caused a huge outrage against both Lineker and the BBC by a number of Conservative politicians together with sections of the right wing media.
Several commentators have wondered, like Field, whether the intensity of the furore was intended to be a distraction from the underlying issue. Field reminds us that the bill proposes that people who are fleeing persecution, who may have a legitimate claim for asylum and have family and relatives here, will never be able to have their claim heard and will be deported.
He says that they [refugees] are not being treated as individuals, as fellow human beings but classified generically, as members of a group, defined not by human characteristics, but by their manner of arrival in the UK.
“Make no mistake. This is a slippery slope. Removing people’s humanity through language is the first step; through law which criminalises them and takes away their rights the second; extremists emboldened the third; [then] inhumane and degrading treatment will follow. The lesson from history is unequivocal”.
In the same paper was a piece by Tom Bromley also referring to the Lineker affair and wider issues around allegations of impartiality by the BBC.
Refugees, and the boat people in particular, have raised great passions in the UK so it is interesting – and encouraging – to read of two commentators in the Journal expressing doubts about the bill and the subsequent events at the BBC.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, declared the bill ‘[it] amounts to cruelty without purpose’ and to be ‘immoral and inept’.
To note that Salisbury MP John Glen and Devizes MP Danny Kruger both voted for the second reading of the bill on 13 March.
March 2023
These are the minutes of the group’s meeting in March thanks to group member Lesley for preparing them. There are a number of forthcoming events at which anyone thinking of joining us could make themselves known. Of special note is the annual market stall so if you have items which you can donate that will be appreciated.
NOTE: there is an error under ‘matters arising’ – 15th May should read 15th March that is this Wednesday.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 