Won't you stand with us to end Genocide in Darfur?

Friends and fellow Amnestyers, we're writing to you with extreme urgency. Today, Senator Ted Deutch (D-Delray Beach) had his bill on Divestment from Sudan to stop the genocides of Darfur heard by Florida's House of Representatives-- and it PASSED!

Because of our collective efforts to MAKE SOME NOISE! for Darfur this year, the House was able to hear us loud and clear. Now, we must continue to make noise as the Bill goes before a Senate subcommittee this afternoon.

Please take a moment of your time to contact the following Florida State Senators on this committee today and urge them to MAKE SOME NOISE! in support of Senate Bill 2172. Together, we can all do our duty as fellow citizens of humanity in saving our brothers and sisters in Sudan.


-------------------------
END GENOCIDE TODAY
WITH SENATOR DEUTCH

WE MADE NOISE IN
THE HOUSE...THANKS TO YOU!
Thank you Rep. Porth & Rep. Schwartz

Before 2:15 Call the Senate Committee
TELL THEM TO SUPPORT SUDAN DIVESTMENT!

Sen. Al Lawson, Tallahassee
Committee Chair
(850) 487-5004

Sen. Bill Posey, Rockledge
Committee Vice-Chair
(850) 487-5053

Sen. Nancy Argenziano, Ocala
(850) 487-5017

Sen. Jim King, Jacksonville
(850) 487-5030

Sen. Steve Oelrich, Gainesville
(850) 487-5020

Sen. Frederica S. Wilson, Miami Gardens
(850) 487-5116

Let them know that you will stand against GENOCIDE
TOGETHER in the State of FLORIDA

F Y I

General Meetings have been postponed for the month of March to allow for the pre-production of our upcoming MAKE SOME NOISE! Concert to Benefit Darfur. This event, an all-day music festival presenting music from Punk Rock to Hip-Hop, takes place in the Kaye Auditorium of the Student Union (formerly the UC) on Friday, March 30th, from 12pm to 6pm.

ALL Student Organizations are invited to attend with a table in the Lobby (to be provided by Amnesty). Here's who has signed on so far:

• HILLEL. Hillel and the Jewish Student Union will be presenting a display on the Holocaust, a genocide not unlike the current conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.


• ARMENIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION (ASA). This group will sponsor a table highlighting the Armenian Genocide that took place during the early part of the 20th Century.


• NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN (NOW). NOW will be presenting a table on how sexual violence is being used as a tool of genocide against women and girls in Darfur. Rape and molestation are common human rights violations that MUST be stopped.

So if you would like to get your Student Organization involved, please contact us ASAP!

SEE YOU ALL AT THE CONCERT... AND GET READY TO MAKE SOME NOISE!

Next General Meeting for the FAU chapter of Amnesty International

This semester, we will be holding two General Meetings bi-weekly in an effort to accommodate our members' schedules. The meetings will cover that same information, so feel free to pick one that best fits your schedule that week.

The next General Meeting(s) will be held Monday, January 29th, at 12:30pm, and again on Thursday, February 1st at 4:00pm on the Bookstore Lawn next to Starbucks in the Breezeway. Look for us with the bright orange Amnesty International banner and our now-trademark blankets on the lawn! We plan to discuss in detail the three major campaigns we'll be working on this semester, as well as forming committees for our upcoming events.

See you then, if not sooner!

Meeting Notes from 2007's first General Meeting!

Happy Thursday! We're posting to give you an overview of what had been discussed at last week's General Meetings.

As you know, this semester we began holding the same General Meeting twice in one week to be able to accommodate more of our over 200 members. So on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. and on Thursday, Jan. 18 at noon, Assistant Group Coordinator, Ana Halper, and our Darfur Action Coordinator, Sapna Talati, chaired the meetings, respectively. Below is a bulleted list of highlights from the meeting:

CAMPAIGNS FOR SPRING 2007

• Every semester, our chapter votes as a group on the three major campaigns we intend to focus on bringing to the campus. This semester, the members have spoken, and we will be concentrating on Darfur activism to end the genocides of Sudan, Conflict diamonds (also known as "blood diamonds") that are being harvested to finance terrorism, and the Business & Human Rights campaign, aimed specifically on stopping sweatshop labor.


