Hi friend,  
 

Welcome to your July 2025 Local Group Mailing. ☀️

In the July edition of the Local Group Mailing you will be able to read about:
 

• Office Led Campaigns
• Actions Across Amnesty
  • Country Coordinators
  • Network Updates
  • Amnesty UK Section Board Updates
  • Amnesty Scotland: Update Webinar for Activists
• July Fundraising update
• Community Organising team
• Learning at Amnesty UK
• Recruitment
• What you have been up to
  • Condolences
  • Call for Action
• Upcoming Dates

Deadline for June's content is 22 August 2025.
Please send your entries and stories to Philippa.

Please do get in touch with any questions or queries.

Wishing you all a lovely August!

The Local Activism Team!

Local Group Fundraising Update
 

This month’s fundraising update features examples of groups having success with classic fundraising events: and AMNESTEA and a public collection. It’s a reminder of the value of classic fundraising events and how you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to bring in donations.

Thank you for joining us at the Amplify Summit!

On Saturday 5 July – Sunday 6 July, Amnesty International UK came together at Amplify - our National Conference and AGM - where we planned how to build, evolve and power our campaigns and movement.

Over two days, Amplify Summit brought together our members and activists to connect, learn from and share ideas with one another, so that we can build an even more powerful human rights movement in the UK.
Members were able to vote on important resolutions, scrutinise reports and have the opportunity to question the Board and Chief Executive. Additional activities over the two days enabled all attendees to re-energise and be inspired on their campaigning journey.
 

We were also joined by Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International who spoke with passion at the Amplify Summit:  
“Now is the time to Resist. Disrupt. Transform… Resistance is a long journey, but it begins with just one step: the step of courage.” - Agnès

This month the Human Right's Education team is highlighting one new course and two trainings opportunities !

A Guide to Working with Schools

Tuesday 26 August - 18:00 - 19:30
A Guide to Working with Schools

Plan how you could work in schools, including discussing some key human rights case studies, including refugee rights and LGBTQ+ rights, and understand key duties that you have as an educator around safeguarding and inclusive practice.
 

A Briefing on Everyday Rights

Tuesday 9 September - 18:00 - 19:30
A Briefing on Everyday Rights

Join us to learn more about Amnesty's campaign on Social Security as part of our work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or Everyday Rights! Successive governments have failed to protect basic rights.
 

Essential Training for Key Activist

Essential Training for Activist Representatives and Local Group Chairs

IDEA  - Inclusion / Diversity / Equity / Anti-Racism

If you are a Local Group Chair or an Activist Representative, you will be receiving an invitation to complete your Essential Training Modules. 
We have created a range of facilitated training sessions for your to attend as alternative to the Online Self-paced training modules. Please see below dates and sign up links for upcoming training sessions:
 

Surviving Evin Prison Exhibition
Perth 27th June -Sunday 6th July

We were delighted that Anoosh Ashoori made the effort to come  to Perth to speak at the launch of the exhibition which describes in detail his experience of being held prisoner, without justification, in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
He talked movingly about the awful conditions he and his fellow prisoners had to endure. His account of the many days of relentless cowardly and barbaric interrogation was particularly chilling but  gave us a vivid  insight to the depths of depravity the Iranian regime has sunk.
We heard about and were inspired and in awe of  the actions he took during his incarceration to see him  through his ordeal. What he has done to rebuild his life on release and highlight the plight of hostages held across the world has been truly remarkable.

We invited the local MP, local City Councilors, Community leaders and Trade Union Representatives to the launch. Leaflets advertising the exhibition were distributed at various venues throughout the city. We are grateful to the ‘hands on’ practical help from Amnesty Scotland staff and Amnesty’s PR team for securing interviews for  Anoosh with BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland and the  National Press about his prison experience and his presence at the exhibition's launch. This media exposure, in particular, inspired a number of people to visit the exhibition as well as  highlighting Amnesty's role in its support for Anoosh to a national audience.
We were also grateful to staff and volunteers at  St John's Kirk, an historic building and visitor attraction in the centre of Perth, for making the space available for the exhibition, welcoming visitors,  and providing  catering at the launch.
Over 170 people were recorded as visiting the church and exhibition over its 9 day run.

Perth Amnesty Group

Members and supporters of the Saffron Walden Amnesty International Group met together recently for their annual Garden Party at which they celebrated the group’s 50^th Birthday.
Two of the founder members of the group were present.

