Salisbury group held its Write for Rights in the Cathedral
November 2025
The Salisbury group held a successful Write for Rights in the Cathedral Cloisters today and there was an unbroken file of people agreeing to sign. We highlighted two individuals and one group of individuals. The latter were Guerreras por la Amazonia who call themselves the ‘daughter of the earth’ who despite threats and intimidation, continue to demand climate justice for their communities. Climate issues are being seen more and more in human rights terms in recent years. The activities of resource firms who are deforesting large chunks of the Amazon, are having a dramatic effect on the wildlife and on he indigenous peoples. The group took action against Chevron-Texaco to limit the methane flares they emit.
We highlighted Sai Zaw Thaike from Myanmar where the military junta still holds sway although a little less confidently these days. He is a photo journalist who was arrested 3 years ago and sentenced to 20 years of hard labour, tortured and held in solitary confinement for exposing what happened after cyclone Mocha.
Sonia Dahmani (pictured) from Tunisia was our third person. Sonia is a lawyer who has spoken out about racism, migration and prison conditions. She has been harassed and accused of spreading false news. She is under arrest and one of several who have been treated this way by the authoritarian president Kais Saied.
[Since preparing the Write for Rights, it appears that she has been released in the past few days. This is good news]
View of the signing.
Our thanks go to group members Andrew for arranging the event with the Cathedral, Fiona for organising the signing itself, and Tony, Val, Peter and Lesley for assisting on the day.
The group will be hosting a signing in the Cathedral cloister on Sunday 30 between 12 noon and 3 pm. We aim to do this every year and it is an opportunity for people visiting the Cathedral – for a service or other reason – to stop for a few moments to sign. There are many, many people who are imprisoned or under house arrest for their beliefs or because they are human rights defenders.
Members of the Salisbury group took part in a Write for Rights event
December 2024
Some members of the Salisbury group took part in a Write for Rights event in the Cathedral Cloisters on Sunday 1 December. There were four individuals we were campaigning for and around 80 cards were signed over a 3 hour session. This is fewer than in previous years and possibly reflects the ceaseless campaigning by elements of the media against human rights and for the abolition of the Human Rights Act. Between approximately 10 and 15% of people took part and signed cards.
The 52nd Vigil was held today in the Market Square in Salisbury and 30 attended. There was a kind of irony around today’s event as we looked out over the Market Square which was festooned with Christmas lights with the market in full swing. The Vigil is about peace in the region where Christianity began. With an estimated 44,000 dead in Gaza the notion of ‘peace and goodwill to all men’ seemed a long way off. Gaza and Palestine generally (however it is delineated) is precisely the area where Christianity was started yet here we are looking at a raging war and hatred seeming to be the defining spirit.
There is a temporary cessation of hostilities in Lebanon but few would confidently this to extend for any length of time.
Today (Sunday 1st December) we were in the Cathedral Cloisters from 10:00 until noon for a Write for Rights event so if you are in the area, please give us a call.
Members of the Salisbury Group will be at the Cathedral cloisters from around 10 o’clock on Sunday for our annual Write for Rights and people in Salisbury are invited to come and sign. We must not forget that many people are in prison or at risk of execution often for no more than disagreeing with the powers that be in their country. They have committed no crime but have may said something disobliging or critical of a president, king or other leader and frequently without trial, can end up in prison for many years. Human Rights defenders, lawyers or journalists are all caught up in this activity.
United Kingdom
The situation in the UK is fast approaching a kind of crisis concerning the issue of deporting people to Rwanda. The government will be tabling a bill next week to disapply sections of the Human Rights Act to enable the deportation of immigrants to Rwanda. Previous plans were blocked by the Supreme Court because the human rights situation in Rwanda is unsatisfactory. Refugees sent there were at risk of refoulement that is being sent back to a country where they would be at risk of bad treatment of some kind. A plan last June to despatch a plane load from Boscombe Down, an airfield a mile or so from where this is being written, was halted by the European Court.
The issue of the ‘boat people’ has become a major issue for the government being one of the Prime Minister’s 5 objectives. Although only a small part of the overall level of immigration, it has assumed huge significance to the point where there might be a confidence vote next week if the bill is not passed. Ostensibly, it is partly due to anger around the gangs involved in organising the crossings. The hope is that if the Rwanda deportations can get underway, this will act as a disincentive to people wishing to cross the Channel. There are many who view this as wishful thinking.
