Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
We today erected the display in the cloister at Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the signing of Magna Carta and to illustrate the #StopTorture campaign.
It will remain in place for many weeks. There is also a panel on the Human Rights Act.
This is the monthly report on the state of death penalty around the world, thanks to Lesley for compiling it.
The news that Ray Hilton has been released after 28 years on death row is both heartening and shocking. That the state of Alabama should have so badly conducted his trial and then refused to allow the fresh ballistic evidence to be heard, which was the only evidence against him, is particularly shocking. There can be few better examples of the dangers of this penalty than a case such as this.
This month’s #deathpenalty report is attached thanks to Lesley. It makes depressing reading especially concerning countries in South East Asia and #Pakistan.
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.
The February minutes are below thanks to Karen. A full agenda as you see with a lot going on.
UPDATE:Â Where to obtain tickets for 12 March now at the end of that item.
Our group is planning a number of events to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. We have been working with the Cathedral in Salisbury which has one of the surviving copies of the document. Our focus will be on its relevance to the present day and in particular, the Human Rights Act #HRA and its place in modern politics.
We have several projects planned and we will update these pages as time goes on. But for the moment, this is a brief introduction to what we have planned:
feature images to illustrate the #StopTorture campaign and will have the torture wheel, based on the one used by the Philippine police. In case you have not come across this, it is a wheel on which the various methods to torture their victims are displayed. They then spin the wheel to decide on which one to use. This display will be set up in March and will run for at least a month. To read more about the torture wheel follow this link.
Under the coalition Government Dominic Grieve became a Privy Counsellor and appointed the Attorney General for England and Wales and the Advocate General for Northern Ireland and he held that post until July 2014.
He has spoken often on human rights matters arguing that despite the Conservative leadership’s recent announcement of fundamental change to both the HRA and the national relationship with the ECHR, there is much that remains undebated and misunderstood about both.Â
He will try therefore tonight try to lay out reasons why – while not free of imperfections – the ECHR and its direct application in our law through the HRA is of enormous benefit to our country and our collective wellbeing.  He is determined that this argument can and must be made with some passion because he believes that it goes to the heart of our identity as a nation and of our national interest.
It will be an interesting talk and will follow the annual Choral Evensong in aid of Amnesty in the Cathedral.  Tickets: apply to magnacartaevents@salcath.co.uk.
In the summer on 15 June, we are planning, with the Playhouse, an event where an actor will read selected passages from the Charter and then a panel of guests to discuss their significance. The guests are likely to be Kate Allen, the Director of Amnesty UK, Prof Guy Standing author of The Precariat and writer and researcher, Ben Rawlence. This will be in the afternoon so it’s a date for the diary at present. Details will be both here and at http://www.salisburyplayhouse.com.
On the morning of the 15th, there will be a 6th form conference involving local schools and Kate Allen has been invited to that.
We held a signing on Saturday morning and invited people to sign cards on behalf of four prisoners of conscience. It had been held over from Christmas because we had too many other things on so we were not confident of large numbers. Our other concern was the events in Paris which has hardened some peoples’ attitudes to terrorism in all its forms. Some people equate human rights with ‘supporting terrorists’ and there is the occasional remark along the lines that ‘they must have done something or they wouldn’t be arrested’.
We needn’t have been worried on either count and there was a steady stream of people to sign cards all morning. The cards are generalised greetings fashioned from Christmas cards but with anything religious removed. The only limiting factor in fact was that the table was too small to accommodate the numbers. We secured around 150 signatures and the cards will be posted in batches.
Thanks to all those in the local group who helped.
