¹ The Albany Public Library only allows us to schedule eleven (11) meetings in their conference rooms within a year’s time. Also, there may be a month when another group is given priority over us for the meeting rooms. Thus, while we nearly always meet at the main branch of the library at 161 Washington Ave., Albany, NY we advise that you double check the meeting place with our coordinator. Thank you for your undestanding. Return to Top

From Past Meetings
Sampling of Amnesty International Group #361 Meeting Minutes

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August 2011    April 2011    February 2011    October 09    July 09    April 09    December 08    November 08    August 08    July 08    June 08    March 08    November 07    June 07   

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August 3, 2011 meeting of AI 361

Present: Carrie, Joan, John Curley, Nancy, Ellen.

We had two visitors this month. Nancy, formerly from Albany, hopes to find an AI local group in Charlotte, NC. Ellen may join our group. She lived for 17 years in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast, West Africa) and is extremely concerned about human rights violations there.

1. A sign-up sheet for tableing at Lark Fest on September 17 was passed around. If you are available to table on that day between 10-00 and 5-30, please e-mail Ruud raddink@nycap.rr.com or call him: 438-1294 and let him know at what time you could volunteer. Joan will help ruud set up, but we still need someone with a car to take down our table and return materials to my house at the end of the afternoon.

2. Campaign updates: Carrie briefly summarized the August campaign updates bulletin. I will forward it to everyone on our e-mail list. There are online petitions to sign and opportunities to plan events. If you would like to volunteer to work on Day of the Disappeared on August 30, or a teach-in concerning either Troy Davis and/or Reggie Clemmons in September-October, please e-mail me. I will support you in any way I can if you volunteer so that you will not work alone.

3. Reply from Mexican government: Carrie shared an e-mail reply by the Mexican Attorney General's office to a letter concerning the mass kidnapping of migrants in Veracruz state in June. The reply stated that an investigation has been launched to find the migrants and ascertain the facts. Thanks to everyone who sent e-mails to Mexico concerning that case.

4. Summer solidarity action: We sent greeting cards of support to the eight human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience. I will forward the summer solidarity card action to the group by e-mail. Please send cards of support to the courageous human rights activists anytime until the end of August.

5. We had 10 letters based on Urgent Action cases at the meeting: 4 to Mexico, 2 to China, 2 to Vietnam, 2 to Kenya. Additional letters (written by Ruud, Barbara and Pratik) will soon be available on our website: www.ai361.org.

Note: The library conference rooms are unavailable for October. We will meet at my house that month, first Wednesday at 7-00, as usual.

Carrie.

April 6, 2011: AI 361 meeting:
The field coordinator from the New York City Amnesty International office, Thenjiwe McHarris, met with the group. She applauded the group’s efforts, and supplied support and enthusiasm for the group’s future efforts. She committed to providing the group with information on other Amnesty International groups and activities in the Albany area. She also promised to provide the group 1) the use of a social network site (meetup.com) to share meeting information, and 2) an updating of the AIUSA website posting of our local meetings and information.

The Albany Public Library will be unavailable to the group this coming May as it was in January. The group expressed interest in investigating other meeting places. However, the June meeting will be held at the library. Increasing the number of active participants at meetings and for events will be an ongoing focus of the group.

When an attendee asked if the group could work on the Bradley Manning case, Thenjiwe said yes as Amnesty International has objected to the conditions under which the soldier has been detained. Read the action on this page. The topic will need further discussion.

The group members took one of each of the 11 letters that will be sent to different countries.

