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Election Results, Amneslunch, Campaign Updates and GHRN Event

Hello all,

Well it certainly feels strange not to end a Tuesday in Committee Room 1, but it’s been one of the most exciting weeks all year so there is a lot to report!

Special thanks to Rob for the witty introductions which brightened up my day considerably.

Exciting Things that Happened Last Week

The Committee 2014-2015

Congratulations to the new committee who were elected at our AGM last week!

President – Rob Hallam
Vice President – Duncan McNab
Secretary – Domi Bacanskaite
Treasurer – Jana Sweeney
Campaigns Coordinator – Alex Pancheva
Fundraising Officer – Nikola Cabanova
Publicity Officer – Milia Hau
Press Officer – Rebecca Corbett
Website Manager – Siuan Poirteir

SRC Volunteering, Clubs, and Societies Awards 2014

GU Amnesty was awarded the Publicity Award on Thursday, which we were delighted to accept. The award was given to us for a huge range of efforts including: our website redesign; weekly blogs and news updates; our photo actions and LGBTQ+ rights posters on campus; publicity for all our events including social media and the SPB posters/flyers.  Almost everything that we have achieved this year is related in some way to this award so it’s a true team effort. We have been given £50 as the prize and we would welcome suggestions as to how to best use this money to contribute to the society’s activities.

So far, it has been suggested that we use it for the costs of our first magazine that we are putting together at the end of this year, which has been supported.

GU Amnesty Climbed Goatfell!

After a very early start on Saturday, 8 of us took the ferry to the Isle of Arran and tackled the highest point on the island. We made it to over 700 metres and were not far from the top before we had to turn back due to fog. Still, we made it considerably further than last year and this made a great end to a very busy semester. Thanks for all the sponsor money- we have raised over £400!

Most of the photos are now up; if you missed it this time, there is always next year!

Thursday 1st May: Amneslunch

We are starting the lunch club 12 noon – 2pm, probably in the Fraser Building, and will keep it going for as long as people want to come.

This is going to be a completely informal affair, and you can drop by for some chat at any point. We will also have some follow-up letter writing actions from our campaigns this year to keep up the activism!

Campaign News

CFCI Coalition

We will be attending the next SRC meeting (24th April) to present our motion which will hopefully be passed with ease as well as contacting as many other societies on campus as possible to join us in forming a CFCI Coalition.

In the meantime, I have written to David Newall as a follow-up to our meeting, and asked for a statement from him to either express his support for the campaign, or to give a detailed explanation of his reasons for not supporting it.  I will publish this as soon as I get his response.

Rape Crisis Scotland Poster Campaign – ‘This Is Not an Invitation to Rape Me’

As part of our efforts to work more closely with local organisations and take part in ongoing campaigns, and after our RCS event for GUU International Women’s Week, Alex has obtained some spare RCS posters from the ‘This is not an invitation to rape me’ campaign. There seem to be similar posters already in the QMU so Alex contacted the GUU and they have agreed to put these up; we’ll get these to them asap.

Other events

3rd April: Glasgow Human Rights Network (GHRN) Lecture

Thursday 03 April 2014, 6.00pm
Sir Charles Wilson Lecture Theatre

UN Special Rapporteur For Violence against Women, Ms Rashida Manjoo

The Glasgow Human Rights Network are delighted to host the UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women, Ms Rashida Manjoo, who will give a public lecture and take questions on her work on Thursday 3rd April 2014. More details of the work of the Rapporteur can be found at the website:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/SRWomenIndex.aspx

The lecture will take place in the Sir Charles Wilson Lecture Theatre, Gilmorehill Campus starting at 6pm. This will be followed by teas, coffees and home baking from 7 – 7.30pm where there will also be a chance to network and chat with other attendees informally.

The event is free to attend, but you must register using the link http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ghrn-lecture-series-201314-tickets-7621960489.

I hope you are all having a good break! Feel free to reply with any news/events to put in the newsletters for the upcoming weeks.

Ruth

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AGM 2014-15 Results!

We had our AGM tonight and have elected the new committee!

President – Rob Hallam
Vice President – Duncan McNab
Secretary – Domi Bacanskaite
Treasurer – Jana Sweeney
Campaigns Coordinator – Alex Pancheva
Fundraising Officer – Nikola Cabanova
Publicity Officer – Milia Hau
Press Officer – Rebecca Corbett
Website Manager – Siuan Poirteir

Two ordinary board members will be elected at the beginning of the academic year.

