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Hi everyone!
So I thought I would write today about a wonderful experience I've had over the last few days! If you know me from school, or follow me on Twitter (@singingsonnet), you will probably know that I am very passionate about human rights, and my ultimate goal in life is to do the best that I can (how...I haven't figured that out completely yet) to help those whose human rights are being grossly abused. I have co-chaired our school Amnesteam over the last year, and it has been great fun! It's brilliant to organise something you truly love doing and pass it on to other people.
Well, we were invited to go to the Amnesty International UK Section's national conference and AGM in Swansea this weekend! It took a lot of planning, some people sadly couldn't make it (in the end it was just me and my skydiving bestie Noama) and there was a whole issue with transport but in the end, we made it to the conference, and let me tell you, it was one of the best weekends ever!
The conference was held at the Swansea University Bay Campus, overlooking the beautiful Swansea bay, and it was jam-packed with events, talks, panels, workshops, art and stalls, all of which completely gave me a whole new level of inspiration to continue fighting for human rights.
We went to a couple of meetings on the Saturday morning, after a long car journey, and this is where we met some other wonderful youth activists, as well as our lovely youth co-ordinator Anne! We oohed and aahed over everyone's respective achievements in their campaigns, and I especially loved looking through the AMAZING scrapbook my new friend Surrayia had made of her school's Amnesty events. After the youth meetings, we grabbed some lunch (would you believe it - THERE WAS HALAL FOOD) and pottered around the beautifully decorated Action Centre, where the stalls, multimedia pieces and information desks were situated. We grabbed way too many free t-shirts and badges, as well as lots of informative material for many of Amnesty's different campaigns. My favourite t-shirt has got to be the 'Save the human rights act' one!
After lunch, we went to the great hall, where we were welcomed to the conference by the AGM Chair, Alex. I had a bit of a fangirl moment when he introduced the incredible Salil Shetty - Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Salil spoke of the deterioration of human rights worldwide in an emotive, passionate speech. He then talked about what Amnesty had achieved in his eight years as Secretary-General, and truly, Amnesty has become a global movement, not just situated in London. He ended the speech with a message of hope, lighting the Amnesty candle to rapturous applause. We then heard speeches from the Director of AIUK, the Chair of the Board of Directors of AIUK, the Treasurer, and from some other brilliant leaders of Amnesty's campaigns. We were then sent to our first round of workshops!
Copyright: Salil Shetty Twitter
Noama and I went to a workshop to learn about how we can be a bigger force in our communities. Here, we learned some invaluable ways to engage more with the community, and gain a wider following. We talked about different points of contact, and how we can connect with other Amnesty groups to make a bigger impact. This was so so useful, and I wish I'd gone a year earlier so we could've made our Amnesteam even better this year!
After that, we had a little tea and coffee break, after which we were in the great hall again for the BRAVE women panel. This had to be one of the highlights of my weekend: we heard from four incredible women advocating for campaigns against online abuse, against abortion laws in Northern Ireland and against the Polish government's complete disregard for women's rights. Their speeches were passionate, informative, and frankly incredible - I particularly enjoyed Seyi Akiwowo's speech about her experiences with online abuse and how we can counter it. The audience were reactive to emotive points in the panel's speeches, cheering when Breedagh Hughes, Chair of the Royal College of Midwives, said with bracing strength that 'I resent the hijacking of the term pro-life. Anti-abortion activists are not pro-life, they are pro-birth. If you take nothing else from today, never use ‘pro-life’ to refer to them again.' What made the experience even more amazing (if possible) was the fact that I dredged up the courage to ask the very last question! I asked the panel what their thoughts were about how women's rights were taboo in many countries: they responded with the affirmation that it is not going to work if Western feminists go over to these countries and try and 'teach' women; we will have to help women in their own environments stand up and organise their own movements, relative to their own struggles. After the panel, I saw my friend Emily, who led our school Amnesty society a couple of years ago and inspired my passion for human rights! She said that she was really proud of me and it was just absolutely amazing to see her again - Amnesty is her heart and soul and I'm so in awe of her!
My second workshop, I parted ways from Noama and Surrayia (who went to learn all about Amnesty's campaign against the death penalty) and went to another panel - about the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. This panel was equally amazing as the last, and again, I ended up asking the last question! I asked about how the UK's decision to leave the EU (therefore losing the European Convention of Human Rights) would affect its accountability in its failure to uphold international law. The answer to this was that yes, the UK will become less responsible for its actions, since it now does not have the ECHR enshrined in its law, or the EU as a monitoring body, which is deeply worrying.
After that, we had our long dinner break! Before we got food however, Noama, Surrayia and I decided to go visit the beach during the sunset! The beach in Swansea bay is absolutely breathtaking. The only beach I've ever been to is Clifton in Karachi, none in the UK so this was huge for me! We took lots of aesthetic photos and it was a lovely evening!
Following dinner, Noama and I took off to our hotel room - we were both extremely tired but also high on adrenaline so we ended up doing a solid 20 minutes of English revision, Noama vlogged, we showed each other what we'd got at the Action Centre and we ended the night snuggling up in bed, watching the new episode of Once Upon A Time. It was perfect.
Five hours of sleep later, we got ready for the second and final day, having breakfast at the hotel and then going back up to the university. There, we witnessed the Good News section: people from Amnesty groups as well as the leading networks went up on stage and told us some good news about events or campaigns they were running. It was so lovely to see such a wonderful outpouring of love from the entire audience! Then, we witnessed the Marsh awards, in which three £500 prizes were awarded to local/student/youth groups who had done extraordinary things in the last year! Following this, we watched the Board of Directors of AIUK do a Q and A, which got only a tiny bit heated but was really interesting as it focused on the logistics of how Amnesty, the organisation, is run.
Following this, all of the youth and student delegates went down to the beach with some amazing placards and signs for a whole host of team photos with our youth co-ordinator, Anne! It was a lovely, bright day and the sky was so blue...it was a great backdrop for human rights activists from all over the UK to come together, laugh in the sand and take some brilliant mid-air photos. I had some photos with Emily as well, and then finally, it was time to say goodbye to the conference!
Noama and I were sad to go, but we were also knackered, and we were glad to go into Swansea city centre that afternoon and grab some Domino's pizza, walking over to the sea front and eating with the best view ever: Swansea bay. We went on a trek to try and find a tourist shop to satisfy my postcard and Noama's keyring needs, but we couldn't find one! We were animated on the drive back (surprisingly), debating for at least 45 minutes about which photos we'd post.
The weekend surpassed all of my expectations, and my thanks go to everyone at AIUK who organised this fabulous event, and to everyone who spoke, or did workshops, or even manned the impressive tech during the event! Anne and Laura were the Amnesty staff who we checked in with, and they were both absolutely lovely! I came out of the conference feeling empowered, ready to take on the world and with some amazing new friends. I can't wait to do this 24/7.
I hope you enjoyed my rambling! See you very soon, for a tag which I'm very excited about doing!
Love,
SS xx