• At our next meeting, we will need to organize our members into Campaign Teams, so if you would like to join one of our campaigns this semester, please e-mail and let us know which team you would like to be a part of, and we'll make sure you get added to that list. For more information on the campaigns we've selected, as well as the other Amnesty International campaigns currently underway, click http://www.amnestyusa.org/activism/campaigns.html to check them out.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Save Darfur Interfaith Rally: This Sunday, January 28, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., our chapter will be joining with several different area groups to co-sponsor an inter-faith rally for peace in Darfur with the Save Darfur Coalition of South Palm Beach. This is going to be an amazing event with speakers from all the major world religions coming together in the name of peace. In addition, there will be interactive tents that you can visit, petitions that you can sign, and free food and music for your entertainment. The event is free of charge, and we would love to have you come show support to the tent we are sponsoring with Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach! The rally will be held at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, and for a map, click here: map to Temple Beth El. If you would like to arrive early to assist with the set-up of our tent, feel free to call/text Josef, or e-mail him. (And special thanks to all of you who have already RSVP'ed to this event on Facebook! Kudos to chapter member Melanie Tolchin for setting up the event information.)


• Amnesty International Florida State Conference 2007: This year, our very active and very new FAU chapter has been selected to host the annual state conference. Our chapter member, Stacey Ray, is a professional event planner who has undertaken the monumental task of coordinating this conference. Currently, we have a list of workshops that we are going to be presenting to the delegates in attendance from all over the state. The UM and FIU chapters are also going to be assisting us with these workshops. We'll get you more information as it develops!
  
• MAKE SOME NOISE!: Concert for Peace in Darfur: During the National Week of Student Action (March 23 to March 30), student groups from all over the U.S. will be hosting events aimed at raising awareness for Darfur and calling for a stop to the genocides in that region of Sudan. On the last day of this amazing week, March 30, we will be holding an all-day music festival for peace in Darfur in conjunction with MTV and their college network, mtvU. In addition to a full lineup of musical acts ranging from hip-hop to punk rock, the FAU Housing Lawn will be covered in booths sponsored by different organizations that will be focused on the crisis in Darfur. WE'RE GOING TO NEED HELP PLANNING THIS, SO IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE A PART OF THIS HUGE EVENT, PLEASE E-MAIL US!


• No Sweat: A Sweatshop-Free Fashion Show: In April, we will be organizing a sweatshop-free fashion show sponsored by No Sweat Apparel and Luis Hernandez Salons. This will be a full-on fashion show with a cool, relaxed vibe (and a live band, courtesy of mtvU) designed to promote fashionable, sweatshop-free alternatives to the FAU student body. If you or someone you know makes their own clothes, and would like to have them showcased in our fashion show, please let us know-- we want to hear from you! And, as always, if you'd like to get involved with planning this event, e-mail as well.

So as you can see, we have a very exciting semester coming up! Feel free to post a comment if you have any feedback-- especially if you'd like to participate in the preparation of these events. We give volunteer hours for your transcript through the FAU Volunteer Center, so get in touch if you'd like to make that happen.

In the meantime, we'll see you at one of our next General Meetings! The next General Meetings are scheduled for Monday, January 29th at 12:30 p.m. and Thursday, February 1st at 4 p.m. And remember to join our Facebook group or stop by our MySpace page!

Make your New Year's resolution to get more involved with Human Rights!

Hey there, and welcome back to an exciting semester for Amnesty International at FAU! We've got a very busy Spring 2007 planned, and we're eager for you to be a part of it.

The event information below is for our first rally of the year with the Save Darfur Coalition of Palm Beach County. This is going to be a great event, and we're co-sponsoring a tent at the rally with Hillel of FAU on the theme of genocide prevention and awareness.

So come by Temple Beth El in Boca Raton on Sunday, January 28, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for an amazing inter-faith rally calling for a stop to the genocides in Darfur-- because no matter what your religious beliefs are (or aren't), everyone can share in the beauty of peace.

And also, don't forget our bi-weekly General Meeting! Make sure you stop by the Bookstore Lawn next to Starbucks in the Breezeway tomorrow at 12 p.m. noon! Look for Ana, our Assistant Group Coordinator, or Sapna, our Darfur Action Coordinator, on blankets in the sunshine with the Amnesty banner.

