Get Involved
Ways to get involved
There are many ways in which you can help the Cambridge University Amnesty International Group.
We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.
1. Write letters to or on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Check out our current actions.
2. Start a pigeon hole petition for an individual at risk in your college. Click here for details.
3. Volunteer 2 hours of your time to be a part of our infamous, termly Cage event and campaign on behalf of an individual at risk.
4. Help plan and implement the Lent campaign (Demand Dignity) by joining the all new Action Team 2009-10. This team meets every week during Michaelmas to discuss Amnesty campaigns, hone our campaigning skills, blitz ideas and help us plan a truly effective series of events for Lent. Don’t worry if you cannot make a regular commitment, we understand how cambridge terms are, just come to as much as you can. To sign up to the Action Team mailing list and find out about the next meeting email the exec at cuamnesty.org.uk.
Events
All our events will be posted on The Calendar.
Michaelmas Term 2009
In Week 1 you will have the chance to discuss the human rights agenda in East Africa with Amnesty UK’s East Africa Research team Co-ordinator at Caius on Tues 13th October.
In Week 2, we offer you the chance to volunteer in our termly Cage event on behalf of a prisoner of conscience. Please visit ‘The Cage’ page for what volunteering involves and how to sign up.
This term, don’t fear the onset of Week 5 blues. Heard of the Amnesty’s annual comedy festival, the Secret Policeman’s Ball, that showcases the talent of Eddy Izzard, Frank Skinner and Russell Brand? Well we bring to you Cambridge’s very own Secret Porter’s Ball, showcasing the university’s best stand up comedians. It sold out last year – don’t miss your chance this time round. Tickets available soon.
In Week 6 we plan to hold a discussion forum based on the relationship between Religion and Human Rights. More details will follow.
In Week 7, we have the WEEKEND OF THE LETTER, a whole series of college based events to celebrate and encourage your letter writing efforts. Last year we had balloons, we had waffles and pizza, we had club nights and fun and hundreds of letters were written for prisoners of conscience around the world. This year will be even better. The Amnesty Rave is already in the making…
In Week 8, we hold our annual Greeting Cards Party where we get creative. We make and send lots of cards to those who will not get to spend their Christmas at home with their loved ones.
Lent Term 2010
This term we will be launching the Demand Dignity campaign. This campaign will hold to account those that deepen poverty by violating human rights abuses. To read more, please visit our Campaigns page or head to Amnesty UK’s main website.
If you would like to help plan this campaign throughout Michaelmas term, ready to implement in Lent then why not join the 2009-10 Action Team? Get in touch with the Exec for more information.
2008-9
2008-9 included an exciting variety of fundraising and campaigning events. During Michaelmas Term CUAI hosted a brilliant comedy fundraiser, the Secret Porter’s Ball, where Footlights comedians helped us to raise funds for Amnesty through fantastic sketches. We also hosted various writers and organisations for CUAI’s Human Rights Literature and Arts Festival. Speakers included English PEN and The Times Baghdad correspondent, Deborah Haynes, an Amnesty prizewinner for outstanding investigative journalism in Iraq. Cambridge based artist Soheila Sokhanvari addressed the Cambridge Union about Iranian history and the themes of her work. The festival included two interviews in the student newspaper,Varsity, with prominent writers: award-winning journalist Xan Rice and performance poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah.
During Lent Term we focused upon ‘Business and Human Rights.’ We organised a screening of Milena Kaneva’s documentary Total Denial, which looked at the actions of the oil company Total in Burma. This was followed by a talk from Amnesty International’s Peter Frankental, who discussed the need for international controls of business ethics.
CUAI supported the Cambridge University campaign for ethical investment with a protest on Senate House Lawn. Over 100 students came to demonstrate their support for an ethical investment policy for Cambridge University. This campaign very much related to our support of ethical business practices.
One of our most exciting events of Summer 2009 was CUAI’s ethical fashion show, FACE. This was held at the Cambridge Union and featured top ethical clothing designers such as Noir, Katherine Hamnett, Izzy Lane and Ciel. Lily Cole and Sam Roddick spoke about the importance of consumer demand for ethical and sustainably produced clothing. The show was an immense success, proving how much public interest there is in fashion with a social conscience. CUAI also held a Clothes Exchange prior to the Show, where students could swap clothing amongst themselves, highlighting the idea of sustainability.
Summer Term also saw Cambridge compete head-to-head with Oxford in the ‘Varsity’ letter writing competition. The Cambridge and Oxford Amnesty groups agreed to compete over the number of letters written during one week. Letter-writing on behalf of prisoners of conscience is an enormously important part of Amnesty’s work. Sadly Cambridge lost out, although our total was an admirable 703 letters! We hope to repeat the Competition this year, as it was a great way to increase the number of Amnesty letters. Many colleges organised letter-writing parties and socials. During next year, CUAI will continue to hold a weekly letter-writing session at the Cafe project, a student-run ethical cafe. This will resume on Monday 12th October 2009.
2008-9 was a really exciting and dynamic year. We look forward to a new year of campaigning and activity!
