10-27-09

Welcome to the eleventh issue of the New Hampshire Amnesty International Newsletter! 

Legislative Update from Helen Jack

Amnesty International USA's nationwide legislative lobby week is coming up! During the second week in November, Amnesty activists around the country will be meeting with the staff members of their Representatives and Senators to ask them to close Guantanamo, reform the immigration detention system, and ratify CEDAW, a women's rights treaty.

Amnesty delegations will be holding meetings at the offices of all NH Senators and Representatives. Philips Exeter Academy Amnesty is arranging meetings with Senator Gregg and Representative Hodes, Ilse Andrews and Group 550 will be meeting with Representative Shea-Porter, and Pinkerton Academy Amnesty will be setting up a meeting at Senator Shaheen's office.

Please go to www.amnestyusa.org/lobby to learn more about the lobby week and the NH delegations. Sign up on that website or email me if you are interested in joining a delegation.

Helen Jack, Legislative Coordinator

helen.jack@yale.edu

Upcoming Events

Northeast Regional Amnesty International Conference

Saturday, November 14

Boston, MA

Death Penalty Teach-In

Friday, October 30

Exeter, NH

Legislative Action

Writing letters in tandem with the lobby week is very effective. Support the lobby delegations by showing NH elected officials that constituents around the state care about the same issues that lobby delegations will be discussing in the upcoming meetings.

Dear Senator,

Please cosponsor and pass the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act (S147) and take all appropriate steps to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo has come to symbolize US human rights violations committed in the name of the “war on terror.” Those held in Guantanamo have been subjected to numerous human rights abuses. Some have first been rendered to countries that torture, others have been disappeared into secret prisons before their arrival at Guantanamo, and many have been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment while in US custody. 

People who continue to be detained in Guantanamo should be charged with a crime and given a fair trial in US federal court. Anyone who is not charged should be released immediately and unconditionally. No one should be returned to a country where they would face torture or other human rights violations.

I would appreciate your support for S147 as it is important legislation for closing Guantanamo and properly handling the people who are currently detained there.

Sincerely,

Name

Addresss 

Send letters to:

Senator Judd Gregg

125 North Main Street

Concord, NH 03301

Submit letter online

Senator Jeanne Shaheen

1589 Elm Street, Suite 3

Manchester, NH 03101

Submit letter online

Report on meeting of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union from Ilse Andrews

The annual meeting of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union held in Manchester, NH, on October 18, 2009, focused on the death penalty and its abolition. CLU Board Member Pat Yosha had asked me to bring Amnesty International material relevant to this important topic.

I prepared a letter on behalf of Troy Davis, downloaded the Troy Davis Fact Sheet from the Amnesty website, and carefully edited an action sheet on the late Cameron Todd Willingham.

The NHCLU meeting featured John Holdridge, Executive Director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, who gave a detailed overview of capital punishment in the U.S. and worldwide. (I thought he spent too much time on statistics and far too little on repeal strategies and their success in other states.) The other speakers were NHCLU staff attorney Barbara Keshen (moderator) and Executive Director Claire Ebel, who discussed ways of influencing legislators during the 2010 legislative session, as well as the Governor, to achieve repeal of New Hampshire’s death penalty at long last.

As the members left after the meeting, I distributed my three handouts to virtually everyone passing by. It is my hope that they will be mailing the Troy Davis letter to authorities in the State of Georgia – and that it will be to his benefit. I might add that even in this enlightened group of attendees, few came to the display table actually looking for material or taking the Abolition buttons that I had also brought with me. Over the years, I have found it necessary to approach people one by one and offer them the handouts.

Ilse Andrews, Group 550