You are browsing the Blog for events.

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →
Avatar photo by Ruth

Amneslunch and Ceilidh Coming Up, Local Opportunities and Global Campaigns News

April 15, 2014 in events, information, main, news, newsletter by Ruth

Why hello there,

Sorry for the delay, I was waiting for news and updates before sending this newsletter – and now we have news aplenty! Our events are at the top, and then there are some good looking opportunities and actions that we have been asked to share with you, followed by some wonderful human rights news and campaign successes sent out by AIUK at the beginning of this month. Happy reading!

May: Amneslunch!

We are planning to start our new lunch club on the 1st May, as a simple casual, drop-by and say ‘hi’ kind of thing. Join the event to let us know if you think you’ll make it along at some point and suggest things that we can do/talk about. Also, we haven’t confirmed all the dates so let us know when you would like us to be there.

Saturday 24th May: Ceilidh for Red Cross Tracing Service

STAR Glasgow, GU Amnesty, and GU Red Cross are hosting their annual ceilidh fundraiser at the end of exams this year! As well as the usual ceilidh dances, we’ll be having a whiskey toss (where you can win a bottle of whiskey!), and a raffle with prizes worth up to £40!

As usual, all funds raised on the night will be going to the Red Cross International Tracing Service – this service helps reunite families and loved ones who have been displaced by conflicts around the world. They do a lot of great work, and you can read more about it here:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Finding-missing-family/International-family-tracing

Tickets are £3 if you buy them beforehand, or £4 on the door. Tickets can be bought from anyone in the STAR, Amnesty, or Red Cross groups.

Rights Referendum Campaign: Keeping Human Rights in the Debate

From Amnesty Scotland:

In the run up to Scotland’s Referendum on Independence, we have launched our Rights Referendum campaign calling for any future Scottish Government to respect and safeguard human rights at home and abroad, regardless of the outcome of the vote.

It would be fantastic if you could join the Rights Referendum campaign and mobilise students from around Scotland to take action by contacting local MSPs and Scottish MPs, asking your representatives to show their support for human rights. Here’s the link to our action on the Amnesty website:

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/scotland-scottish-independence-referendum-human-rights?from=issues

AHRI Human Rights Conference: Call for Submissions

From the Glasgow Human Rights Network at Glasgow University:

The Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) calls for the submission of proposals for papers to be presented at the AHRI Human Rights Conference to be held in Copenhagen on 29-30 September 2014.

“Human Rights under Pressure: Exploring norms, institutions and policies”

Papers can be presented on any topic related to human rights and should be unpublished. Interdisciplinary projects and jointly authored papers are welcomed. Proposals for entire pa- nels (up to four papers) are equally welcome, indicating the title, abstract and author of each paper as well as proposed chairs and discussants.

Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals is 1 May 2014. Submissions should be sent to ekni@humanrights.dk. All abstracts will be reviewed by the AHRI Programme Com- mittee and selections announced by 1 June 2014. Formal registration for the conference will be possible from 1 June.

This is only a snippet of the email that was sent. If you are interested, please reply to this email and I will forward you the rest of the information.

New NGO for Maternal and Children’s Rights

From the Glasgow Human Rights Network at Glasgow University:

A new NGO is being established, specialising in maternal and child rights, particularly for Reproductive Health Rights Education, initially in Malawi and Scotland, but not exclusively so.  The aims include reduced HIV, improved maternal health and reduced maternal mortality, through female empowerment.

If you are interested in finding out more and might be interested in supporting these objectives, please contact Gordon MacPherson at scunner1320@yahoo.co.uk.

Great News on our Amnesty Campaigns!

In recent weeks, we’ve had good news on a whole host of campaigns, from the release of Hakamada Iwao in Japan, to the UK ratifying the Arms Trade Treaty and the UN Human Rights Council voting for an inquiry into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the UK has welcomed the first of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to be granted sanctuary here – the direct result of all our campaigning as a global community.

Arms Trade Treaty

2nd April 2014 marked the one year anniversary of the UN vote and saw 18 governments, including the UK, jointly deposit their signed ratification papers at a special ceremony at the UN. That brings the total of ratifications up to 31, well over half way to the 50 we need.

There is now every likelihood that we will see the 50th ratification as early as this autumn, allowing the treaty enter into force well within two years of its adoption. For an international Treaty, that’s actually that’s pretty good going. Read more.