Congrats to everyone! 🙂

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Tuesday 25th March: AGM and End of Term Social!

Afternoon all,

Tuesday was our last society meeting of the year, and I hope you enjoyed the presentation by Jillian from Aberlour’s Guardianship Service. Thank you everyone for your feedback, I am excited to say that ‘Amneslunch’ was voted a great idea so we will organise this for during the exam period! See below for more information.

Although we are having an end of term social, we still have other events and fundraisers planned for May so don’t think this is the last you will hear from us!

Next meeting: Tuesday 25th March – AGM and End of Term Social!

5pm, QMU – AGM

Earlier this week I published the committee positions with a short description of the roles, written by the current committee. If you are thinking or running at the AGM, have a look at the different roles and feel free to contact us for any more information.

Even if you are not standing for election, please come and vote!

Meeting format:

I will begin by going over our constitution as we have updated some important bits. The society needs to vote on these before we can make these changes.

Next, I will talk about all the wonderful things we have achieved this year, as part of the end of year review, and then our Treasurer, Duncan, will talk us through the financial report for this academic session.

Then the elections will start! Everyone who is running for a place will be invited to speak – the way we do it is by asking all candidates to leave the room and enter one at a time and give a short speech (2 mins max) on why they would like to be elected. It’s entirely up to you how you want to prepare, but it can be useful to write down a few things to guide yourself.

7pm, Lansdowne Bar & Kitchen – Social

Join the event to let us know that you are coming!

Straight after the elections, we will head out for some food and drinks to celebrate the fantastic year that we have had. Absolutely everyone is welcome, including those who aren’t coming to the AGM or who never made it to a meeting but want to join next year. The event page has a map for those of you joining us later, otherwise we will all head together from the QMU.

May: Amneslunch!

During exam period we do not have society meetings, but we felt that it would be extreme to have no Amnesty contact throughout this incredibly stressful time. So, we are going to organise a lunch club, based in the Fraser Building most likely, where you can drop by, have some lunch, let of some steam and there will also be resources for writing letters. This has been quite a neglected campaigning action this year, so it would be great to follow up some of our campaigns with a little pen action.

When we have decided the dates and times, we will make an event and keep you updated.

End of Term Fundraisers

We still have some fundraisers coming up, including the ceilidh which had to be postponed and Amnestea in the Park (we really can’t get enough puns). So for those of you who will be here mid-late May, we hope to see you at these events!

Also, if you would like to sponsor us for climbing Goatfell next weekend, that would be much appreciated. Here is our JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/Glasgow-University-Amnesty-International

Other events:

Wednesday 26th March: Unite the Fight Clubnight, The Buff Club

This clubnight will be raising money for Glasgow Women’s Aid, and it’s only £3 entry. Here’s the event page and here’s more about the charity.

I will keep the newsletters going until the end of term, so if you know of any events that we can promote then please let me know. I will mainly be sending out information about Amnesty’s campaigns with petition links for some easy online activism and revision procrastination.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday,

Ruth

 

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Tuesday 11th March: Film Screening ‘Free China: The Courage to Believe’ and AGM Announcement

Hellooooo,

Well what an incredible week for GU’s first International Women’s Week! Thank you to Domi for organising our events, I think we covered just about all the most important reasons why International Women’s Day exists. We are also very grateful to Eileen from Rape Crisis Scotland for coming along to screen ‘Consent’. If you missed any of the events, here’s what happened.

We’ve had a very busy year, and I can safely say that even in the last few weeks, we are not slowing down!

**TUESDAY 25TH MARCH: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) see below for more details**

Tuesday 11th March: Film Screening ‘Free China: The Courage to Believe’

5pm, Boyd Orr, Lecture Theatre 222

A film about organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China, with guest speaker Mrs. Xu who is coming to share her experiences of imprisonment and brainwashing before coming to the UK to seek asylum.

Event page

Tuesday 18th March: Guest Speaker – Young People and Trafficking

5pm, QMU

There will be a presentation by Jillian McBride from the Aberlour’s Guardianship Programme, a project in Glasgow supporting young people and children who are victims of human trafficking.

Tuesday 25th March: AGM and Ceilidh, QMU

Our AGM will be our last official Tuesday meeting of the year, but afterwards we will be having our annual ceilidh with GU Red Cross and STAR Glasgow to cheer us up and celebrate the newly elected committee!