Amnesty Mid Glos joined with other groups in our area, Stroud District Together With Refugees ( SDTWR) and Stroud Against Racism (SAR) to put on an evening with Sudanese food , music and speeches, all very well received and donations were generous .

The week before this event we ran a stall in our local farmers market to highlight the 'forgotten ' conflict in Sudan and to highlight our event the following week 

Stroud Trinity Room was packed on Friday evening 27 June for the “Spotlight on Sudan”, an event organised jointly by Stroud District Together with Refugees, Mid-Glos Amnesty group and Stroud Against Racism.

Internationally known speakers Raga and Mohammed spoke eloquently and powerfully from their own experience of the civil war which has raged in Sudan for the past two years and caused colossal devastation, displacement and death. They described ghost towns left in the wake of fighting factions – 60,000 killed,  14 million (30% of the whole population of Sudan) displaced, with 3 million fled to neighbouring countries.  Raga spoke compellingly of the responsibility borne by UK and other western nations for failures to act over decades which has led to the current conflict, and Mohammed described his own experience of the trauma of war felt not only in Sudan but by the whole Sudanese diaspora.

They described obliteration, not only of a people, but also potentially of an entire culture and identity.

The audience on Friday were treated to aspects of this culture from local Sudanese friends, with a fantastic meal cooked by Amani from Stonehouse, and a superb set from the Bristol oud duo, Nabra, playing music from Sudan to accompany Ali’s silky, haunting singing.

The evening ended with an appeal  to support an on-the-ground humanitarian projects, and to press MPs to put pressure on the UK Government to take more direct responsibility for bringing an end to the war. Generous donations were made at the end of the evening to algenainainitiative.org.

Colleagues from a range of local Amnesty Group across Scotland joined with thousands of others to voice their concerns about Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland.

Protestors highlighted the wide range of human rights abuses that were taking place under Trump’s presidency.  
The protest was organised by the Stop Trump Coalition.

In addition to the gathering in Edinburgh, similar protests also took place in Ayrshire and Aberdeen.

On 24 June at 7.30pm the Leamington Spa Justice for Palestinians group hosted a zoom meeting about personal divestment.
 

This is the initiative of a JfP and Amnesty supporter and is relevant to any of us with a pension, direct investments, or company shares or who has friends or family in that situation. The meeting looked at how this type of divestment could be used as a tool for Palestine solidarity as well as empowering personal ethical investment more broadly, including learning about what financial advisers do and how to use them. 

You can see a recording here and read the report here.

Essex Pride 2025
Chelmsford Group had a very successful day at Essex Pride on 21 June. We were next to the Liberal Democrats and, unsurprisingly, were visited by Marie Goldman, MP for Chelmsford. We collected over 100 signatures for each of the three petitions: Trans discourse in UK Media, Criminalisation of the LGBTQIA+ community in Russia, and a ban on Conversion Practices.

Refugee Week
Chelmsford Group had a display in Chelmsford Cathedral for Refugee Week and joined in a coffee morning chatting to refugees from many countries including Iran, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan.

Gaza Protests
Chelmsford Group have taken part in two Marches for Palestine through Chelmsford City centre calling for Justice for Palestinians, an end to Genocide, the Occupation and Apartheid.
The Group has also taken part in a silent protest against Teledyne e2v for its part in the destruction of Gaza, and a noisy protest outside Shire Hall calling for immediate action against the deliberate starvation of Gazan citizens.

For over 18 months come rain or shine, the North Norfolk Amnesty group have led a fortnightly Peace Vigil in Cromer.

On a Saturday mornings between 20 - 40 men, women (and the occasional dog) can be found standing by the tree in the centre of Cromer. Jenny Kelly, our groups 'Chair' started the Vigils after the Hamas attack in October 2023, and the subsequent war inflicted on the Palestinian people. Placards call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the fighting, release of the hostages as well as an end to the apartheid and annexation policies of the Israeli Government.

The vigils are held to keep both the war situation in Gaza and the continuing annexations, land and water theft , murders and apartheid policies enacted in the West Bank Occupied territories of Palestine, in the public consciousness. Not all Vigil attendees are members of the NN Amnesty group and the Vigils have proved a good recruiting tool for new members and supporters of NN Amnesty International.

The vigils have been gaining attention with reports and photos appearing in 3 local paper.

The Worcester Amnesty Group joined with Worcester City Welcomes Refugees on 2 actions and members attended several other events.