Syrian Refugees

After months of weak arguments and refusal to share responsibility for resettling some of the escalating numbers of Syrian refugees, the government has eventually done the right thing. The announcement comes after a combination of months of lobbying work from our refugee specialists and the incredible response and action taken by Amnesty supporters. Read more.

Hakamada Iwao – the longest-serving death row prisoner.

Hakamada is, for the first time in nearly half a century, experiencing life outside of a detention centre. He has serious mental health problems after his time on death row, having spent the previous 46 years awaiting execution every single day; Japan gives its prisoners no forewarning of their execution – many find out just minutes before they are hanged. We hope that soon Hakamada may experience justice that is nearly half a century overdue. Read more.

War crimes in Sri Lanka

On 27th March 2014, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish an inquiry into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka, something we have all fought long and hard for. After a certain amount of wrangling with the rules and filibustering, the Resolution was passed with 23 states in favour, 12 against and 12 abstentions. Read more.

Jailed for posting on Facebook: Jabeur Mejri now freed in Tunisia

Jabeur was part of our 2013 Write for Rights campaign and nearly 12,000 of you signed our petition calling for his release. Thank you, your simple act has made a massive difference. Read more.

Jailed for supporting LGBTI teenagers: Elena Klimova now freed in Russia

In January this year, Elena Klimova was charged under Russia’s new anti-‘gay propaganda’ law for running Children 404, a website offering support to LGBTI teenagers. Read more.

Mozambique takes positive step towards outlawing rape in marriage

In March this year, the parliament of Mozambique was close to ratifying a Criminal Code that would permit rape within marriage. Not only would the proposed law allow impunity in existing abusive marriages, but if a rapist were to later wed an unmarried victim (including girls as young as 12 years old), the abuser would escape prosecution altogether. Thankfully, authorities in Mozambique have publicly stated they will not follow through with these proposals. Read more.

 

Whether you are having a good rest or cracking on with coursework and revision, I hope it’s all going splendidly.

Ruth

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Tuesday 28th January: EGM, Guantanamo Bay and Syria

January 23, 2014 in events, main, meetings, newsletter by Ruth

Hello all,

This one is coming early as there is an important announcement about the EGM NEXT WEEK. The committee has decided that we would like to create the new position of Press Officer, as there is great importance of using media outlets to publicise our campaigns and events- which is something that we have not achieved due to a lack of time that everyone else on the committee experiences because there is so much else going on! Given the very exciting news that we have received in response to our LGBT rights campaign and petition to Coca-Cola, we felt that the creation of this position couldn’t wait until the AGM in March. Read on for more!

We have an updated Doodle poll for our Guantanamo Bay demonstration next week so please update your availability! http://www.doodle.com/fr7gq32u4xr2rkq6

Next meeting: Tuesday 28th January, 5pm -7pm Room 433 St. Andrews Building

**We are back in the same room as last week**

Extraordinary General Meeting

There will be two positions open:

Campaigns Coordinator – responsible for overseeing the campaign actions. The person with this role will help to research the chosen campaigns and coordinate any events in collaboration with other societies/organisations. Be prepared for lots and lots of emailing.

Press Officer – responsible for engaging with student and local media as well as updating our Facebook/Twitter accounts. The person with this role will work closely with the Campaigns Coordinator and Publicity Officer to put together press releases, blogs and update Amnesty International UK with our news and planned events. AIUK has published resources to help with writing press releases and support this role.

Anyone can run for these positions and if you are interested, then you are welcome to email us and we will be happy to answer any questions.

– After the meeting we will be heading for a drink to welcome the new committee members so everyone is invited for that.

Guantanamo Bay documentary and Syria presentation with guest speakers

Last week we heard a very interesting and useful presentation on the history of Guantanamo Bay and so next week we will show a 15 minute documentary that takes a closer look at the treatment of prisoners who are still held there, the ongoing hunger strikes and the campaign for the release of British resident Shaker Aamer.

The last part of the meeting will focus on Syria with a presentation by Jana. We are also inviting some of the guest speakers from the Panel Discussion which will be held the next day so that those of you who cannot make it have still had the opportunity to hear from other organisations that are working on the to help those affected by the conflict.

