December 2022 NewsLetter Newsletter

Report on Amnesty Talk – Tax is a Human Rights Issue

We held our first Amnesty Talk for more than two years on Zoom on 29 November and were delighted that 25 people attended, despite England playing Wales in the football World Cup at the same time! It was an instructive, enlightening and thought-provoking talk. Professor Murphy asked, ‘can taxation contribute to a fairer society’? The…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Opposition in Belarus to the War in Ukraine

As part of his support for President Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine, President Lukashenko held a sham referendum on 27 February to allow Russian nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory. This sparked mass protests in the streets of the capital Minsk and elsewhere, with people chanting ‘No to war!’ ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ and ‘Long live Belarus!’…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Russians’ Views of the War in Ukraine

OpenDemocracy and the Public Sociology Laboratory, an independent research initiative, carried out more than 200 in-depth interviews with Russians since 27 February. The people sampled tended to be educated and from large cities. The research showed that within this sample attitudes to the war split into three broad camps: supporters, opponents and, the largest group, the doubters.…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Good and Bad News Update – Britain October 2022

Good News Britain Former Iran detainee Anoosheh Ashoori ran the London Marathon in his Evin prisoner’s uniform on 2 October. He ran for hours each day in his cell hoping one day he would run the marathon as a free man. He dedicated his medal to the women of Iran, political prisoners and the freedom…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Good and Bad News Update – Europe October 2022

Good News Europe Ukraine Railways and Doctors without Borders have created an ambulance train to carry patients from cities close to hostilities to hospitals some 1,000km away. So far they have carried over 650 patients.  LGBTQ+ activists have set up shelters across Ukraine to help those who may need mental or physical support. The president…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Focus on Uyghur and Other Ethnic Minorities in Xinjiang

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, released her long-awaited 48-page report on the Uyghur Region on 31 August. She concluded that China has committed ‘serious human rights violations’ in the application of its…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Worth Reading: We Are All from Somewhere Else. Migration and Survival in Poetry and Prose by Ruth Padel

Annually, around 50mn people are forced from their homes by conflict and disaster. This book contains 11 short essays, each introducing a sequence of poems. The book is in two halves. The first revolves around migration in the natural world: birds’ migration follows a yearly pattern, for instance, with ‘homes’ or nests created in different places. …
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Focus on Afghanistan

Amnesty International’s Report: They Don’t Treat us Like Humans – Unlawful Returns of Afghans from Turkey and Iran According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 180,000 Afghans in need of international protection have arrived in neighbouring countries since 1 January 2021, but there are considerably more left behind. This report presents Amnesty’s…
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Newsletter October Newsletter

Deporting Refugees and Asylum Seekers to Rwanda

The legal challenge against the deportation of refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda is currently being heard in the High Court. The government is relying on the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc.) Act 2004 which gives ministers the power to send asylum seekers to safe countries. Their QC, referring to the Refugee Convention…
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