There will be a screening of the film Persepolis on Thursday 15 October on level 6 of the Boyd Orr, lecture theatre E. The screening should start at around 7 PM, but we have the room from 6:30 so feel free to come along for a chat beforehand.

The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The story ends with Marjane as a 22-year-old expatriate. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for description and poster)

This film came third in the Amnesty UK media team’s Top 10 Human Rights Films Poll (request on twitter), so it is certainly worth coming along to watch.

Hi guys. As you will know from the meeting today, or our Facebook group, we are looking for people to tell us which campaign gets you most excited.

Please vote if you haven’t already!

Muntadar al-Zaidi has demanded an apology for the torture he received while in a Baghdad prison for 9 months. Initially convicted to 3 years imprisonment for throwing a shoe to then-President George W Bush, his sentence was reduced and he was recently released 3 months early for good behaviour.

Iraqi officials have called for his claims to be investigated.

(BBC article)

Hi all

Big well done and a huge thanks to everyone who made the trip through to Edinburgh to attend The Rescue. it was a huge event and the effort was very much appreciated.

Pictures from the event can be found on our media page (http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/media/index.html), or with some extras on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107129&id=512758687).

The Rescue 1

The Rescue 2

The Rescue 3

The Rescue 4

Well done guys!

Hello Darlings,

I am on the lookout for some volunteers who will be my team for the invisible children event. We will need many many volunteers to help us run the event as smoothly and as successfully as possible so please get involved if you are free on the 25th April.

This is going to be a fab event and with all of your support even fabber!

email me to become part of the glasgow invisible children team:
0507299l@student.gla.ac.uk

If you are free tomorrow (Thursday) at 5 please come round to my flat to help us with the youtube vids to get rescuers also:

247 West Prince Street
Rachel x

Hey All

Just to let you know at the meeting this week we shall be giving you guys the first chance to grab a much coveted ticket for our Secret Policeman’s Ball. If you bring your money to the meeting on Tuesday that would be grand. We are hoping to sell out so please tell all your friends that this is a night not to miss.

All proceeds go towards G.U.A.I’S Raise-off so all of your support is much appreciated.

If you can’t make the meeting on Tuesday don’t despair, there will be ticket sellers all around Glasgow Uni and around the QMU in the next few weeks.

Hope to see you all there!

Secret Policeman's Ball Flyer

As a part of protect the human week, we will be working with the Department of Adult and Continuing Education. For more information, look here. There will be a series of talks on the subject of protecting human rights, and there is a party in the Hetherington Research Club on Thursday.

Amnesty has released two new videos. The first is intended to raise awareness of waterboarding torture; the second is to draw attention to China’s terrible human rights record.

Stuff Of Life:

Part of the unsubscribe campaign. See the related blog post and news item.

‘Torchure’:

Part of Amnesty International’s efforts to raise awareness of China’s record on human rights. Read the related post here.

What are your thoughts on these videos? Do they get the message across well, or are they too in-your-face – or esoteric? Did the waterboarding video go too far?

We were recently sent a number of images (shown after the jump) by someone close to what is going on in Tibet. I personally don’t want to identify them as it could potentially compromise their safety (whether this is likely or not is another debate, I dont think it’s worth the risk).  One of the images depicts what appears to be Chinese police (the People’s Armed Police – PAP) being distributed orange garbs. The text accompanying the pictures read:

Dear —-

In one picture you will see chinese young policemen with Tibetan monk’s robe in their hands. We heard chinese policemen are dressing themselves as Tibetan monks and Tibetan laymen and trying to create roits and voilence between Tibetans and Han chinese living in Tibet.

With love, —-.

(click for larger version)

The insinuation is that there are Chinese servicemen who are mixing with the demonstrating monks who are then causing violence (which is subsequently seen around the world), so as to cast the demonstrators in a bad light. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of their campiagn against the 42 day limit, Liberal Conspiracy brings us the news that there is a split in the cabinet over plans to extend the limit that terror suspects can be detained for without charge.

The news comes after Home Secretary Jaqui Smith had stated that the terror threat to the UK was growing. In a statement to the News of the World, she said:

“We now face a threat level that is severe. It’s not getting any less, it’s actually growing. There are 2,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots. That has increased over the past two years. Since the beginning of 2007, 57 people have been convicted on terrorist plots. Nearly half of those pleaded guilty so this is not some figment of the imagination. It is a real risk and a real issue we need to respond to. We can’t wait for an attack to succeed and then rush in new powers. We’ve got to stay ahead.”

However, her views are at odds with the Conservatives, Lib Dems, a growing number of unhappy backbenchers, former attorney-general Lord Goldsmith and the Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken McDonald. There have been arguments made that the new proposal will create ill-will in the Muslim community and actually cause the amount of intelligence supplied to drop. Lord Goldsmith also commented that it could be percieved as an attack on the Muslim community and used as a recruiting tool for terror organisations.

However, Home Office minister Tony McNulty stated that he thought MPs ‘will buy‘ the new limit.

I find the language used by McNulty pretty scary:

“This is a very, very serious thing and I think once people understand the bulk of the model and the temporary nature then people do buy it.”

It (and other statements from the proponents of the proposals) rings very much of “There are lots of threats against all of us, but let us have have this for now and we promise it won’t be used too much…”. The law has to be renewed after two months (“The new limit would only be available to police for two months unless it was renewed“, source), but if it is passed the bar will be lowered and it will end up being renewed.

The proposals are a big step up from the (already too long) 28 days to a month and a half. These proposals have to be opposed. There is talk that if they are defeated it will be very damaging for Gordon Brown and so forth, but politics aside, they have to be defeated. The limit is too long already, and (without being alarmist) extension would be another blow against democracy in this country.