You are cordially invited to a

Wine and Cheese Party
…savory canapés, vegetarian treats…
at the home of Andrea and Pete Wetherbee
604 Highland Road, Ithaca
257-7296
2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006

Dear Amnesty International supporter,

Amnesty International in London has been defending human rights since 1961. Amnesty local group 73 in Ithaca has been at it for more than 30 years. Once again we ask all friends of Amnesty within reach of Ithaca to come to our annual party and fundraiser ... a sociable afternoon with refreshments and music, a chance to meet other supporters and get acquainted with our work. Do bring family and guests who'd like to hear more about what we do.

Amnesty acts round the world to free people jailed or threatened in political cases. It calls for decent conditions for criminal prisoners as well, and no imprisonment without due process. The time-honored method continues to bear fruit: members and groups from over 100 countries write letters to government officials (and opposition movements and corporations). This year we began writing for an imprisoned journalist in Eritrea, one of a group not heard from since 2001. The over 500 items we sent this year (not counting faxes, e-mails, even an old-fashioned registered letter) included letters to China against repression of Tibetans and Uighurs and to U.S. authorities against torture whether by "us" or others; calls to Sudan and nearby Chad on the Darfur crisis; appeals to Colombia for a brave community resisting the guerrilla-paramilitary armed struggle; entreaties to Mexico where serial murders of young women near the U.S. border go on unchecked; strong letters against abuses in Iraq; petitions against the death penalty in the few countries that still have it, including the U.S. where even underage and mentally handicapped offenders are put to death in Texas and other states.

We rejoiced this year: Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev is free after two years in a Turkmen mental hospital just for wanting to protest his president's policy. "Our" Egyptian prisoner--targeted by police in a "crackdown" against gay men--is now free and headed for graduate school in Canada. We had several cases in the Maldives in recent years; now we hear that all political prisoners are free! Work continues on Central African countries.

Part of Amnesty's work is educational: to spread knowledge of the rights all people should have. Amnesty's Magna Carta is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. It is accepted more and more as part of international law and cited in many later treaties. We marked its anniversary, Human Rights Day, by candlelight on the Commons Dec. 10.

We bring speakers here and sponsor events. We were glad to contribute toa pro-peace speaker from Colombia and a film festival. We were invited to

have a petition table at the Kitchen Theatre; we gathered signatures (over 350!) at Greenstar and the Farmers' Market.

We proudly produce a weekly program on local TV, Cable channel 13. This year we screened "Nuremburg Remembered" and also featured issues of human rights in Nepal, women's rights, crises in central Africa. See it Tues. 9 PM, Wed. 11 PM, and Fri. 9 PM.

How does AI set its priorities? From local groups via regional meetings to the national level. We shared in its governance by sending 2 delegates to the Annual General Meeting of AI USA in Portland, Oregon. The AGM's votes are passed on to the world-wide meeting.

Group 73 meets the third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 at the Kahin Center (640 Stewart Ave.). Our meetings are open and our monthly newsletter (with a ready-to-send letter attached) is available to all: ask for it, or see our Web site http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/ .

Your donations support our newsletter, stamps and envelopes for letters, our TV offerings, relief for prisoners, donations to local libraries and dues to Amnesty USA.... (Note–your gifts go primarily to the work of our local group, so please don't give up supporting AI USA too!)

We look forward to seeing you on September 17!

Wayles Browne, treasurer
Charlotte Acharya, co-coordinator
Jackie Swift, co-coordinator
and the members of Group 73