See you soon!

-------------------
SPREAD THE WORD
AND Get Involved in our
RALLY FOR DARFUR : STOP THE GENOCIDE
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
More Info:561-391-8900 or SAVEDARFURSPB@GMAIL.COM

Sunday, January 28, 2007 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Temple Beth El, Boca Raton
333 SW 4th Ave
SW 4th Ave , Between Palmetto Park Rd and Camino Real, Across from St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church.

Dynamic Speakers including Pastor Billy Thompson, Miami Heat invitees, interfaith clergy, humanitarian aid workers and governmental officials
Music, Dance & Poetry
TAKE ACTION

Amnesty International @ FAU... GET READY!

Hey Amnestyers! We're writing to you with a mix of anticipation and excitement.

As you know, our chapter has been working diligently on the "7 Days/7 Ways to Get Involved" week of events on the FAU Boca Raton campus, aimed at highlighting a different Amnesty International campaign for each day. This week starts off on Tuesday, October 24th with our United Nations Day celebration, and our promotional campaign to introduce the various articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as chartered by the United Nations. We've launched a DIY ("do-it-yourself") flyer initiative called "Write Your Rights!" where we have students personalize a piece of construction paper with their favorite article from the Declaration (viewed here on the UN website); and then we snap a Polaroid picture of them to attach to the flyer.

We even got the support and involvement from professors (like our advisor, Dr. Mark Frezzo of the Sociology department), Student Government leaders (President Kirk Murray, Chief Justice Farid Hamidzadeh, and Boca Raton Campus Senator Greg Wise), and other student clubs (such as the Muslim Student Organization, Association of Latin American Students, and OWL Radio)! Call Josef tomorrow, Monday, October 23rd, if you'd like to take part and add yourself to this awesome campaign.

In addition to the "Write Your Rights!" campaign, our students have worked very hard at assembling other aspects to this kick-off event. We also have created a massive handmade copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that will be rolled out on the Free Speech Lawn the day of our event for students to be able to read as they walk by.

Now here's where we need your help. We also want to "tag" the campus with sidewalk chalk to cite different articles of the Declaration. For example, Article 26 grants the right to education, so on the sidewalk near the Library leading into the Breezeway, we could write something illustrating that specific right for the students to see as they are arriving on campus. So if you can make it to school with your morning coffee at 7am on Tueday morning, October 24th, to begin the tagging, we will provide the chalk! Let your creativity and artistic talent shine-- and send a noble message to the campus at the same time. We know you've got that creative spark in you, so come on out and share it!

Well, that's all for now. we'll be sure to post again soon with more information on Wednesday's HUGE event-- the Day For Darfur on October 25th.

Recap of our first General Meeting

WOW! Can you believe that our FAU chapter of Amnesty International just had its very first meeting today? The overwhelming support of all of you out there who came and stopped by to chat with us at our table in the Breezeway on Tuesday-- especially those of you who made calls to the White House urging President Bush to keep Darfur on the agenda at his speech to the United Nations yesterday-- was impressive.

First things first, we wanted to post the notes from today's General Meeting. Many of you wanted to come today, but were unable to make it due to a class, work scheduling conflict, or illness, but here's what happened today.

At 4:20pm today, a group of about 12 of us descended upon the Free Speech Lawn in front of the Social Sciences Building with blankets, bottled water, and our dry-erase board. We opened the meeting with an "ice breaker" designed to get everybody to know each other a little bit better. The attendees were each asked to find someone who had a birthday as close as possible to their own, and then to spend about 5 minutes getting to know as much about that person as possible. Then when the time was called, each person stood up to introduce their partner, and we learned some VERY interesting things-- like Maria Angelica Vargas, who doesn't know how to dance the hokey-pokey; and Tim Davis, who has a severe mayonnaise phobia! Following introductions, we began the official business of the meeting, by introducing everyone to the history of Amnesty International, as well as its mission to advance human rights worldwide.