February 9, 2011: AI 361 meeting:
1. Future meeting place: There was strong support for continuing to meet at the Washington Ave. branch of Albany Public library, in spite of some past problems with reserving a meeting space (monthly) and a lack of a dvd player. Someone from the group will have to take over the responsibility for making each month’s reservation online.
2. Finances: Ruud did not have an exact amount to report, but indicated that after paying for Tulip Fest, we may have only approximately $40 or $50 in our group’s treasury. Tulip Fest has cost $85. We agreed to ask members to pay yearly membership dues of $20. Noone will be excluded from the group for non-payment, but if it isn’t a financial burden, please send Ruud your yearly dues of $20. Even yearly dues do not fully cover the cost of postage stamps for 12 months’ letters and do not adequately cover any special events (the write-athon, inviting speakers, etc.) In the future, we plan to discuss additional fund-raising.
3. In addition to urgent actions, AIUSA has sent out a 26-page Core Action, campaigns and actions which they would like local groups to work on. The four main areas are death penalty, individuals at risk, demand dignity/maternal mortality and counter-terror with justice. Within the individuals at risk there are priority cases such as Majid Tavakoli of Iran and the Women of San Salvador Otenco, Mexico. The Northeast region will have a new Special Focus Case (now that Aung San Suu Kyi was released) next fall. Due to our small membership, we decided not to ask for a new Prisoner of Conscience so that we can make an effort to work on urgent actions and some of AIUSA’s priority cases.

Letters this month (which can be downloaded from our website) Illinois: 1 Ukraine: 2 El Salvador: 2 Egypt: 2 Total: 7. October 7th, 2009 AI 361 meeting:
Thenjiwe McHarris the NY field coordinator was present. The Teach In on Troy Davis’s death sentence and new trial at Albany Law School was the next night.

July 1, 2009 AI 361 meeting:

1. We decided to participate in Lark Fest in September, even though the entry charge is now $100 for everyone -- both merchants and nonprofit groups. Ruud has sent in our application, including a tabling photo from AI group 361. Thanks to Ruud for organizing our tableing and dealing with festival organizers. Thanks, sylvia, for the photo.

2. Barbara, Sylvia and Carrie lobbied on July 7. We met with staff for Representative Tonko and Senator Schumer. Mr. Tonko's staff member said that the congressman will almost definitely sign on to H.R.1215, the Immigration Fairness and Oversight bill. Both staff members believe that debate on immigration reform is likely this fall. Something to think about: the congressman's staff suggested the possibility of a rally in favor of true immigration detention reform (H.R. 1215) with the congressman as a speaker. We should know in the next 3 weeks if he has become a co-sponsor of this legislation; so far, there is no equivalent bill in the senate. We hope to have a second lobbying appointment with staff of Senator Gillibrand's office in albany. Thanks to Barbara and Sylvia for their work on this issue along with me. Sue Mattice hopes to write a letter-to-the-editor on the subject.

3. Special focus case: Fathi el-Jahmi. Northeast region AI groups are being asked to do two things to wrap up our special focus case efforts.: to write letters to the Libyan government asking for an investigation of the circumstances of Fathi el-Jahmi's death in Amman, only a couple weeks after being flown to Jordan from the Tripoli Medical Center. We will send letters to Libya in August.

To send e-mails of condolance to Fathi el-Jahmi's family in Libya and cards to Fathi's brother, Mohammed, in the U.S. Since we should only e-mail his family in Libya, this can not be done as part of our August meeting, obviously. I will forward messages from Andrea Solomon with details, including an e-mail address. Please send carefully-worded condolances during the month of July. We will also send a card to Mohammed el-Jahmi from our group at our August meeting.

4. SUCCESSES: Mohamed el-Gharani, who was just 14 years-old when detained in Guantanamo, was finally released on June 12, 2009. He was sent to Chad -- his family's home country where Mohamed has never lived. Thanks to Sylvia for telling us about news articles from the BBC concerning his ordeal and release:

On Jun 12, 2009 ... Mohamed el-Gharani, arrested in Pakistan in October 2001, was sent to his home country of Chad. Check this link news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8096402.stm and BBC NEWS | Africa | Guantanamo man left in Chad limbo Jul 1, 2009 ... Mohamed el-Gharani was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 ... Mohamed el-Gharani, whose parents are Chadian, said he had never visited Chad before. ... news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8128319.stm

This month, we did not have to send letters which were distributed at our meeting. AI issued "stop action" e-mails about two urgent actions. Mahmoud Abu Rideh was granted permission by the United Kingdom's Home Secretary to apply for an international travel document which would allow him to leave the United Kingdom and rejoin his family in Jordan. The mayor of an eastern Saudi Arabian town who was detained for holding Shia prayers in his home was released.