Coca-Cola Petition Update

Dom has now launched GU Amnesty’s petition to Coca-Cola through Change.org, requesting that they put the LGBT rainbow on their products to truly support LGBT people as they continue to sponsor the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Not only was this a fantastic idea in the first place, but it has received special attention from the staff at Change.org who have been in contact with us to establish a plan to promote the petition further. They have told us that there are people within the USA and Ukraine who have expressed a desire to help promote the campaign, so this is very exciting news!

1)      Please sign and share with friends!

2)      Join our Thunderclap!

Coalition for Syrian Refugees Events

GU Amnesty are a member of the GU Coalition for Syrian Refugees, a group formed last year to hold events to raise money for charities who are providing aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria.

Wednesday 29th January: Panel Discussion 7-9pm, Boyd Orr LT 1

“Syria: I can still see hope”

This is shaping up to be a fantastic event so I hope you can make it!

Chairperson: Assaad Al Achi from the Syrian Non-Violence Movement, a group that AIUK is working with and supporting.

Other speakers include:

Kurt Mills, Convenor of the Glasgow Human Rights Network

A guest speaker from Syria, supported by the Scottish Refugee Council

Oxfam UK

Unicef on Campus

Friends of MSF Glasgow

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/573301232761988/

Saturday 1st February: The Challenge and Ceilidh

The Challenge is for team of up to 4 people who are enjoy a little competition – all in the name of raising money for various funds for Syrian refugees. Registration is open from 12noon and teams will be given a list of challenges to complete in about 2 hours. The challenges are to be filmed on a smart phone and the winners will be announced at the ceilidh.

The ceilidh is happening in QUDOS at 7pm. Of course there is a raffle with some fantastic prizes, and this event will round up all our efforts and hopefully see a considerable sum raised for our cause.

Saturday 22nd February: GU Amnesty’s 6th Annual Secret Policeman’s Ball + Afterparty!

Our multi-award winning night of comedy is back. Once again we are bringing you the biggest student charity fundraiser on campus, hosted by Billy Kirkwood.

Our afterparty is being kindly hosted by Philanthrobeats who have recently gained official charity status and have raised money for many excellent causes since their first club night in 2012. Check out their website to see their events and how to get involved!

This year looks to be even bigger and better – remember to get your tickets in advance! Here’s the event page for those on Facebook and website page for those who aren’t.

Other events

An opportunity with HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust)

**The deadline for this is the 28th January**

Do you have a passion for human rights and a talent for art, writing or campaigning? Enter the HART Scholarship Competition 2014.

The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) works to provide lasting change through aid and advocacy for those suffering oppression and persecution. The communities we work with have little presence in the international media, and the humanitarian situations they face are largely unknown and unreported. Many live behind closed borders, meaning it is difficult for aid and support to get in, and for information to get out.

We are calling for essays, artwork and campaign strategies which focus on the political and humanitarian situations faced by our partners around the world, and which raise awareness of human rights violations.

HART Scholarships will be awarded to winning entrants, including the chance to see your work published or exhibited, or to put your campaign plan into action, a cash prize and an invite to tea in the House of Lords. For more information, please visit www.hart-uk.org/campaigns/hart-scholarship-competitions.

14th – 16th February: Students for Co-operation: Founding Conference (Birmingham)

Details on Facebook

Tags: , , , , ,
2 Comments »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Tuesday 21st January: Guantanamo Bay Events, CSR Panel Discussion, Challenge and Ceilidh

January 18, 2014 in events, information, main, meetings, newsletter by Ruth

Hey all,

Happy Saturday and congratulations for making it through the first week back! It was great to see so many people at the SPB publicity launch on Tuesday; I hope you all enjoyed the comedy preview!

In short, here are the most important links:

 

Next meeting on Tuesday 21st January: Guantanamo Bay (Campaign for January)

**Room change: St Andrew’s Building Room 433A/B**

Our chosen campaign for this month is Guantanamo Bay. Despite Obama’s promise to have it closed, Saturday 11th marked the 12th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay and for a number of inmates, including British resident Shaker Aamer, this will also be their 12th year as prisoners. Many of these individuals have in fact been cleared for release but remain detained at the facility despite international pressure to have them released. Find out more on the AIUK website.

Guest speaker: we are hoping to have Dr Iain Banks from the University to deliver a presentation on the history of Guantanamo Bay.

Demonstration on campus: we are still waiting for the orange jumpsuits so the demo will take place later next week. Fill in the Doodle if you want to take part.