The positions up for election will be:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Campaigns Coordinator
Fundraising Officer
Publicity Officer
Press Officer
Website Manager

2 x Ordinary Board Members will be elected at the beginning of term next year. This is to allow new members the opportunity to get involved, although these positions are open to all members, not just those who are new to the society.

If you are interested in running for a committee position, we will be putting together a detailed description of each role in advance of the AGM but if you have any specific questions, you can email me president@guamnesty.org.uk or the relevant committee member.

Thursday 27th March: Film Screening – ‘Blood in the Mobile’

 

6.30pm, Boyd Orr, Lecture Theatre 203

‘Blood in the Mobile’ documents the filmmaker’s journey from Nokia HQ, Finland all the way to the mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo to discover the truth about the link between our mobile phones and worst conflict in the world today.

Other events

Wednesday 12th – Saturday 15th March: Citizens Theatre – ‘Refugee Boy’ and ‘Belong’

12th – 15th Main stage production – ‘Refugee Boy’
Post-show discussion following the performance on Wednesday 12 March.
15th March – ‘Belong’
‘Since January we’ve been working with the Citizens Theatre Learning Department on bringing together refugees, asylum seekers and local people to explore ‘belonging’ through poetry, song and storytelling. These workshops will culminate in an event called Belong next Saturday, 15 March, 4.30-6.30pm at the Citizens Theatre, prior to the Citizens main stage production Refugee Boy by Lemn Sissay. There will be food, fashion, music, singing, poetry, storytelling.’

Tickets are free – if you would like to go along book online or call 0141 429 0022. http://citz.co.uk/

Friday 14th March: LUSH Event

Lynn from LUSH Sauchiehall Street:

We’re holding a campaign in store next week regarding the ongoing conflict in Colombia. Our particular interest is in the Peace Community of San Jose, who we financially support through their provisions of cocoa butter for a number of our products in store. They are a self-declared neutral peace community, taking no part in the conflict between the government and rebels. Despite assassinations, intimidation and conflict they uphold the highest values of justice and peace. It would be wonderful if any of your representatives were available and would be willing to come in-store, between 1pm and 3pm, and help us to raise awareness of these human rights issues.

We will have a petition in store which we will be urging people to sign which will be presented to the Colombian government. The petition will also be available to sign online at lushpetitions.co.uk which we would be grateful if you could publicise to your social network community, in an urge to make more people aware.

Saturday 15th March: A Campaign Day with Campaign Against Arms Trade

10.30am-5pm, Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4HZ
What’s the link between Edinburgh and drones, or Ayrshire and the teargas turned on democracy protesters in the Middle East? What does Dundee have to do with the repression in Bahrain? Find out at an info and skills-sharing day in Glasgow on 15 March.

Sunday 23rd March: Glasgow West Amnesty International Concert Fundraiser

3pm at Wellington Church, 77 Southpark Avenue (off University Avenue), Glasgow G12 8LE. Free entry, donations at the end.

Sandie Bishop, Lamond Gillespie, violins
Flora Tzanetaki, piano

Leclair Sonata for 2 violins
Mozart Violin Sonata KV 454
Prokofiev Sonata for 2 violins
Handel Trio Sonata in G minor

See you in the BOYD ORR on Tuesday,

Ruth

 

 

 

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AGM 2013 (With Photos!)

And the results of our AGM are in!
President: Ruth Brown
Vice President: Debbie White
Secretary: Jana Sweeney
Treasurer: Duncan McNab
Publicity Officer: Nikola Cabanova
Fundraising Officer: Maisie Peebles
Campaigns Officer: Dominic Walsh
Website Convener: Robert Hallam

Remember we will be electing two ordinary board members next term so you still have a chance to join the committee of 2013-14!

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Results of AGM

Hi GU Amnesty,

Thank you to everyone who came along to the AGM tonight. It was great to have so much enthusiasm for next year – I can only imagine the group going from strength to strength. Congratulations to you all!

Results are as follows:

President – Catherine Wright
Vice President – Sophie Kortenbruck
Secretary – Jessie Duncan
Treasurer – Martin Lennon
Fundraising Coordinator – Daniel Brown
Campaigns Coordinator – Elena Soper
Publicity Officer – Keleigh Morrison
Website Convener – Robert Hallam
Ordinary Board Members – Debbie White and Jane Miller

Well done to you all, we will arrange a mass committee hand over for sometime after everyone’s exams.