The U.S. supreme court will not examine Troy Davis's case until this fall. In the meantime, you can still help by writing to Chatham county district Attorney (Savannah GA) to re-open Troy Davis's case. It is also possible to send messages of solidarity to Troy Davis through the website of Amnistie Internationale France.

5. Something to think about:
Should AI 361 hold a big human rights education-cultural-fund-raising event, perhaps in October? Any suggestions about a theme? Please e-mail me with your thoughts, whether you are in favor or not. If you would like to see us hold another event, possibly similar to "Welcome, Sudan" and "Viva Guatemala", would you be interested in helping to plan it?

6. Greetings.: Matt Rector says hi. He's busy looking for a teaching job and dealing with a family member who has health problems. This, in addition to his demanding and unpredictable work schedule has kept him from coming to monthly meetings.

Letters this month: Iran: 3; Russia 2; Brazil 3; China 3; Saudi Arabia 1; Israel 1; Colombia 1; total: 14. Note: Three letters distributed at our meeting should no longer be sent: 2 to Saudi Arabia and one to United Kingdom.

April 1, 2009

Present: Ruud, Sue M., Sylvia, Joan, Barbara, Linda, Carrie and a visitor, Lynn Miller-Lachman.

1. Tulip Fest: Tulip Fest will take place on May 9-10. Ruud has sent out a sign-up sheet by e-mail. If you can table, and especially if you can help with set-up and break-down, please get in touch with ruud: raddink@wadsworth.org raddink@nycap.rr.com 438-1294.

Ruud has ordered 15 new t-shirts for sale at Tulip Fest.

2. Lobbying. Barbara explained what our AI 361 delegation to members of congress will be lobbying for, an independent, nonpartisan commission of inquiry in to human rights abuses by the U.S. government since 9/11. Barbara has scheduled visits to the local offices of Representative Paul Tonko on April 14 and with a staff member of Senator Charles Schumer the following week. Barbara, Matt, Sylvia and Carrie will make up the delegation.

Lynn Miller-Lachman, a local author, representing Pine Hills Neighbors for Peace, asked us if we had any petitions to give her for signatures, in support of our lobbying efforts. We do not but said that we would appreciate letters of support to our congressional delegation.

3. Tableing opportunities. Estelle will be tableing at the Los Lobos concert at the Eg next week. John will also be tableing at a Los Lobos concert, this one in Eutica. Thanks, John and Estelle.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED ON APRIL 23!: Carrie contacted the New York State Writers' Institute. We have permission to table with AI information and petitions at the screening of "Taxi to the Dark Side on Thursday April 23. This would be an excellent opportunity to do outreach about AI. It would also complement our One Hundred Days lobbying effort and be a good opportunity to collect signatures concerning the release of 17 Uighurs and Mohamed el-Gharani from Guantanamo, as already ordered by a judge. Please e-mail Carrie if you want to volunteer to table before and after the film. ckuehl@siena.edu.

4. miscellaneous: We sent a birthday card to Fathi el-Jahmi, who spent his 68th birthday, April 4, imprisoned in the Tripoli Medical Center. We also sent a once-a-month greeting card to our Regional Action Network prisoner, Ricardo Ucan-ceca of Yucatan State in Mexico. He was convicted of murdering his neighbor after an unfair trial in which he was not provided with a Maya-speaking interpreter. His lawyer also provided inadequate defense.

We briefly discussed AI's new report on detention of immigrants, asylum-seekers and even some U.S. permanent residents and citizens. Sue Mattice, who has read the report, "Jailed without justice", hopes to write a letter-to-the-editor about the report.