Back-up plan – conflict minerals continued: Our chosen campaign for the year

Communication has been difficult with Dr Banks so this is the alternative arrangement if he is unavailable. We plan on making full use of the fact we have a better room for showing documentaries and will be screening ‘Blood in the Mobile’ a documentary film that looks more into the use of conflict minerals in our everyday consumer electronics. http://bloodinthemobile.org/the-film/

Coalition for Syrian Refugees (CSR) Events

GU Amnesty are a member of the GU Coalition for Syrian Refugees, a group formed last year to hold events to raise money for charities who are providing aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria.

Wednesday 29th January: Panel Discussion – Syria: I can still see hope

Chairperson: Assaad Al Achi from the Syrian Non-Violence Movement, a group that AIUK is working with and supporting.

Other speakers include: Unicef on Campus and Friends of MSF Glasgow

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/573301232761988/

Saturday 1st February: The Challenge and Ceilidh

The Challenge is for team of up to 4 people who are enjoy a little competition – all in the name of raising money for various funds for Syrian refugees. Registration is open from 12noon and teams will be given a list of challenges to complete in about 2 hours. The challenges are to be filmed on a smart phone and the winners will be announced at the ceilidh.

The ceilidh is happening in QUDOS at 7pm. Of course there is a raffle with some fantastic prizes, and this event will round up all our efforts and hopefully see a considerable sum raised for our cause.

 

Saturday 22nd February: GU Amnesty’s 6th Annual Secret Policeman’s Ball + Afterparty!

Our multi-award winning night of comedy is back! Once again we are bringing you the biggest student charity fundraiser on campus, hosted by Billy Kirkwood.

Our afterparty is being kindly hosted by Philanthrobeats who have recently gained official charity status and have raised money for many excellent causes since their first club night in 2012. Check out their website to see their events and how to get involved!

This year looks to be even bigger and better – remember to get your tickets in advance! Here’s the event page for those on Facebook and website page for those who aren’t.

 

Other events:

14th – 16th February: Students for Co-operation: Founding Conference

A message from Students for Co-operation:

Hi, we’d appreciate it if you could see if any of your members are interested in or are in student cooperatives as we are having our founding conference of Students for Cooperation in Birmingham in February! We have some funding too to get students down from Scotland. It is a new national organisation (and cooperative!) for student cooperatives to get together and to help new cooperatives form, thanks!

Here is the event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1424534744446779/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

22nd – 23rd March: Newcastle University hosts the NE Regional Student Conference

We are invited to the North-East regional conference organised by students at Newcastle University. The agenda will be emailed to us at the end of the month but they have requested that we let them know if any of us are interested in attending. Arrangements for food and accommodation will also be detailed later on.

If you are interested then let me know – president@guamnesty.org.uk

As you can probably tell, we have a very busy semester ahead of us! It’s going to be fantastically hectic for the committee but huge amounts of fun for all.

Ruth

Tags: , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Christmas Carolling, Human Rights Day and Winter Social 2013!

December 9, 2013 in actions, events, information, main, newsletter by Ruth

Hello hello, sorry this is late!

I know this a very busy time for everyone so I’ll keep it brief! Remember – there will be no meeting on Tuesday.

Last week of Women’s Rights

I think last week’s film was a great choice, and thanks to Cate who pointed out that there are follow-up actions to take on the website. So if you are taking a revision break, you can sign a petition to world leaders demanding an end to ‘gendercide’ in India.

December’s Fundraiser: Carol Singing!

This is happening TOMORROW (Monday) so hopefully if you wanted to take part you are in the planning group. If not, then you can still come along! We are meeting outside Hillhead Subway station at 12noon and I will have song sheets; don’t think we actually expected you to remember all the verses to Good King Wenceslas.

Human Rights Day/Winter Social!

On Tuesday we are having a social instead of a meeting and hope to see as many of you as possible. Join the event if you are coming and if you are not sure then don’t worry, we have reserved extra seating to cover ‘maybes’. If you have exams, let this be your study break! We will be gathering from 6pm onward and you can pop along for as long or as short a time as you want.

 

For those of you with exams, GOOD LUCK !!

Ruth

Tags: , , , , ,
No Comments »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Tuesday 3rd December: Women’s Rights Film Screening, Carol Singing and Human Rights Day Social

December 1, 2013 in events, information, main, news, newsletter by Ruth

Good Tidings GU Amnesty,

December is upon us and we are nearing the end of term and, dare I say it, the beginning of exams. So our next meeting will be our last for this year, but we also have our end of term social, and fundraiser– read on for all the details.

