The beauty of co-existence!

See the announcement below for Amnesty
International's Regional Conference on
Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 in Georgia.

First, please enjoy one of my favorite videos.  All races, nationalities, and ages dancing together, loving and sharing music and fun together - armed only with string instruments and making a joyful noise! 

This is my perception of what AI works toward.

The video is rightly called
VICTORY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V0mqrpY31s 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Southern Regional Conference 2009 in Decatur, Georgia!
Oct. 30 to Nov. 1

Visit the website for AI's conference at this link:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/regional-conferences/south/page.do?id=1650029  

Come together with fellow Amnesty activists from across the South for an exciting weekend to celebrate and strengthen the human rights movement. The 2009 conference theme is "Dignity: All Rights for All People." You’ll leave with ideas for activism to take back to your community, contacts for other activists, and more knowledge about Amnesty’s fight for human rights and dignity.

We hope many of you can make it to Atlanta for what promises to be an engaging and inspiring weekend in the fight for human rights!

We are proud to be hosting our Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan at our regional conference this year.  She will be speaking about her new book The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights and the critical importance of AI’s new Demand Dignity campaign.

Agenda: This is a working agenda and subject to slight changes and modifications. Priority campaign workshop titles are place holders pending the final determination of actual workshop titles. Click Here to view the Conference Agenda

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan will be attending and speaking!

Events to include:

• Workshops, including Right to Health, Media Work, Coalition Building, Campus Activism, and more
• Film Screenings
• Human Rights Tour of Atlanta
• Student Caucus
• Atlanta Pride March
• Welcome Cultural Program
• Extended Networking Break in the Ideas Fair
• Local Group Caucus Lunch
• Student and Youth Caucus Lunch
• Faculty Advisors' Roundtable Lunch
• Amnesty International 101
• State by State Planning

Become a member online and you will receive an Amnesty International tote bag at the conference!

Irene Khan

Irene Khan joined Amnesty International as Secretary General in August 2001.

As the first woman, first Asian and first Muslim to head the world's largest human rights organization, she has led Amnesty International through challenging developments in the wake of 11 September 2001, confronting the backlash against human rights, broadening the work of the organization in areas of economic, social and cultural rights, and initiating a process of internal reform and renewal to enable the organization to respond flexibly and rapidly to world events. She has also sought to bring a strong focus to the issue of women's human rights and violence against women.

Prior to joining Amnesty International, Ms. Khan worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for twenty one years, serving in many different parts of the world, including as Deputy Director in the Department of International Protection, Chief of Mission in India, Senior Legal Advisor for Asia and Senior Executive Officer to the High Commissioner.

In 1977, she helped to found Concern Universal, a UK-based development NGO.

In 2002 Ms. Khan was awarded the Pilkington "Women of the Year" award. In 2003 she received the John Owens Distinguished Alumni award from the University of Manchester. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Ferris University (Japan) and Staffordshire University (UK). She has been voted one of the 100 Most Influential Asians in the UK. She is the winner of the 2006 Sydney Peace Prize.

She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, USA and the University of Manchester, UK. She is a Bangladesh national.

Despite economic growth in almost every corner of the world, billions of people still live in poverty. Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan claims that economic analyses do not provide a full picture and economic solutions alone cannot end the problems of poverty. In a bracing argument enriched with her personal experiences and case studies from around the world, Khan sees poverty as the world's worst human rights crisis because it traps people in a vicious cycle of deprivation, insecurity, exclusion and voicelessness. She argues that the foremost challenge is the empowerment, not the enrichment, of poor people, and makes a passionate and urgent plea for action to uphold human rights in the fight to end against poverty.

Esha Momeni is an Iranian-American women's rights defender, artist, and graduate student at California State University Northridge. Esha traveled to Iran in October 2008 to work on her thesis, filming footage for a project on the women's rights movement and interviewing volunteers for One Million Signatures, a campaign that petitions to rewrite the Iranian constitution to recognize men and women as equal. While there, she was arrested and charged with propagandizing against the state. Esha was held in the notorious Evin Prison for 28 days, 25 of which she spent in solitary confinement. She was released on an excessive $200,000 bail in November and placed on a travel restriction for several more months. Esha was honored with the Kappa Tau Alpha Outstanding Service Award in May 2009 while still in Iran.

Terrica Redfield, staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, focuses on representing clients on death row in Georgia and Alabama. Prior to joining SCHR, Ms. Redfield completed at two-year fellowship at Fair Trial Initiative (FTI) in Durham, North Carolina. Ms. Redfield graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2002. Ms. Redfield was awarded the Mortimer M. Caplin Public Service Fellowship. She is a member of the Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama bars.

