Amnesty’s “Protect the Human Week” returns to campus

Warwick Amnesty is hosting a week-long event to promote the human rights of people from all over the world.

With focus on a different human rights campaign each day, “Protect the Human Week” will take place in Week 5 (8th-13th February) and will offer a variety of events around campus.

Topics explored will be as deep-rooted as the Death Penalty, Terrorism and Security, emerging campaigns “Demand Dignity” and “Still Human, Still Here”, and the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza which, whilst not one of Amnesty International’s established issues, Warwick Amnesty regards as crucial at present.

Amnesty International is a human rights organisation with the purpose of protecting people wherever justice, freedom, fairness and truth are denied.

Amnesty’s work has made a real difference to the lives of those oppressed all over the world: studies have shown, for example, that as persecuting authorities see more and more letters written to prisoners of conscience, they become increasingly lenient.

The Warwick branch of Amnesty International aims to serve as a microcosm for their global work.

Whilst recognising the fact that a student group alone is not going to save the world, it strives to raise awareness of the concept of human rights, the abuses of human rights across the globe and what we can do to defend these rights.

Co-President and final year student Emily Death said, “with over one hundred members, Warwick Amnesty is extremely active around campus and we aim to educate and inspire students about human rights and the work that Amnesty International does.”

Protect the Human Week is the yearly highlight of Warwick Amnesty’s work and each day there will be a campaign-specific petition stall in the piazza with more information and programmes.

{{ number 17 years spent by Sunny Jacobs on death row before being found innocent }}

The “Death Penalty Day” will headline notorious speakers Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle, who were on death row for 17 and 15 years respectively before being found innocent.

“Demand Dignity Day” will feature a talk on corporate social responsibility and a film screening of “The Constant Gardner” with Warwick Student Cinema; on “Still Human, Still Here Day” we will have an introduction to asylum tribunals from Liz Heretz of the Asylum and Immigration Project and Bill MacKeith, President of “Barbed Wire Britain”.

On Friday 12th, the week will end with “Terrorism and Security Day”, in which No2ID will talk about the threat that extreme security poses to our civil liberties.

There will also be a debate about the closure of Guantanamo Bay chaired by Student’s Union President Andrew Bradley.

The week will culminate with a sleep-out in the piazza on the Friday night, when Warwick Amnesty will be joined by Warwick STAR and Project Ayuda, to emphasise the plight of destitute asylum seekers.

Warwick Amnesty member and final-year student Marie Pettersson was one of the four Warwick students who travelled to Gaza over the Christmas holidays to try and break the blockade.

She says, “Warwick Amnesty thinks it’s important to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to the blockade and exacerbated during the war in Gaza in December 2008, which is still being neglected by the international community.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP will be coming to Warwick for the “Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza” day.