Last week we expressed our outrage at Coca-Cola’s failure to acknowledge human rights abuses in Russia: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.631682286875487.1073741835.458988730811511&type=1

We then took part in the Reclaim the Night March as part of the 16 days of action to end violence against women: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/2013/11/photos-from-reclaim-the-night-march-2013/

Next meeting: Film screening in St. Andrew’s Building, Room 213 5pm

We are back in the St. Andrew’s Building (Woodlands) for our final meeting and round-up of our campaigns of the semester. We have chosen a film which is related to our women’s rights theme for November, and this will look at ‘gendercide’. This term has come about following the recognition of the fact that many newborn girls are killed simply because they are girls. The film looks at this across different countries speaking to families who have both killed their own daughters and had their daughters killed.

For more information on the content of the film, please email us at mail@guamnesty.org.uk but here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISme5-9orR0

Map for St. Andrew’s Building: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_26876_en.pdf

December’s Fundraiser: Carol Singing!

Our Fundraising Officer, Maisie, was collecting the contact details for anyone wanting to join the carol singing group for our final fundraiser of  the year. We have done this in previous years and it has been a huge success and great fun! We sang outside Hillhead subway for just over an hour and managed to raise quite a bit of money before heading for a well-earned hot chocolate, so I think this would be the plan for this year.

If you weren’t at the meeting on Tuesday and want to get involved, here’s the event page. The general feeling was to do it before the 10th December but I don’t think the date is absolutely fixed so we can finalise this on Tuesday.

10th December – Human Rights Day and End of Term Social!

Join the event if you are coming/thinking of coming so that we can get an idea of numbers. We are looking to have it in a pub but as always there will be no emphasis on drinking or staying out late. If you are more interested in human rights and less interested in socialising, there will be still be an action to do. Amnesty usually have a Christmas card appeal where we send Christmas cards to people who are in prison, to the families of those who have ‘gone missing’, to people who are awaiting investigations into human rights abuses that have taken place but fail to be acknowledged and others too, so this is something we feel is important to do.

So please come along, even if you are only free for an hour or so and then I can also wish you a Happy Christmas in person 😀

Other Events

2nd December – 6th December: Medics Against Violence Campaign Week – Ask Listen &Respect Me

Event page for the campaign week with relevant news articles and reposts being posted each day.

Event page for the film screening and discussion (Wednesday 4th December, 7pm, room tbc).

‘Medics against Violence are working alongside Police Scotland, and the Violence Reduction Unit and are campaigning to raise awareness of sexual violence. Sexual violence is a major problem with huge numbers of incidents involving both male and female victims each year.’

‘We will also be holding a film & discussion night, led by Graham Goulden, Chief Inspector and National Anti-Violence Campaign Coordinator at the Violence Reduction Unit, Glasgow.
It will be at 7.00pm, Boyd Orr Building (Room TBC) – Wednesday 4th December.’

9th December: MEDSIN Campaign Poster Design Evening 7pm

MEDSIN are holding this event as a follow-up to the talk they had on human trafficking. As this is our chosen campaign for next semester, this may be of interest to many of you and we will be working with both MEDSIN and STOP THE TRAFFIK Glasgow next semester for our campaign. This session will focus on a poster campaign – here’s the event page for more information.

Happy 1st December and let the countdown begin!

Ruth

Tags: , , , ,
No Comments »

Avatar photo by Rob Hallam

Photos from Reclaim the Night March 2013

November 28, 2013 in actions, events, main, photos by Rob Hallam

Please share this with anyone who was a part of the march!

Reclaim the Night 2013 was yet again a great success with a strong turnout and a lot of positive energy. Some of our members went along carrying banners and candles-  running most of the way to get there!


Our members en-route to the march


The march progresses along University Avenue

Along Gibson Street

Finishing up outside the STUC

Tags: , ,
3 Comments »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Tuesday 26th November: Coca-Cola’s Shame, Reclaim the Night March, Human Rights Day and Other Events!

November 24, 2013 in events, main, meetings, news by Ruth


Hey lovely people,

Congratulations everyone on such a good effort for the Day of Silence and Jamnesty! We managed to get the photo action posters up and you should be able to see them in the QMU, SRC, GUU and GUSA office soon, if not already. Also, the Thunderclap was a success! (Although it did go off a little later than we originally planned.) And finally, we managed to get at least 88 people to Jamnesty, raising over £300!

