Our virtual meeting on Monday, Feb 8th, 7 pm, will focus on reproductive rights, and we’ll send Zoom info to the folks who register, which you can do here.  Our guest speaker will be Alice Dahle, chair of Amnesty International USA’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group, who will discuss the status of reproductive rights in the US and beyond and then take our questions.  We’ll also watch a short video and do online actions.

Amnesty International Group 137’s first meeting of 2021 will take place online on Monday, January 11^th, at 7 pm Pacific Time.  Our focus for the meeting will be the recent unrest in Nigeria.  Our guest speaker will be Charlie Cogan, AIUSA Country Specialist, who will explain the human rights situation in Nigeria and take our questions.  We’ll also watch a brief video and do online urgent actions on cases in Nigeria.  Register for the meeting here and we’ll send you the Zoom info prior to the meeting.

You are invited to join Amnesty International Group 137 and other California Amnesty local and student groups for a state-wide 2020 Virtual Write for Rights event on Saturday, December 19^th, 1-4 pm.  You can drop in any time between 1 pm and 4 pm to add your voice to the fight for human rights (please allow yourself at least 45 minutes for effective participation).  This is a great chance to come together with other Californians to advocate on behalf of people who urgently need our help, and to join our voices to those of thousands of other Amnesty activists around the world.  When we act together we are more powerful, and that is the driving force behind Write for Rights, Amnesty’s annual global campaign and the world’s biggest human rights event.

Our October meeting has been moved back a week to Monday, October 19th, 7 pm, so that we can welcome a speaker from the League of Women Voters to present the pros and cons of the state and local ballot propositions (for California and San Diego).  You can register for this meeting here.  We will send Zoom info to registrants prior to the meeting.

Join us for a free virtual screening of the documentary film, The Penalty, on Sunday, October 18^th, at 1 pm.  We are excited to announce that Will Francome, director, and Laura Shacham, producer, will join us to introduce the film and conduct a Q&A afterward.  Register for the event here.  We will send Zoom info to all registrants prior to the screening.

The Penalty follows three people caught in the crosshairs of capital punishment and the political landscape that could decide their fate, while highlighting flaws in the US’s death penalty industry and illustrating some of the fundamental reasons Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, without exception.

The topic of our meeting is gun violence prevention.  Our guest speaker will be Wendy Wheatcroft, leader of the California chapter of Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and founder of San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention.  Wendy will discuss how Moms Demand Action is tackling our gun violence epidemic through all its intersections and in every state.  Register here for the meeting.  Zoom info will be sent to registrants prior to the meeting.

Our special guest speaker will be Nancy Haydt, Executive Director of Death Penalty Focus, who will answer the question, “Why do we still have the death penalty?”  The pandemic has given us time to reflect on the society we have and the society we want. The Black Lives Matter movement brings alive our understanding that there is no justice, there is no peace, until all citizens are equal in rights and opportunities.  A significant artifact of our racist history is the death penalty. This talk will discuss the death penalty as a means of repression and subjugation of black citizens. We will discuss the myths that keep the death penalty alive in our society. And we will talk about strategies for outlawing the death penalty once and for all.  We’ll also do an icebreaker, watch videos, and do online urgent actions.  You can RSVP for the meeting by registering here.  If you’ve already registered for this particular meeting you do not need to do so again.  We’ll send registered attendees Zoom info prior to the meeting.

The topic for this meeting is the Border Patrol’s increasing forays into the realm of local law enforcement, particularly its involvement in suppressing Black Lives Matter protests.  Pedro Rios, Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s US/Mexico Border Program, will be our guest speaker and will discuss his thoughts about this disturbing development and the dangers of having an unaccountable paramilitary force that operates with impunity involved in responding to civil actions.  You can RSVP for the meeting by registering here.  If you’ve already registered for this particular meeting you do not need to do so again.  We’ll send registered attendees Zoom info prior to the meeting.

Our July 13th virtual meeting will focus on the broken asylum process for refugees.  Marty Rosenbluth, an immigration attorney who moved to Lumpkin, Georgia to be able to represent his most desperate clients in person, will speak about the crisis in asylum for refugees.  You can register for the meeting here, and we’ll send you the Zoom info prior to the meeting.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have moved our meetings online!  We also now meet once a month on 2nd Mondays.  We will be sending a link to register for the virtual meeting in our email meeting reminders that arrive three days before the meeting.  A day or so before the meeting, we’ll send attendees the Zoom information to join the meeting.  If you are not on our email list, you may subscribe here or email us at group137@amnestysd.org.