Charity L. Woods is the State Coordinator for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the largest health reform effort nationally and is involved in local progressive issues and politics. Before working with HCAN Charity was the South Carolina State Field Coordinator for Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), working with the presidential campaigns during the 2007-2008 primary season. She also has legislative, lobbying, campaign and nonprofit experience that have allowed her to hone her public relations, organizing and communications skills.

Sameer Dossani is the Director of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity Campaign. Prior to joining Amnesty in 2009, Sameer served as Director of 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice which campaigns for the radical reform of international financial institutions including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Sameer holds degrees in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Women's Studies from McGill University, Canada and La Trobe University, Australia.

Brian Evans is the Campaigner for Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. Prior to moving to Washington, DC, in 2006, he was a founding member of the Texas Moratorium Network and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, organizations working to stop executions in the state of Texas. He has a Masters degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and also served for 8 years as the Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA.

Ebenezer Akwanga is a human rights activist from Cameroon. At age 15, he founded the Voice of America Fan Club to help educate Cameroonian students about democracy and human rights. Later, he was elected president of the first Student Union of the University of Buea where he stood against tuition increases and led non-violent demonstrations. For his activism, he was expelled and banned for life from enrolling at any university in Cameroon. Ebenezer became a founding member of the Southern Cameroons Youth League of which he is currently Chairman. His involvement led to his arrest, torture and conviction on trumped-up charges and he was sentenced to 20-years of hard labor. He served seven years with two years in solitary confinement. Amnesty campaigned fervently on his behalf for many years and in 2006, Ebenezer was granted refugee status in the United States. Ebenezer has earned a BSc in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Phoenix and is a candidate for a Master of Arts Degree at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Derrick Boazman is the host of "Too Much Truth" a talk show on WAOK in Atlanta. In this capacity, speaking on both his show and at rallies and events, Mr. Boazman has been a prominent advocate on the call for justice on behalf of Troy Davis. He is also a former member of the Atlanta City Council representing District 12 where he worked on such issues as criminal justice reform and public schools.

Dr. Alfred W. Brann, Jr., Professor of Pediatrics at Emory School of Medicine, is a specialist in neonatal/perinatal medicine and child neurology. As Director of The Collaborating Center, Dr. Brann addresses infant mortality by developing community-based health care delivery systems with transparent surveillance that permit continuous quality improvement in women's health and health outcomes for pregnant mothers and their newborns. In addition to its domestic activities in the Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama, the Center has provided consultation and/or conducted projects in some 30 countries in all six regions of the World Health Organization. Dr. Brann is the recipient of the Jack A. Raines Humanitarian Award from the Medical Association of Georgia.

Martina Correia is a State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator for Amnesty International USA in Georgia, a United States Army veteran, survivor of stage IV mestatic breast cancer, and prominent advocate who has spoken about human rights to audiences large and small across the world including the European Union, and is the sister of Troy Davis. In addition to her advocacy work, Martina is a volunteer with the Public School system in the City of Savannah.

The deadline to submit a resolution is complete. All members who join before or at the conference will be eligible to vote on the resolutions!

» Click here to read the resolutions (on the members section)

Voting on Resolutions at the 2009 Regional Conferences will be by Voting Cards rather than by count of hands. To obtain a Voting Card at the Regional Conference, you must be a dues paying member of AIUSA (having paid dues to AIUSA or submitted a valid dues waiver in the last year) or designate a group representative (one per group) and submit a Group Voting Authorization Form. You may become a member anytime prior to voting, including on-site at the conference, to be eligible to vote. If mailing your dues prior to the conference, be sure to allow plenty of time for delivery and processing.

Please plan to arrive on site early Friday evening to participate in our Friday evening Welcoming Reception and Town Hall.

» Register for the Southern Regional Conference
» Download the Registration Form (PDF)
» Register As A Group (PDF)  (Group Discount !! For every four paid registrants, the fifth will be free! If you are registering a group, please attach a list of each person's name and contact information along with the registration form.)

Thank you to all who have volunteered for the Southern Regional Conference. The registration process for volunteers is now complete.

he Holiday Inn Decatur is offering Amnesty International conference attendees a special room rate of $89 for a single or double, plus local taxes and fees. Space is limited, so please book your room as soon as possible!

Conference attendees must make their own reservations directly with the hotel by calling (404) 371-0204. To obtain the special group rate, be sure to mention "Amnesty International USA" or by going to http://tinyurl.com/srobook