I have to say that Jamnesty has been rated as one of GU Amnesty’s best events ever, and I completely agree. It was such a good night and our performers were all fantastic. You can see the photos on our website where you can also find the links to Yew, Chrissy Barnacle and Flying Penguins’ pages so that you can listen again and download their music.

Next meeting: Exposing Coca-Cola and Reclaim the Night March, 6.30pm

You may have heard that Coca-Cola have refused to speak out against the discrimination and violence that is being directed at LGBT people in Russia. Here is their pretty pathetic statement.

Our plan is to create a banner/poster that will highlight Coca-Cola’s failure to act and plan how to raise awareness on campus.

There are a few other things that we need to discuss, including our final social (see below) and fundraiser of the semester, and a Secret Policeman’s Ball update but it’s going to be a fairly short meeting (30 mins planning and discussion, 30 mins campaign action) because this is happening at 6/6.30pm:

(A message from ex-committee member, Cat, about the Reclaim the Night March)

“Hello everyone! Before I go on this post, I’d just like to congratulate all of you that took part in the day of Silence on Wednesday. It was absolutely lovely to see all of your photos and I hope you raised plenty of money!

November is drawing to a close, which means we are about to enter the 16 Days of Action for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. There are an awful lot of activities going in Glasgow in order to raise awareness about this, so please forgive me for not linking to them all.

I would like to make you aware of this one, though. The Rape Crisis group will be holding their annual Reclaim the Night March, which this year will take place on Tuesday 26th October.

The march will start at 18:30 outside the main entrance of the Botanic Gardens (opposite Oran Mor), and will go down Byres Road, up University Avenue, then down Gibson St to the STUC on Woodlands Road- where there will be hot drinks, food, speeches and music. You can start assembling outside the Botanic Gardens from 18:00.

In the years I was with the group, we got quite a few people to attend. So I really hope I’ll see some of you there!

Once again, great work with the campaigns so far this year, and I’m looking forward to the SPB already!

So anyone who wants to come along, we will be joining the march as GU Amnesty. We will have an Amnesty banner and if you want to bring jars with tealights, that is quite often what people do. We will go together, straight from the meeting.

Tuesday 3rd December: Documentary Screening for Women’s Rights

Oh dear, I can’t believe we’re planning for things in December. That’s scary.

For our last official meeting, we have a documentary film in mind related to women’s rights so thought this would be a good way to finish our women’s rights events. We will discuss this at the meeting and are open to more suggestions.

Tuesday 10th December: Human Rights Day!

Our favourite day of the year, and it’s on a Tuesday 🙂

As this is during our exam period, we were not planning on having an actual meeting but we really cannot ignore such an important date in our calendar. So, we hoped to make this our end of term social, which we are going to discuss at the next meeting so we can get an idea of what folk might want to do.

Other Events

Sunday 1st December: Pridepop! (World Aids Day)

W O R L D A I D S D A Y

World AIDS Day is celebrated on 1 December every year and is an international day to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. It is an opportunity for us as human beings to unite and support each other in our fight against HIV.

P R I D E P O P

PRIDEPOP is a night of love, acceptance and respect. It is a night of intolerance towards prejudice and hate. The party itself is a musical and visual drinking system that combines music, dancing and alcohol. PRIDEPOP could mean anything. But for Andrew and Carlo it is a celebration of equality. It is a night where we come together regardless of our HIV status to penetrate the night with our pride in who we are and what we can achieve when we treat everyone as equal.

The event is being held at the Berkeley Suite from 8pm on Sunday 1 December. 

2nd December – 6th December: Medics Against Violence Campaign Week – Ask Listen & Respect Me

Event page for the campaign week with relevant news articles and reposts being posted each day.

Event page for the film screening and discussion (Wednesday 4th December, 7pm, room tbc).

‘Medics against Violence are working alongside Police Scotland, and the Violence Reduction Unit and are campaigning to raise awareness of sexual violence. Sexual violence is a major problem with huge numbers of incidents involving both male and female victims each year.

This December we will be holding a ‘Campaign Week’ 2nd-6th December. We want to get more people talking about this serious topic and to learn more about the early warnings that you may see. We want everyone to be safe this Christmas, and to know who to turn to if you see something or if something happens to you.