Also a huge congratulations to Daniel Brown and Sophie Kortenbruck for receiving the statuses of Amnesty King and Queen 2010/2011! This was due to their continuous dedication, effort and general loveliness this year – very well deserved.

King

King

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone in the group. The year has been hugely successful and we are currently in the lead for the raise-off with a whopping total of £2837.50! Everyone has worked continuously hard and it’s most certainly paid off!

Please note, there will be no more meetings this term. I will send out details regarding meetings for after Easter but as it will be exam period this will perhaps only be one or two to organise our final events of the year.

Our remaining events are as follows:

Wednesday 30th March: Protect The Human Gig (take 2). The 13th Note, 8pm, £4. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=193415047359098

Week beginning 23rd May (exact day TBC around people’s preference): Annual sponsored cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh

Amnestea: Tea, Cakes ad socialising, will be trying to get a poll together for a preferred date: see http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_129754327078051

Good luck for the upcoming studying and exams everyone!

Thank you and best wishes,
Megan.

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AGM Tonight!

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that tonight is our AGM. Please come along to either stand for a position or use your vote and ensure we get a good strong committee for next year.

AGM: Tonight, 5pm, committee room 1, QMU
Immediately after: 6.15pm, end of term social, Common Rooms, Byres Road, food provided and drinks on tap!

The meeting will run as follows:

* Opening with presidents review followed by the treasurers report.
* The elections for next years committee will then take place in the following order:

1)President
2)Vice president
3)Secretary
4)Treasurer
5)Fundraising coordinator
6)Campaigns coordinator
7)Publicity officer
8)Website convener
9)Ordinary board member

* Anyone wishing to stand will be asked to say a few words and then leave the room for voting to take place.
* The evening shall be finished up with some closing words and finally we have a wee surprise!

Immediately after the meeting we shall be having our end of term social. Common Rooms on Byres road

Even if you can’t make the AGM do come and join us at the social and anyone running off to STAR, we’ll still be there after 7 so come on down!

Thanks,

Megan.

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Week Beginning 14 March

Dear Amnestiers,

Firstly, for those of you who missed last weeks meeting, we were joined by Martha Wardrop from the Glasgow Green party. We were able to discuss some of the Scotland specific human rights issues and Claudia has written out a brief overview of her views. See below if you’re interested.

In the coming weeks:

* Tuesday 15th March: The Humanitarian crisis in Gaza: a forum. 5pm-7pm. Boyd Orr, Lecture theatre E (room 611)

* Tuesday 22nd March: AGM – the chance to run for/exercise your democratic right to vote in next years committee.

* End of term social for committee hand over, immediately after the AGM, 6pm, Common Rooms, Byres road.

The Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: a forum

Israeli military offensive aftermath in the Gaza Strip

Join GU Amnesty International for a formal discussion on this issue. Our Guest Speakers are:

• Greg Philo – Glasgow university Sociology department. Providing background information on the crisis.
• Antonios Tzanakopoulos – Glasgow University Law department. Speaking about international war crimes.
• Kathy Galloway – Head of Christian Aid Scotland. Discussing the impact of the humanitarian crisis.

There will then be an opportunity for questions and discussion – followed by biscuits and refreshments!

Amnesty International believe that the situation in Gaza should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), as we call to pave the way for the UN Security Council to make such a referral.

The forum hopes to highlight some of these issues and provide an opportunity to call on the ICC before the next meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the 21st March 2011.

For more information see http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11503

Martha Wardrop Overview

Martha Wardrop – a brief (not exhaustive) summary of Tuesday’s meeting

Ms. Wardrop from the Green Party started off the meeting by giving us some background on her educational, volunteering and political life. She is a member of Amnesty International, is involved in Women’s Aid and actively campaigns against nuclear weapons, and particularly against the replacement of Trident.

Among the topics discussed were:

Human trafficking – she mentioned the existence of some organisations in Scotland that deal with victims of trafficking.

Gypsy travellers – Her views on the traveller community were towards the promotion of non-discrimination. According to Ms. Wardrop, the latter can be improved through the media, education, more funding (to, among others, allow for more available sites). She also views as important to give the gypsy travellers priority in terms of available land, instead of selling it to property developers.

Ms. Wardrop is strongly in disagreement with the use of tasers by the Scottish Police force. The possibility of distributing tasers instead of giving police officers adequate training and formation can seriously jeopardise the quality of the service of the police force and banalise violence.