"A new Amnesty International report focuses attention on the use of detention by US immigration authorities. More the 300,000 people, including asylum seekers, torture survivors, victims of human trafficking, and longtime lawful permanent residents, are detained by US immigration authorities each year. The use of detention as a tool to combat unauthorized migration falls short of international human rights law, the conditions of arrest and detention are often deplorable, and due legal process is often ignored.

The Twin Cities Daily Planet republishes a Minnesota Independent story on a Minnesota-born citizen discussed in the Amnesty report:

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2009/03/26/mn-born-citizen-among-thousands-immigrants-held-violation-international-law.html

Read the Amnesty International report:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/uploads/JailedWithoutJustice.pdf

Lynn Miller-Lachman offered to lend us films on human rights themes.

Letters this month: Mexico: 7; Iran: 4; Saudi Arabia: 2; China: 2 Equatorial Guinea: 2; U.S.A.: 3; 1 each to: Iraq;s embassy, African Union mission to the U.N., Moldova, Bahamas,Gambia, Belarus,Nepal, Libya.

total letters: 28!

If you were not at the meeting and haven't yet received a packet of letters to sign, address and send from Linda Hart, you may download and print our letters from the local group's website and see:

Letters

December 3, 2008

The summary of Urgent Actions was given by Carrie, Ruud, Barbara and Sue D.

Barbara asked us to email a letter she wrote to Israel regarding a child in Gaza in need of heart surgery. Time is a critical factor as the surgeons are only available for a short period right now.

We have somewhere between $500 and $600 in our treasury.

Barbara and Carrie attended the Northeast Regional Conference in Boston on November 14th. The keynote speaker was Grace Akallo, author of Girl Soldier which is about her experience of being kidnapped and turned into a soldier by a rebel army in Uganda. Actress Mia Kirshner talked about her book I Live Here which contains refugee stories of people from Chechnya, Burma, Mexico and Malawi. There was an update on the Northeast Special Focus case of Fathi El-Jahmi. Barbara went to a workshop on lobbying your congressional member. The next legislative action will take place this spring. The most important thing we can do is build a relationship with our legislators. Barbara would like us to participate this spring.

Carrie reminded us to check out our web site @ http://www.ai361.org Maureen has added new information including links to videos. She welcomes any suggestions of additional information to include on the site.

Carrie had copies of the November Connect newsletter to share. She does email the link to the online version every month.

Carrie mentioned the 100 Days Campaign ?- to press President-elect Obama to follow through on his campaign promise to close Guantan amo and make other urgent human rights concerns a priority during his first 100 days in office.
Go to www.amnestyusa.org/100

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we showed the film from 1988 produced by AI USA which brings to life all 30 articles using various animation techniques.

Letters: 3 Philippines, 4 China, 1 Burundi, 2 Colombia, 1 Israel, 1 Libya, 3 Guatemala, 5 Mexico

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November 2008 Meeting Notes

1. Meeting minutes.: Sue has asked for someone else to take meeting minutes, from now on. No one at the meeting volunteered to do so, monthly. [Carrie took the minutes.]
2. Northeast regional conference will take place on November 14-15. the majority of events take place on Saturday the 15th. It is still possible to late register, and even to register at the door. Barbara (and Carrie) will be going for the day on Saturday, November 15 ? leaving early morning and returning after the scheduled events Saturday. If you are interested in ride-sharing, please contact either Barbara or I. Details on the speakers, panels and workshops can be found on AIUSA?s website. 2008 Northeast Region Conference
3. Carrie passed around mail received during the past month: a copy of the October Connect mailing from AIUSA, the Individuals at Risk (urgent action) newsletter, etc.
4. Carrie, Barbara, Ruud and Joan each summarized the urgent action cases on which they had written letters.
5. We discussed briefly the latest news concerning Troy Anthony Davis. The stay of execution issued by a circuit court may only last for 25 days. He is still in danger of being executed.
6. We discussed what we should do for human rights day on or around December 10. The global writeathon will take place in December, as usual. Carrie stated that since 3 or 4 of us already are writing letters for the group to sign and send, each member of the group should take the initiative and responsibility to sign up for the write-athon and to write their own letters. Carrie will forward information on signing up to members. In the past, we have had an information table at the Bookhouse at Stuyvesant Plaza, and many years ago, at Crossgates or Barnes and Noble. Noone in the group expressed any enthusiasm for tableing. Please mark Human Rights Day by registering for the global write-athon as an individual member of AI 361.
7. Barbara and Carrie asked those present for their feedback about ?Viva Guatemala?. There was lively discussion about the speakers? presentations, the cultural program which accompanied dinner, etc. We now have approximately $600.00 in our group?s checking account. If you were not there last night, and would like to share your feedback about the event, please e-mail Barbara and me; we still have to write an evaluation of the event for AIUSA, because they gave us the SIF (special initiative fund) grant to pay honoraria for Lucio and Genaro.