However, the most exciting news about today's meeting is that our chapter now has specific campaigns that we plan to initiate this year. The three main campaigns that our FAU chapter will take part in promoting on campus are as follows:

• "Control Arms": a special campaign enacted by Amnesty International aimed at stopping the illegal arms trade, and to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of those who would use them to abuse human rights. There is clear evidence that the international transfer of arms or the training of foreign security forces can provide repressive governments and abusive armed groups with the means to carry out or intensify gross human rights violations. By encouraging governments to act responsibly in this area, Amnesty International USA seeks to prevent or minimize gross violations of humanitarian and human rights law. More information


• "The Environment and Human Rights": Amnesty International USA works on issues related to the environment and human rights as part of their Business & Human Rights Program. Defending human rights and protecting the environment is a universal responsibility. But protecting the environment and a community's way of life can also be a dangerous undertaking, as the tragic deaths of Brazilian Chico Mendes and Nigerian Ken Saro-Wiwa demonstrate-- both were murdered for their activism. One of the goals of Amnesty’s Corporate Action Network (CAN) is to defend the rights of environmental activists and address pervasive patterns of human rights abuses that occur in the wake of environmental degradation. More information


• "Denounce Torture: Stop It Now!": Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (other ill-treatment) are violations of human rights, condemned by the international community as an offence to human dignity and prohibited in all circumstances under international law. Yet they happen daily and across the globe. Immediate steps are needed to confront these abuses wherever they occur and to eradicate them. More information

In addition to the above, our group has also decided to highlight specific Prisoners of Conscience (A "prisoner of conscience" is someone imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs. The term was coined by Amnesty International's founder, civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson, who launched Amnesty International with an appeal on behalf of six prisoners of conscience) for each one of our major campaigns this semester.

Now, you're probably thinking that this may seem like a lot. Well, today, several students signed on to make the commitment to act as Campaign Coordinators to help facilitate each one of the campaigns. Duncan Zevetski and Maria Angelica Vargas have both decided to spearhead the "Control Arms" campaign, Zainab Ali has volunteered to coordinate the "Environment and Human Rights" work, and Ana Halper, Kyriaki Tsaganis, and Supna Talati have joined together to guide our "Denounce Torture: Stop It Now!" initiative. PLUS, Marcus Nielsen has agreed to research prisoners of conscience in regards to each of the campaigns. I applaud the enthusiasm of our fellow activists! And if you're interested in jumping on-board to help out with any of these projects, please send us an e-mail and we'll put you in contact with the coordinator(s) of that assignment. Great teamwork, everybody!

Finally, after the discussion concerning the campaigns, we talked about the recent developments concerning the situation in Darfur. Thanks to the help of activists just like you from all over the country, President Bush made an announcement at the United Nations yesterday that he has appointed a special administrator to his staff to be in charge of overseeing the U.S. efforts to aid Darfur. This is fantastic, and a great first step! However, we can't take time to celebrate victory yet-- we still need to pressure the UN to send over peacekeeping units to stop the genocide and violence occurring in that region of Africa. If you will, please visit the Save Darfur website and check out today's call-in script to urge our world leaders to continue to help Darfur get much-needed relief from its present situation.

Also, today at the meeting, we decided to alternate our bi-weekly General Meetings between having dates scheduled on Mondays/Wednesdays and Tuesday/Thursdays. Furthermore, we have decided to begin holding "Daytime De-Briefing Sessions" (informal meetings to be held from 11:00am to 12:00pm in the Library on the Tuesdays following our General Meetings). In these meetings, we will go over the business discussed at the previous General Meeting, so that members who are more available during the day can still be informed and participate in the group's communication. And as always, we will continue to make the effort of publishing notes from the General Meetings.

THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, AT 6:00PM ON THE FREE SPEECH LAWN IN FRONT OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (SO) BUILDING!

Well, thanks for giving us your time and attention in reading this! We were truly excited to see those of you that were able to attend today, and we also completely understand that not everybody could make it. (P.S. Some of you got the reminder e-mail too late due to a glitch with Google). However, we're here to accommodate you! Please always feel free to give any of our Coordinators a call if you need to reach someone, or send us an e-mail. We look forward to working with all 116 of you registered members in the coming semester!

P.S. We're pleased to announce the launch of our new group webpage on the Facebook. If you haven't already done so, search for the "Amnesty International -- FAU Chapter" today from the option "My Groups" found in the home screen and click "Join This Group".