On the issue of human rights, Ms. Wardrop demonstrated her awareness of international human rights violations and explained how the UK should be prepared to tackle these issues, both internationally and domestically as well.

Thanks and hopefully see you on Tuesday.

Best,
Megan.

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Updates for Week Beginning 28 Feb

Friday’s sleepout was a huge success! Congratulations to all of those who saw it through to Saturday morning and helped raise awareness for the destitution of asylum seekers. Many thanks go out also to those who lent out sleeping bags, played uplifting music, dished out food and brought us some warming drinks! Huge thanks to Daniel Brown, Chrissy Barnacle and Colette O’Connor for all their organising efforts, it most certainly paid off!

Lots coming up over the coming weeks!

* Tuesday 1st March Meeting: Preparation for our “Scotland Stands for Human Rights” Q&A evening on the 8th of March. We shall be knowledging up and putting together some questions for the MPs and party members.
* Amnesty-STAR-Red Cross Ceilidh, Sunday 6th March, 7.30pm, £5, Qudos, QMU: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129472320455227
* “Scotland Stands for Human Rights” Q&A evening, Tuesday 8th March, 5pm, Boyd Orr Lecture Theatre E (room 611), Sandra White MSP and Lisa Strachan, Liberal Democrat candidate for Rutherglen: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=138162552915994
* AGM, Tuesday 22nd March: Want to be on next year’s committee? The AGM is your chance to run for all of next years positions (more details below)
* Action For Change Weekend: Essential training for activists, Friday 11th March – Saturday 12th March, Human Rights Action Centre, London. One place left!

“Scotland Stands for Human Rights” Q&A Evening

May’s Holyrood elections give the people of Scotland our third chance to discuss and debate the values of the Scottish Government. GU Amnesty International are taking this opportunity to raise awareness of the key Human Rights concerns facing Scotland today by holding a Q&A session with two of our candidates. Sandra White MSP and Lisa Strachan, Liberal Democrat candidate for Rutherglen, have both kindly offered to answer your questions on campus.

The issues we will be focusing on will include:

1. The Scottish Government’s obligations under the European Convention on Trafficking
2. The Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee
3. The role of Human Rights in Scotland’s international relations
4. Action to combat discrimination again Scottish Gypsy Travellers
5. Women fleeing violence with no recourse to public funds
6. Use of tasers by Scottish police forces

This will be a fairly informal event (biscuits and beverages provided!) so we hope you’ll take the opportunity to come along and get involved.

Tuesday 1st March meeting: We shall be delving further into the 6 issues outlined above so as to all be prepared next week with some good, thought provoking questions for our candidates.

Amnesty-STAR-Red Cross Annual Ceilidh

Every year, Glasgow University’s STAR, Amnesty International and Red Cross groups’ team up to host a ceilidh. The idea – to raise funds and awareness in a joint effort for the human rights abuses against refugees and asylum seekers everywhere. Come and DANCE FOR DIGNITY. Tickets are a bargain price of £5 for all you students with traditional music from the awesome, ‘Exploding Folk’ group. This is an event not to be missed! All proceeds are going to the Red Cross Refugee Unit so come along for a night of fun and for a worthy cause!

Posters shall be distributed at this weeks meeting so spread the word! I will also be asking for some willing volunteers to go raffle prize collecting later in the week.

The AGM

The time has come where we need to begin handing over to a new committee for 2011/12. Positions available are,

1. President
2. Vice President
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer
5. Fundraising coordinator
6. Campaigns coordinator
7. Publicity Officer
8. Website Convener
9. Ordinary Board Member

Anyone wishing to run for a position may nominate themselves or be nominated by another member. All candidates running for a position will then be given a minute to say a few words upon which will be asked to leave the room whilst voting occurs.

Voting will run from the top down. For example, if you wish to run for president but do not get elected you will then have the chance to run for vice president etc.

It would be great you all come along and vote- and indeed stand for a position. The society cannot run without a strong committee and the exciting new ideas they’ll no doubt bring.

If anyone is interested in hearing a little more about what each position entails, get in touch and myself and the rest of the committee will be happy to answer any questions!

Action For Change Weekend

For more information on the weekend itself go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103322796414806.

We are able to send 4 delegates and thus far have Sophie, Jessie and Martin confirmed. This means there’s one place up for grabs! If anyone is interested get in touch as time is running out to book up!

Thank you and hopefully see you at some of our many upcoming events!

Best,
Megan.

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