   Barbara thanked everyone for their help on the day of the event.

   Concensus seemed to be that such a large event does give us visibility in the community, at least with people who may already be sympathetic to AI?s work. (There were perhaps 75 people at the afternoon human rights program and approximately 75-80 people at the dinner.) These events do educate the public on human rights in a particular country or region. However, Because of the financial costs, such events combining human rights education and a dinner/cultural presentation/entertainment may not necessarily be good fund-raisers. Matt Kennis said that if we plan another event similar to ?Viva Guatemala? and ?Welcome, Sudan? he would be happy to come again, next year. We very briefly talked about a couple possibilities, focusing on the region around Ethiopia, or Burma/Myanmar.

8. If you write letters for the group. Please remember to e-mail them to Maureen as well as bringing copies to our meeting. According to my count, there are now 14 members of AI 361. I will work on updating our members? list with changed addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Letters in November go to countries: Puebla Mexico, Chiapas Mexico, Belarus, Israel, Sri Lanka, Iran (death penalty) and Iran hostage/detention case, Guatemala, Haiti, Equatorial Guinea-Cameroon, and Bosnia.

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August 2008 Meeting Notes

1. Barbara and Carrie briefly summarized the urgent action cases on which they wrote a total of 12 letters. There are 4 letters about Guatemala this month. Carrie briefly updated the group on efforts by human rights activists in Guatemala to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice, including the case being heard in Spain.
2. Guatemala event: Barbara and Carrie explained plans for the Guatemala event on Sunday, October 26. It will be a joint effort of AI of Albany and Mayan Hands. There will be speakers about human rights and petition-signing, followed by a catered Guatemalan dinner. The public is invited to one or both parts of the event. To attend the dinner, people are asked to make reservations and there will be a suggested donation. On Friday, August 8, we mailed an application and downpayment to use two rooms in the Unitarian Church. To volunteer to help with planning, please get in touch with Barbara or Carrie. We will also need volunteers on the day of the event.
3. Tabling:
   1. A sign-up sheet for tableing at Lark Fest was passed around. Lark Fest will take place on September 20. Tableing volunteers are needed to set up, to work at the table between 10-00 and 5-00, and for ?breakdown?. The sign-up sheet will be available again at our September Meeting. Or to volunteer, please get in touch with Ruud:
   2. Also on September 20, John has volunteered to table at the Indigo Girls? concert at the Troy Music Hall. Because the lobby is small, we can only have two volunteers. John is willing to table alone; however, if you would like to table there, please e-mail me. I will let rhythmnrights know that there will be a second volunteer. Thanks, John.
4. Website: Maureen is still researching possibilities for a new group website. As of the end of August, the Times Union will no longer have websites for community groups. Barbara wondered if we could possibly have income-generating ads on our site, for example, from the Bookhouse at Stuyvesant Plaza.
5. This year?s northeast regional conference in Boston will take place on November 14-16. Most of the events take place on Saturday, November 15. Joan and Carrie talked about the high quality of the speakers, panels and workshops which offered information, techniques and inspiration at last October?s regional conference. Letters this month:     Iran: 2  Saudi Arabia: 2  Guatemala: 4   Libya (Fathi El-Jahmi, special focus case): 1   Mexico: 2   U.S.A. (concerning policy towards Democratic Republic of Congo): 1   India: 2   Total: 14  

 

July 9, 2008meeting of AI group 361:  

1. Ruud will be registering us for tableing at Lark Fest in September. We will be tableing with ?information only? again this year. The fee for ?information only? (no merchandise sales) is $50.

2. Ruud reported that we have approximately $300 in our treasury account.

 3. lobbying to close Guantanamo.: In June, Matt Rector put Carrie in touch with Jenise  a faculty member from College of St. Rose who had volunteered to lead a delegation to visit Capital District congressional offices. Carrie and the faculty member, Jen, met on June 26. Representative McNulty already is supportive of closing Guantanamo. It was not possible to schedule a visit with Senator Clinton?s staff before July 4. We decided to simply fax materials to all three offices. Jenise wrote a petition and collected signatures, as did Carrie. The signed petition and background material, including AI?s recommendations for closing Guantanamo  provided by AIUSA to delegation members was faxed to all three Capital District Offices. Thanks to Matt for putting Jenise and Carrie in touch, and to Jenise for her excellent work on this issue.

 4. Fathi El-Jahmi.: There is no new news of Fathi El-Jami. Group members will be sending a letter to Col. Gaddafi which contains the same information and apeal as in June. AI groups were asked to contact our representatives to ask them to contact Libyan government officials concerning Fathi El-Jahmi?s release. Carrie wrote a cover letter asking Congressman McNulty and Senators Schumer and Clinton to call on Libya for Fathi El-Jahmi?s release. A sample letter was included in each mailing to our representatives. [Note: check on the Focus action page for the latest from Fathi's brother who is calling on appeals to congress.]

 5. Organizing possible event open to the public.: Carrie suggested a couple possibilities for an event, a screening of the documentary, ?Darfur Now?, or organizing an event about bringing former Guatemalan President R?os Montt to justice for human rights violations in the 1980?s. The goal is to pressure the government of Guatemala to extradite him to Spain for trial. AI?s International Justice program is asking local groups to hold a screening of ?Justice without Borders? and/or some other film about human rights in  Guatemala, hopefully combined with a letter-writing action. Those present thought that we should wait until at least September. Carrie also brought up the possibility of bringing in a speaker, but the concensus seemed to be that this was risky because turn-out at our public events is generally small. No decisions were made. Carrie and Barbara will try to find out if there are groups or individuals in other organizations interested in Guatemala who might want to work with us, or at least attend an event.

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Amnesty International Group 361

June 2008 meeting - abridged notes

 Discussion of Tulip Fest:   600 people signed petitions.  Netted $75 after spending $85 for the booth space. 

Lark Fest will be on 9/20/08 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It
will cost us $50 to disseminate info only; no sales allowed for that price. It would be too costly for us to pay for a license to sell merchandise; we likely would not break even.  There was consensus on that point.

Carrie Kuehl will fill us in on Sudan and Guatemala
actions at the July meeting.

  Joan stated that Dave Matthews will be at SPAC on 6/20 and 6/21.  We are
invited to table there, but will need to have a lead volunteer with a cell
phone.  Unknown whether anyone will be available; nobody present at
tonight's meeting plans to table there.

Expect to renew our agreement with the library to use the usual
upstairs room for meetings for the next six months.

  Joan received word that the man known to Pakistani authorities as "Manjit Singh" has received an indefinite stay of execution.  His family in India says he is a farmer named Sarabjit Singh, and that he accidentally strayed into Pakistan while working.

  Some group members received a letter from Colombia's Director of HumanRights, Juan Carlos Gomez Ramirez, in response to our letters re: Frank William Cayapur, Edward Mina Cuero and Isabellina Valencia.  Letter is in Spanish, so we will ask Carrie to translate it.

  Letters sent tonight:
    --Honduras:   1
    --Iran:            3
    --Zimbabwe:  2
    --Libya:         2
    --Mexico:      2
    --Sri Lanka:   3
    --Congo:       1

Page updated: Saturday, December 4, 2010