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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 itā€™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 ā€“ Rob Hallam
Vice President ā€“ Duncan McNab
Secretary ā€“ Domi Bacanskaite
Treasurer ā€“ Jana Sweeney
Campaigns Coordinator ā€“ Alex Pancheva
Fundraising Officer ā€“ Nikola Cabanova
Publicity Officer ā€“ Milia Hau
Press Officer ā€“ Rebecca Corbett
Website Manager ā€“ 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.ƂĀ  Almost everything that we have achieved this year is related in some way to this award so itā€™s a true team effort. We have been given Ā£50 as the prize and we would welcome suggestions as to how to best use this money to contribute to the societyā€™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 Ā£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 ā€“ 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.ƂĀ  I will publish this as soon as I get his response.

Rape Crisis Scotland Poster Campaign ā€“ ā€˜This Is Not an Invitation to Rape Meā€™

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 Womenā€™s Week, Alex has obtained some spare RCS posters from the ā€˜This is not an invitation to rape meā€™ campaign. There seem to be similar posters already in the QMU so Alex contacted the GUU and they have agreed to put these up; weā€™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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Tuesday 18th March: Aberlour Guardianship Service and AI Consultation on Sex Work

Howdy folks,

It was great to see so many people attend the film screening on Tuesday of ā€˜Free China: The Courage to Believeā€™. We welcomed back Yuyu for the 6th year, and I have to say that I am equally inspired every time I hear her talk about something so horrific and yet so rarely exposed. We were also joined by a guest speaker who came to share her experiences of persecution, forced labour and torture as a Falun Gong practitioner.

Read about it and see the photos, here.

The film: http://freechina.ntdtv.org/

 

3 years on, #withSyria

Sadly, today marks the 3rd anniversary of the conflict in Syria.

Amnesty International has launched the #withSyria campaign alongside a coalition of NGOs and civil society organisations campaigning to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and rally global support. Watch and share the latest campaign video featuring Banksy and Elbow -ƂĀ http://withsyria.com/. You can also sign the petition to stop the starvation of civilians.

There is an event on the 19th March by the Bulgarian Society to raise money for Syrian child refugees in Bulgaria. Check out the event.

ƂĀ ā€˜Just because it isnā€™t happening here doesnā€™t mean it isnā€™t happening.ā€™

We are #withSyria

ƂĀ 

Next Meeting: Tuesday 18th March, 5pm, QMU

Guest Speaker ā€“ The Guardianship Service

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

Amnesty International Global Consultation on Sex Work

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, Amnesty are looking for responses to their consultation on sex work. We are going to take this opportunity to discuss the policy proposal that Amnesty have sent us and we can give our feedback too.

End of term evaluation and plans for after Easter

This will be the last meeting before the AGM, so I will be asking for your feedback as I did last semester. This will be really useful for the committee next year, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. We are also going to talk about our plans for after Easter, as there have been some great ideas on ways that we can all keep up with Amnesty but without taking up 2 hours on a Tuesday evening.

Tuesday 25th March: AGM and End of Year Social

Our AGM will be our last official Tuesday meeting of the year, and there are 9 positions up for grabs:

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

(2 x Ordinary Board Members to be elected at the start of the academic year)

I will have more information on each position at the meeting, but if you are interested in running for a committee position and want to know more, you can email me president@guamnesty.org.uk or the relevant committee member.

TBC (date may change) Thursday 27th March: Film Screening ā€“ ā€˜Blood in the Mobileā€™

ā€˜Blood in the Mobileā€™ documents the filmmakerā€™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.

29th March: Trip to Arran – Please Sponsor us!

If you are not coming with us, we would love you to sponsor us. Itā€™s not every day we climb mountains (that donā€™t lead to the GU library). Donate via our JustGiving page!

Other events

SRC Volunteer Clubs and Societies Awards 2014

Nominations are open for the VCS awards! There are many categories and you can nominate either GU Amnesty as a group, or a particular individual. So if there is something that you feel we/an individual deserve/s recognition for, then please complete a nomination form before 21st 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

 

Keep it up, the deadlines are nearly over.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Ruth

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Tuesday 25th February: Human Trafficking and Conflict Minerals

Hello lovely people!

I really hope that those of you who came to the Secret Policemanā€™s Ball on Saturday had a great night and to everyone who helped out ā€“ THANK YOU SO MUCH. The night was a huge success and we have Debbie, the SPB sub-committee and many others to thank for doing an amazing job. Weā€™ll have an announcement of the total funds raised soon, but in the meantime you can check out all the photos!

In order to make next yearā€™s even better, there is an anonymous online survey that you can fill in to give your views: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D2K79F6

 

Next meeting: Tuesday 25th February, 5pm in the QMU

Human Trafficking in Russia

Duncan will be taking the first half of the meeting to talk about sex trafficking in Russia. We then have a letter-writing action as a follow-up to last weekā€™s meeting by Euan from STOP THE TRAFFIK (Glasgow).