Each day we will be emailing and posting articles and news reports relating to the campaign.

We will be holding stalls at lunchtime throughout the week where you can get more information about the campaign, donate to the campaign and buy wristbands.

We will also be holding a film & discussion night, led by Graham Goulden, Chief Inspector and National Anti-Violence Campaign Coordinator at the Violence Reduction Unit, Glasgow.
The event page for this can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1410819055821606

It will be at 7.00pm, Boyd Orr Building (Room TBC) – Wednesday 4th December.’

It may nearly be the end of this semester, but there is still a lot going on! Remember to bring warm clothes on Tuesday if you are marching with us.

Ruth

Tags: ,
No Comments »

Avatar photo by Rob Hallam

Photos from Jamnesty!

November 23, 2013 in events, main, photos by Rob Hallam

Another BIG BIG THANKS to everyone who made Jamnesty such a wonderful night. Particular gratitude is extended to the performers (Yew, Chrissy Barnacle and Flying Penguins) who were universally excellent and who kindly agreed to perform at our charity event. It was mentioned during the night, but if you enjoyed them please check out their stuff –  they all have stuff to listen to FOR FREE (or you can pay what you want) so go for it:

And a big well done to everyone else involved as well- those who helped organise, co-ordinate, make decorations, put up decorations, take down decorations and ensure the smooth running all made it possible. You all know who you are and you all put in a lot of effort so you all share in the success.

(click on an image for a full-size popout)

Lastly, thanks to everyone that came along- you can’t have a gig night without an audience! Whilst it was a fun, entertaining night it touched on important and serious issues- equal marriage, LGBT rights in Russia and everywhere, the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the minute’s silence. These are matters close to many that were there.

 

Tags: , , , ,
1 Comment »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Meeting on Tuesday 5th November: Women’s Rights and Upcoming Events!

October 31, 2013 in events, information, main, news, newsletter by Ruth

BOO!!

Happy Hallowe’en everyone.

This one’s early because it is indeed the Student Conference this weekend and then the next time we meet it will be November! Talk about scary.

If you missed our meeting this week, Dominyka has written the blog, so check it out. I can now report that we have photos from the GUU, SRC and GUSA to add to our LGBT photo action. You can find them all on our website thanks to our Website Manager Rob who does a lot of hard work with that camera.

Next meeting: Tuesday 5th November, Committee Room 1, QMU

We are moving onto our next campaign – women’s rights with a focus on India. Dom is putting together a presentation that looks at the recent gang rape case in India and the subsequent changes in law with regards to reinstating the death penalty for certain forms of sexual violence. However, it has been largely overlooked that there are certain forms of rape that are still considered legal. This meeting will be a good opportunity to discuss what really ought to have been changed in India in terms of legal protections for women.

The first plenary at the Student Conference is ‘Women in Afghanistan – in the news for the wrong reasons’. Those of us who are attending will hopefully have lots to talk about after listening to the various speakers. This was in fact Amnesty UK’s October campaign for student groups, so we will cover this on Tuesday as well.

We are hoping to end the meeting at 6pm for mobdro free download those of you who have plans for bonfire night. If you don’t have plans and wish you did, you can join those of us who are heading to Glasgow Green after the meeting for the fireworks. Remember warm clothes!

Film Event: Wednesday 6th November, 12-2pm 217A Gillmorehill Centre

Screen Seminars at Glasgow – Women making documentaries in the Arab world

One of our members pointed this very well timed event taking place next Wednesday, right after the beginning of our women’s rights campaign. And it’s on campus, even better.

‘Filmmaking in the Middle East is often a matter of idealism and activism, especially in the case of women documentary makers. In spite of harsh censorship, conservative morals and a lack of investment, women have found ways of subtly negotiating dissidence in their films, something that is coming to light very clearly since the ‘Arab Revolutions’. In this talk I will introduce the aesthetic and ethic practices by the very first women making documentaries in the Middle East.

‘A historical overview of the struggles by women making documentaries will be supported by images and clips taken from documentaries by the pioneering women of Arab documentary making, e.g. Jocelyne Saab (Lebanon), Ateyyat El Abnoudy (Egypt), Selma Baccar (Tunisia) and Assia Djebar (Algeria).’