Critics, including Conservative politicians, point out that the bill – even if it becomes law – will not prevent claimants appealing to Strasbourg thus delaying the deportation process until way beyond the likely date of the General Election. This is leading some politicians to demand that we leave the European Court as well.
A leading proponent of this is Danny Kruger the MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, who is co-founder of the ‘New Conservatives’ whose ten point plan is built around immigration matters.
The whole matter has reached almost absurd levels. The Supreme Court looked carefully at the evidence and concluded that Rwanda is not a safe country. Critics and journalists are frequently detained and tortured in detention. Opposition is effectively banned. There are disappearances. A new treaty has been signed between the UK and Rwanda a few days ago which claims to overcome these human rights problems identified by the Supreme Court and clear the way for deportations to take place.
It is almost an example of national hysteria combined with false promises coming home to roost. It was claimed that Brexit would enable the UK to regain its sovereignty a benefit of which was to stop boat crossings and reduce immigration generally. Yet recent figures show immigration at a record 745,000. The vast majority are here legitimately and are needed in a range of sectors such as health, horticulture and care homes. These organisations would find operating without them almost impossible. Yet hysteria has been ratcheted up by the media with its focus on the boat crossings. New proposals will prevent family members joining those already here which will cause great anguish in many, many cases.
We have now arrived at a situation where the government wished to disapply parts of the Human Rights Act and even contemplate departing from the European Convention to join Russia which was ejected in 2022. The statements around this matter by local MP Danny Kruger are to be regretted.
The second of our Write for Rights this year took place today, Saturday 11 December in St Thomas’s Church in Salisbury starting at 10 am for 2 hours. As before the cases were be:
Mikita Zalatarou of Belarus. He is a teenager who has been sent to a penal colony following protests at the recent elections. Zhang Zhan of China. She is one of the journalists who tried to get the truth out about the Covid virus in Wuhan. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Ciham ali Ahmed of Eritrea. She was arrested on the Sudan border and nine years later her family do not know her whereabouts. Many prisoners are held in underground containers. Bernardo Caal Xol in Guatamala. He was caught up in the protests against the construction of hydroelectric dams which would have seriously harmed the indigenous peoples. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison with no evidence provided.
These of course are just a small selection of the thousands of people who are imprisoned for reasons of the beliefs they hold, opposition to the government or because they are human rights defenders, journalists or lawyers. If you can spare a moment or two to pop in we would be delighted to see you.
It would also be an opportunity to make yourself known if you wish to join the group.
Just under 100 cards were signed on Sunday and around a third of passers by stopped to sign. We shall be repeating the exercise in St Thomas’s Church on Saturday 11th starting at 10 am.
A reminder that we will be holding our Write for Rights tomorrow in the Cathedral cloisters starting at 11am today and finishing at 1pm.
We shall be asking people to sign for the following:
Mikita Zalatarou of Belarus. He is a teenager who has been sent to a penal colony following protests at the recent elections.
Zhang Zhan of China. She is one of the journalists who tried to get the truth out about the Covid virus in Wuhan. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Ciham ali Ahmed of Eritrea. She was arrested on the Sudan border and nine years later her family do not know her whereabouts. Many prisoners are held in underground containers.
Bernardo Caal Xol in Guatamala. He was caught up in the protests against the construction of hydroelectric dams which would have seriously harmed the indigenous peoples. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison with no evidence provided.
These are of course only four examples of the hundreds of thousands who are arrested, tortured, disappeared or imprisoned for speaking out against their regimes. We hope you can spare a few moments to sign a card at the Cathedral.
We shall be at St Thomas’s Church in Salisbury on Saturday11th starting at 10 am.
We shall be doing a Write for Rights this Sunday (5th December) in the Cathedral cloisters
For many years, we have done a signing at Christmas time, usually in the Market Square. We moved to the Cloisters the year before last and were more successful in getting people to sign. So we shall be there from 11:00 until 14:00 and anyone in Salisbury is welcome to come along and sign. It would also be a good opportunity for you to make yourself known to us if you were thinking of joining the group.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 