Amnesty International, Eastern PA

If Amnesty International has ever needed your help as a volunteer, it is NOW. All Amnesty members and supporters in the Philadelphia area are asked to contribute some of your time, however small, to help plan and staff this incredible event. Please see details below. Thanks in advance for your help.

Guantánamo Bay Cell Tour - Coming to Philly

The lack of human rights and the assaults on human dignity present in Guantánamo Bay must end. On May 8 in Miami, Amnesty International will launch its national tour of a life-size Guantánamo prison cell replica. The cell tour is a way to raise awareness about the torture and abuse that takes place and to demand an end to Guantánamo Bay. The event will give participants the opportunity to enter the cells, experience the conditions of isolation and then comment on your experience.

The cell will visit our region twice, first in Philly (May 30 – June 1) then in Washington DC (June 25 – 29).

See what the cell looks like

Volunteer to help with the Philadelphia Cell Tour Event

The cell will be on the ground in Philadelphia between May 30 - June 1. Volunteers are needed:

1. to help plan smaller events leading up to the cell tour stop in Philadelphia to help educate the community about this issue
2. to help with the actual cell tour stop in Philadelphia

As many volunteers as possible are needed. Please contribute any amount of time you can.

If you’re interested in volunteering either to help plan a pre-tour event or during the cell tour stop, please e-mail PAcelltour@gmail.com

Thanks to Kathleen Lucas and Jen Horwitz for this alert:

The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal’s “People Poll” asks, “Do you favor the death penalty?” Please call 1-866-346-7655, and press 2# for “no”. It literally takes 20 seconds. Voting ends Friday at 5pm, and the results will be published on Saturday.

This is a key area of the state for us. There is a significant Latino population, a diverse faith community, including strong Mennonite and Catholic communities, and a strong peace-and-justice crowd there. And there are key legislators in this county. Call now!

Amnesty International in the UK has produced another enlightening and disturbing short film about the use of torture, in this case waterboarding. The film was released today at unsubscribe-me.org, and will be shown at British cinemas. Unsubscribe-me.org encourages Amnesty UK supporters to reject, or unsubscribe from, the use of torture.

Amnesty UK Press Release

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
8:15 pm
University of Pennsylvania, Huntsman 270 (3730 Walnut Street)

*This is not an Amnesty International event, but may be of interest to AI supporters.

The Armenian Student Association at the University of Pennsylvania is holding a film screening as part of Genocide Awareness Week.

Screamers is a 2006 documentary by director Carla Garapedian. The film explores why genocides have recurred into the modern day, and involves the band System of a Down, Serj Tankian’s grandfather (who is an Armenian Genocide survivor), the human rights activist and journalist Professor Samantha Power, and various people involved with genocides in Rwanda and Darfur. Screamers also examines genocide denial in current day Turkey, and the trend of neutrality that the United States generally holds towards genocide.

Monday, April 21, 2008
7:00 pm

Sinclair Auditorium
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA

Jacqueline Murekatete is coming to speak at Lehigh University this Monday at 7pm in Sinclair Auditorium.  She survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide and now works for the nonprofit organization Miracle Corners of the World. She has made it her mission to inform others about what it is like to survive such an event and what needs to be done to prevent future genocides.

Thanks to Amnesty International at Lehigh University for this news.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
7:00 pm

Great Room
Seegers Union
Muhlenberg College
Allentown, PA

*This is not an Amnesty International event, but may be of interest to AI supporters.

Professor Ingrid Mattson will present a lecture, “Framing Muslim Women: Islam, Gender and Human Rights in the Global Media” on Tuesday, April 22 at 7p.m. in the Great Room, Seegers Union. The event is free and open to the public.

In her talk, Dr. Mattson will address the case of Pakistani rape-survivor Mukhtar Mai and how her situation was helped or distorted and her story told and re-framed by various groups such as Pakistani and international women’s groups, international journalists and other media and politicians.

Ingrid Mattson, Director of Islamic Chaplaincy and Professor at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT, is the first convert to Islam and the first female to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

She earned her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999. Her research focuses on Islamic law and society; among her articles are studies on slavery, poverty and Islamic legal theory. Dr. Mattson was born in Canada, where she studied Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, Ontario (B.A. ’87). From 1987-1988 she lived in Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugee women. In 2001 she was elected Vice-President of ISNA and in 2006 she was elected President of the organization.

Aside from her many other accomplishments, you might have heard her as a guest on NPR’s Speaking of Faith just recently.

Muhlenberg College gratefully acknowledges the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation’s support of the Center for Ethics.

Amnesty International at Haverford College is co-sponsoring a solo theater performance by Judith Sloan, this Saturday, April 19th, at 8:00 pm in Stokes Auditorium.

Judith Sloan’s project solo multimedia performance portrays the struggles, humor, and pathos of new immigrants and refugees in Queens, NY, the most polyglot place on the planet.

“Immigrant life as told in the intimate, rich, comic, ironic, and sad stories so often seen but not heard in America’s big cities…” -The Washington Post

“Crossing the BLVD boldly carries the tradition of oral history into the 21th Century…” - Eve Ensler, Author of The Vagina Monologues.

“An offbeat ethnic tour of one of the country’s most ethnically diverse counties…Riveting Stories about a new wave of immigrants to America…”-The New York Times

“Oral history with a twist.” -The World, BBC/PRI, Public Radio International

The performance is sponsored by Haverford’s Amnesty International, Asian Students Association, Genocide Awareness Coalition, International Students Association, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Re-Mix.

Facebook link (you must log into Facebook to view)

Saturday, April 19, 2008
8:00 pm

Stokes Auditorium
Haverford College
Haverford PA

Haverford’s AI is co-sponsoring a solo theater performance by Judith Sloan, this Saturday, April 19th at 8:00 pm in Stokes Auditorium.

Judith Sloan’s project solo multimedia performance portrays the struggles, humor, and pathos of new immigrants and refugees in Queens, NY, the most polyglot place on the planet.

“Immigrant life as told in the intimate, rich, comic, ironic, and sad stories so often seen but not heard in America’s big cities…” -The Washington Post

“Crossing the BLVD boldly carries the tradition of oral history into the 21th Century…” - Eve Ensler, Author of The Vagina Monologues.

“An offbeat ethnic tour of one of the country’s most ethnically diverse counties…Riveting Stories about a new wave of immigrants to America…”-The New York Times

“Oral history with a twist.” -The World, BBC/PRI, Public Radio International

Brought to you by: Amnesty International (AI), Asian Students Association (ASA), Genocide Awareness Coalition (GAC), International Students Association (ISA), Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), and Re-Mix

From Reuters:

“The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a challenge to the lethal three-drug cocktail used in most U.S. executions during the past 30 years. By a 7-2 vote, the high court rejected a challenge by two Kentucky death row inmates who argued the current lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by inflicting needless pain and suffering.”

Amnesty International USA responds:

Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Kentucky’s use of lethal injection, fails to address the costly, ineffective and inefficient system that places the United States at the fringes of the world community.

Figures from a new report, released by Amnesty International on Tuesday, show that more than two thirds of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

As in previous years, the vast majority of executions worldwide were carried out in a small handful of countries. In 2007, 88 per cent of all known executions took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA.

Statement by Larry Cox, Executive Director of AIUSA
Summary of AIUSA’s new report on the use of the death penalty worldwide

Thanks to Brendan, the death penalty abolition coordinator of Group 342, for alerting me to this news.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
8:00 pm

Huntsman F96
University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania Amnesty International group be watching a documentary as well as brainstorming for next year. This is the group’s last general body meeting of the year.