On 16 June the 2 groups set up stalls at Worcester Guild hall to inform the public about asylum seeking in the UK and residents in Worcester waiting for leave to stay. They were joined out of the blues by several people who live in Worcester having come to the UK after the invasion of Ukraine.

As with previous events, they anticipated some of the hostility towards refugees that the right wing press assures us is the mood of the country. As always, all they heard was general support (and confusion) on the subject.

"I genuinely believe the overwhelming majority of people still care for the safety of people fleeing danger." - Chris Gooch

The Group also joined up with our displaced friends and many others to walk on the Malvern Hills. Life in the hotel in Worcester is boring and restrictive. All of us benefited from the fresh air and company.

The Kent Network attended Folkestone Pride on Saturday 26 July. The event was well attended and the stall very busy all afternoon with many people thanking us and Amnesty for all the work that is being done. We gained the following:
 

• Pride Criminalisation in Russia – 67 signatories
• Mailing list – 32 signed up
• Settlement Goods – 48 signatories that I will post to the Folkestone MP, Mr Tony Vaughan 
• £38.04 in donations

As a Network we try and attend Prides when possible as we find them a very good way to engage with lots of people about the work Amnesty does.

"On a personal note, I also believe they are an important way for people to recognise we are working for them and looking to offer them support." – Mark Clixby

Thank you to Sharon, Zara and Dominique for supporting the event - these things don't work without hands on activists!

The Chipping Norton Amnesty Group has been busy with street collections and events in Chipping Norton and nearby towns and villages, interacting with members of the public to make sure they know about the work of Amnesty International and encouraging them to join with us in challenging human rights abuses wherever they occur - starting by writing cards to the members of the BK16 who remain in prison.

On 2 July, the Maidstone, Medway and Swale Group took part in the annual Medway Walk for Peace organised by Medway Inter-Faith Action, visiting several faith centres and using the opportunity to promote Amnesty campaigns and generate support for human rights issues.

_________

Daventry & Rugby Amnesty Group
JCB: Stop Bulldozer Genocide, which is highlighting the effect of these activities.

The recently updated Sunday Times Rich List (published on 18th May 2025) charted Lord Bamford and his family’s wealth which increased from £7.65 billion pounds in 2024 to £9.45 billion pounds this year. They are now the 15th wealthiest family in the U.K. and their JCB business has paid them a dividend of £300 million in the past 12 months.

Why, then, is a company whose worldwide business is booming, allowing homes, hospitals, schools, water supplies and other facilities vital to infrastructure to be destroyed and obliterated by its machines ? 

In at least five Indian states, and in Jammu and Kashmir, JCB has allowed its machinery to destroy homes, when it could prevent this remotely by using technology to deactivate its equipment ?

In Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem Amnesty UK's Chief Executive Officer Sacha Deshmukh witnessed and filmed recently at first hand JCB's yellow excavators being used to flatten Palestinian territory.  Alongside this at least 33 Palestinians, including 12 children, have died of malnutrition in the two days prior to 22nd July, as a result of war crimes, as identified by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. 

It is clear that most people in the UK are not associating JCB with these crimes against humanity.  They do not realise that this flourishing company is very complicit in this flagrant abuse against human rights.
JCB is run privately by the Bamford family, and it has links to a number of locations scattered across the U.K., including Staffordshire,  Scotland, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, North Wales and Northern Ireland.  It was warmly and strongly defended by the previous government, as a fine example of a British company which was exporting its products successfully across the globe.  However the appalling monumental human rights and environmental cost of its activities was concealed furtively by its owners. 

Amnesty UK has joined an alliance of organisations under the heading:
JCB: Stop Bulldozer Genocide, which is highlighting the effect of these activities.

An application has been made by Cherry Bird, Regional Co-ordinator for South Asia, to AIUK for approval to run an activist-led campaign to draw public attention the role that JCB is playing in these atrocities. She has produced some new leaflets, which were launched at Amnesty's Annual Conference earlier this month. Plenty more publicity will be needed to explain to the general public how JCB is connected with what is happening in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Kashmir and India.

Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s Economic Affairs Programme Director,  has carried out extensive research for Amnesty on the human rights impact of companies such as JCB.  Homes and environments have been obliterated in order to boost JCB’s commercial success in parts of the world where vulnerable ethnic groups have been besieged by other adjacent powerful nations.
 

Following our very encouraging initial online meeting on Wednesday 18 June you are invited to attend our follow-up meeting online at 2pm on Wednesday 6 August: