The All Saints Church Amnesty Group

Amnesty International is a movement of ordinary people from all over the world who stand up for humanity and human rights.  The purpose of Amnesty International is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom or truth are denied.

The All Saints Amnesty Group is a small but committed group which usually meets three times each year.

Our most important function continues to be the writing of letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience.  Prisoners of conscience are selected from  the Campaign Action in the Amnesty Magazine.  Letters are made available to members of the congregation after the 9.30 service on the fourth Sunday of the month except August and December and letters can be written in the church hall.  In December, instead of writing letters, we send Christmas cards or greetings cards to prisoners of conscience or their families.

Writing letters does work.  Over the past ten years 102 letters have been prepared by our group  and sent on behalf of prisoners of conscience in 45 different countries.  Many of these people have stood up to repressive governments.  It has been estimated that about one prisoner in six is either released, has their sentence commuted or has their conditions improved in some way as a result of letters written on their behalf.  Over the past few years these have included Nasser Zarafshan of Iran, Professor Volderman of Ethiopia and Philip Ariaga of Mexico for all of whom we have written letters.

The Amnesty Group holds an annual vigil on a Sunday evening in November to remember prisoners of conscience.  This is always a moving occasion.

For further information about the All Saints’ Amnesty Group,  please contact either Marion Anderson (Chair) tel: 285 3068  or Marilyn Champion (Secretary) tel: 285 5013.