Tuesday 19th November: Guest Speaker – Scottish Transgender Alliance

I know we had our last meeting on LGBT rights this week but there is actually still more to come, yay! Nathan Gale from the Scottish Transgender Alliance (part of the Equality Network) will be coming to talk to us and we can take part in their postcard campaign. We are delighted that he can make it and after that we will have achieved everything that members suggested we do in terms of events for LGBT rights this semester. So that’s something to celebrate!

Wednesday 20th November: Day of Silence and Jamnesty!

Day of Silence – All day on campus/at home/in your bed/at work/wherever you are in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community

Jamnesty: Halt 2, Woodlands Road, doors open 7.30pm, tickets £3/£4 on the door

We have begun looking into t-shirts for our Day of Silence and Maisie is emailing Mobdro Online TV the SRC to make sure that a message is sent to every student telling them about our plans. We thought of buying white t-shirts so that we can decorate them with our GU Amnesty stamp and solidarity messages. We’ll let you know next week how much this will be and see if you want to go ahead with ordering the t-shirts. Whatever we decide, we need something visible for those taking the pledge to be silent and those who are supporting – everyone is welcome to take part so encourage friends outwith the society to join in too.

Ali has been busy finding the best deals for printing the LGBT campaign photos for decorating the Halt 2 and also for creating a poster collage. We are hoping to have big posters in the QMU, GUU and SRC to publicise our solidarity action on that day.

Of course we have Jamnesty in the evening, which we are all super excited for! Please remember to get your tickets in advance as we are almost through our first batch of 30. You can get tickets at the meetings, and you can take tickets away for friends that you know are coming. You don’t need to pay for these at the time, I’ll make a note of who is taking away tickets and can collect money the week after.

Spook to you soon,

Ruth

Tags: , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Avatar photo by Ruth

Meeting on Tuesday 29th October and our Pub Quiz Today (Sunday)!

October 26, 2013 in cfci, events, information, main, meetings, news, newsletter, spb by Ruth


Hi everyone,

Welcome to our new members! It’s lovely to still have people joining the society. If you missed the meeting, you can read Ali’s blog on what happened.

I hope you are all remembering our PUB QUIZ TODAY!! Looking forward to seeing you then! We will be starting at 7.30pm in Jim’s Bar, QMU and those of you who are bringing home-baking, thank you in advance, we will add them to the stall with our tote bags.

Conflict-Free Campus Initiative

If you didn’t make this meeting (2 weeks ago), you can read the blog to see what this is all about. Some people who were there said that they would ask certain lecturers if they would support the campaign – please do this is you haven’t already. I will also remind folk on Tuesday!

Next meeting – Tuesday 29th 5pm, QMU

We have been unsuccessful in finding another meeting room for Tuesday so will still be in Committee Room 1.

Unfortunately the Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance do not have anyone who can come and talk to us on Tuesday, but there is a small chance of getting a speaker towards the end of term leaving us with the opportunity to show a recent documentary featuring Stephen Fry who has travelled to various countries where the gay community face persecution, violence and potentially the death penalty.

As this is officially our final LGBT rights meeting, we were hoping to finish with a quick letter writing action to the International Olympic Committee to send with our photos.

Debbie will be bringing along our previous Secret Policeman’s Ball posters so that we can think about the design for this year, and for those of you who want to enter the competition, this is an opportunity to get started!

November Campaign – Women’s Rights with a focus on India

For those of you who have just joined us, we voted this as our 2nd campaign of the year. At Tuesday’s meeting we will have a discussion about what particular topics to cover in our meetings in November and possible campaign actions we want to do.

Day of Silence

Wednesday 20th November – Day of Silence

‘The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.’

Although the date for this is in April and focuses on schools in the USA, we thought this was a brilliant solidarity action and even better when we can end our Day of Silence with our Jamnesty gig.  We will invite the LGBTQ+ Society to take part with us and anyone else who wants to join in is welcome to, so spread the word!

Love is a Human Right Jamnesty

Wednesday 20th November, The Halt 2 (Woodlands Road), 7.30pm

Well the banners are looking amazing! Thank you to everyone last week who helped make them J Ali is printing off all of our LGBT campaign photos as well so that we can stick these up all over the venue.

We are going to start selling tickets for this event because the Halt 2 need to know numbers in advance in order to organise staffing for the night. For this reason we decided to make tickets £3 in advance and £4 on the door- so remember to get yours on Sunday at the Pub Quiz, or at our next meeting.

See you later on!

Ruth

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →