The Amnesty Society in Nottingham University is one of the 100 Amnesty International student groups across the country. Amnesty International is the world's biggest human rights organisation, with more than 1.7 million members and supporters around the world. Amnesty International is independent of any government, political party, or religion, so don't feel that your personal beliefs should stop you joining us. Amnesty International wants to see a world in which all people enjoy the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.
Amnesty Society at Nottingham contributes to the achievement of this goal in two main ways:
- By promoting awareness of human rights: primarily throughout the university. Recently this has been pursued through campaigning on stalls, showing ethical films, heading discussions and bringing in speakers, and hosting social events for the wider community under the Amnesty banner.
- By opposing specific abuses of human rights: through Amnesty's traditional method of writing to the groups responsible for human rights abuses.
Amnesty members also went to the Amnesty International Student Conference in Bristol in 2004, which lasts a weekend and allows for the opportunity to meet other student groups from around the country and to campaign together. However, Amnesty Society action is certainly not limited to the aforementioned methods. Ideas for new and better ways of achieving these goals are always welcomed, considered and if possible, implemented.
Amnesty Society meetings are held weekly for an hour - see the front page for details of meeting times and dates. In meetings, notices are given out, campaign letters are written and discussions of contentious issues are held often with invited expert speakers leading.
If you are interested in joining Amnesty Society (annual membership is £3), please just come along to a meeting and indicate to a committee member that you wish to join. Membership can be as involved as you want it to be, from joining the committee, organising the whole group and participating in the campaigns, to simply receiving Amnesty e-mails with news of forthcoming events.