› Campaigns
Have any ideas? Want to influence the direction of the group? Come along to our meetings! We meet on Tuesday evenings at 5 and will be deciding on what we're going to be concentrating on soon.
GU Amnesty Raise-off 2008-09
We are taking part in Amnesty's second annual student raise-off, which is a huge project for the group. This involves competing with Amnesty student groups from universities across the UK in an attempt to raise the most money for Amnesty International during these months.
We are currently first in the UK! The competition finishes in June, so check back the to see if we won.
Campaigns we are focusing on include:
- Child Soldiers
- The Rescue (as part of the above)
- Stop Violence Against Women
- Refugees (with which we often work with S.T.A.R.)
- Human Rights in China
Our major event so far has been The Secret Policemen's Ball, held in December 2008. This was a big event hosted in Qudos, involving acts from comedians, musicians and even a sketch group!
We also hold stalls, generally selling homemade cakes, candles, t-shirts and even (laboriously hand crafted) mini wooden cages with orange pipe cleaner men inside (when available - they sell fast)!
Other current and past Campaigns
China
To promote awareness of human rights abuses in China, GUAI will be holding an event in co-ordination with Glasgow west-end AI group. China still continues to flout international UN conventions, despite a number of human rights pledges made before its election to the UN Human Rights Council. This includes active co-operation with the UN on human rights. Despite this, the Chinese government continues to repress the Uighur people in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, along with severe restriction placed on religious expression of the people of Tibet and continuing discrimination of rural migrants.
China still holds the death penalty for 68 crimes, including non-violent crimes and continues to persecute human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, internet users and religious groups. Among those persecuted are members of the spiritual movement, Falun Gong.
Yu Yu Williamson is a member of Falun Gong and left China due to persecution from the government, she and a number of others subjected to torture will be speaking at the event. We hope this event will help highlight and draw attention to continuing human rights violations in China, especially relevant this year, due to the Beijing Olympics beginning in August. By raising awareness of these issues to the wider student body, we hope to place further pressure on the Government of China to make gross amendments to their criminal laws and human rights policies and bring an end to torture and human rights abuses in China.
You can read more about the China campaign at: www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10917
Darfur Crisis
Amnesty remains gravely concerned about the safety of the civilian populations of Sudan and Chad. The civil war in Darfur, and the continuing conflict in neighbouring Chad, has resulted in continual, gross violations of human rights.
Read more on the crisis at www.amnesty.org.uk/crisis
Stop Violence Against Women
The Stop Violence Against Women campaign focuses on ending violence against women in the family and in conflict/post conflict situations: two of the most dangerous environments for millions of women throughout the world. The creation of a world in which women and girls are afforded their basic human rights is our ultimate goal.
You can read more about this at: www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10220
From Amnesty UK: What you can do