Conflict-Free Campus Initiative

There have been some developments in our efforts to get the University to support our conflict minerals campaign ! Well we have been invited to a meeting with David Newall (Secretary of Court) and Jo Gallagher (Head of Procurement), so thatā€™s a start!

Conflict-what?

Last year we joined the global student movement for a ā€˜conflict-freeā€™ campus. Read about the conflict-free campus initiative (CFCI) and what the campaign is all about.

I am aware that it has been quite a while since we discussed the campaign and we have quite a few new members so I will go over what the campaign is about as well as giving an update on some positive steps towards ā€˜conflict-freeā€™ technologies.

 

GU International Womenā€™s Week 3rd ā€“ 9th March

Tuesday 4th:

Womenā€™s Rights 5pm

An Amnesty speaker will join us to talk about womenā€™s rights.

Workshop 6pm: The role of the media in the socialisation on men and women and children

I will hold a workshop looking at how the media socialises women and men and children to think about women and womanhood.

Thursday 6th:

Rape Crisis Scotland Film Screening and Discussion

An event page with all the relevant details will be made soon, so save the dates!

GU Amnesty Climbs* Goatfell!! 29th-30th March

Maisie has been organising our trip to Arran and needs to know exact numbers, so if you havenā€™t decided if you are going, please do by tomorrow!

Join the event or email us to let us know you are coming.

*walks/crawls up slowly, taking lots of breaks and eating lots of chocolate

Other news:

Document: International Human Rights Film Festival

There is a call for submissions to the annual Document Film Festival, so take a look to see how you can enter! http://documentfilmfestival.org/12/

8th ā€“ 9th March: Scottish Students Conference

This year Edinburgh University are hosting the Scottish Students Conference on International Womenā€™s Day. Everyone is welcome; here is the event for the agenda.

12th ā€“ 13th April: Amnesty International UK AGM

Only one week left to book your place! All members of AIUK can attend the AGM so let us know if you are interested and we can all go together.

NB: The AGM is hosted annually in different parts of the UK so it may not be back in Scotland for another few years!

See you all tomorrow!

Ruth

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Tuesday 18th February: STOP THE TRAFFIK Presentation and the Secret Policeman’s Ball!

Hi everyone,

Thanks to those of you who took part in the Guantanamo Bay demonstration last week ā€“ it was wet and drizzly but we still managed to get around campus a bit! Here are the photos and blog. There was actually an article in The GuardianƂĀ last Tuesday about a legal challenge to the force-feeding of detainees, which many are being subjected to. Here is a short video that describes this brutal practice.

If you havenā€™t yet voted in the Rector election, here are some responses from candidates about their commitment to human rights.

http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/2014/02/rector-candidates-supporting-human-rights/

http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/2014/02/university-rector-elections-2014/

Next meeting: Tuesday 18th February, Committee Room 1, QMU

Human Trafficking

We are starting our next big campaign by having a discussion about recent cases of human traffickingƂĀ  in the UK. A guest speaker from Stop the Traffik Glasgow is coming to give a presentation and we can discuss ideas for campaigning on this issue.

Visit https://www.stopthetraffik.org/uk for more information.

 

Saturday 22nd February: GU Amnestyā€™s 6th Annual Secret Policemanā€™s Ball + Afterparty hosted by Philanthrobeats!

 

ITā€™S HERE, ITā€™S FINALLY HERE!!

I hope you all have your tickets by now and are bringing along friends/neighbours/relatives. If not, get them online: https://www.guamnesty.org.uk/tickets/

Last Week of Publicity

We will be flyering all week so please give us a hand if you have time to spare, and take a bundle away with you from the meeting to hand out in all your classes. Remember that we are having a bake sale on Wednesday 11am ā€“ 4pm for further publicity, so please bring cakes and/or enthusiasm! https://www.facebook.com/events/1469560646588794/

We will also need people to help us set up on the night so if you are free beforehand then your help would be much appreciated!

GU Amnesty Climbs Goatfell!! 29th-30th March

Well we certainly tried last year but it was quite snowyā€¦However, fingers crossed weā€™ll make it to the top this time!

This is a great trip and a great way to raise money. The walk isnā€™t too difficult so if you are keen but unsure then I would encourage you give it a try! Of course, if you have any questions then send us a message. Hereā€™s the event page.

Donā€™t forgetā€¦

 

Action for Change, AIUK HQ London, 28th Feb ā€“ 1st March

Booking is now open and itā€™s FREE! Let us know if you are keen and we can help you to arrange travel to London.

See the event page and website for details of the agenda and the booking form.

 

Finally, one of our members is raising money by JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE, and all for a great cause. Louise would love some more sponsors, so have a look at why sheā€™s doing it and chip in if you can.

 

Keep wrapped up in those ponchos,

Ruth

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