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AGM 1999 Recap  AGM 1999 Introduction Human Rights Here and Now! AGM Preview Event Summary |
AGM Preview of EventsAPRIL UPDATESenior Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and 1997 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award Honoree/Actor/Humanitarian Patrick Stewart will open ceremonies for Amnesty International USA's (AIUSA) 1999 Annual General Meeting April 16-18, 1999 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Radisson Metrodome Hotel. This year's Annual General Meeting (AGM), "Human Rights Here and Now! Educating for the Future," will spotlight the creative ways human rights activists bring knowledge about human rights into our communities, how these skills are developed, and strategies for expanding outreach and action work. It will also highlight AIUSA current international campaign against human rights violations in the United States. Special focuses include the case of Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who remains in prison after 23 years despite Amnesty's serious concerns about the fairness of his trial and sentencing and lack of proper medical attention. It will also focus on the ongoing international campaign to abolish the use of the death penalty as a punitive option in the United States and around the world. The AGM is an annual event that attracts over five hundred Amnesty members and human rights advocates from across the United States and internationally. AIUSA activists gather in a different city each year with local human rights organizations and international guests to organize, motivate, and continue to educate its 300,000 national members. This year's meeting promises to be an especially exciting one in light of the remarkable concentration of human rights advocacy in Minnesota.The AGM Planning Committee is pleased to present events planned for the 1999 AGM in Minneapolis, April 16-18. On Friday, the AGM presents two special pre-meeting events: the Human Rights Organizations Bus Tour and the Human Rights Education Fair. The bus tour will bring guests to several prominent human rights organizations in the Minneapolis area to provide information about their programs, meet directors, and visit facilities. It will continue with a luncheon at the University of Minnesota's Law School, the location of the afternoon's Education Fair spotlighting innovative approaches to human rights education. Senior Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and 1997 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award Honoree/Actor/Humanitarian Patrick Stewart will open AGM events on Friday evening with AIUSA's Board Chair Paul Hoffman and Executive Director Bill Schulz, celebrating visions for a dynamic and multicultural human rights community. Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton will welcome the assembly of over 500 national and international human rights activists and give recognition to Minneapolis' impressive range of human rights organizations. Cyrus Peltier the 13-year old grandson of Leonard Peltier, and Vernon Bellecourt, principle spokesperson for the American Indian Movement, will address the current state of human rights among Native Americans in the U.S.A. AIUSA will also be presenting an important call for action and the release of a report profiling the Peltier case. The opening plenary concludes with a specially commissioned performance piece by the Pangea Theater featuring representatives of the many resettled refugee communities in the Twin Cities. On Saturday, the AGM will spotlight AIUSA's current international campaign against human rights violations in the U.S. Speakers include AIUSA Board Chair Paul Hoffman; Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.; Claudia Smith, Head of California Rural Legal Assistance Border Project and co-author of OAS Petition on violence at the US-Mexico Border; and Shirley Alejos, victim of police brutality and winner in a lawsuit filed against the Chicago Police Department. Panels will follow illustrating an interesting variety of domestic and international topics including death penalty abolition; US military training; women's human rights; lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender (LGBT) human rights, and legislative activism. Featured among the Saturday afternoon sessions is a special focus, "Expanding the Human Rights Framework: Juveniles, Prisons, and the Death Penalty." This session will include panelists Angela Y. Davis, Bernadine Dohrn, and Sr. Carmille D'Arienzo. Davis, a distinguished author, lecturer and activist, will discuss human rights standards as they relate to the incarceration of women, juveniles, the elderly, and disabled. Dohrn, Director of Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center, will discuss capital defense strategies and the development of support programs for juveniles charged with capital offenses. Sr. D'Arienza will discuss the "Declaration of Life" movement, which she founded. The movement asks people to sign a declaration that, should they die by homicide, they do not want their assailant to be subject to execution. A Minneapolis premiere of "Rabbit in the Moon", a compelling and beautifully filmed documentary from this year's Sundance Film Festival is the highlight on Saturday evening April 17, with proceeds benefiting AIUSA's work. This screening will help launch the Minneapolis Film Festival (held April 16 - May 1, 1999) and will be the first in a series of human rights films presented as part of the festival. The film by director Emiko Omori profiles US federal government's internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and overturns the popularized notion that prisoners met their internment with compliance. Poet Mitsuye Yamada and former AIUSA Board Member will introduce the film and give a testimony of her experience with the camps. True to this year's AGM title, the closing plenary on Sunday will focus on the importance of human rights education in building a human rights learning community. Nancy Flowers, Human Rights Educator and Cirriculum Coordinator for AIUSA's Human Rights Educators Network, will present plenary speakers including Robin Rickard, Vice Chair of Amnesty International's International Executive Committee (IEC) and Larry Cox, Program Officer from the Ford Foundation. There will be a presentation to the Ginetta Sagan Winner for Work with Youth that was established this year. Several of the Patrick Stewart Human Rights Scholarship recipients will provide inspiration for the development of our human rights activists of the future. Please contact the AIUSA AGM Planning Committee Office at 212-807-8400 or aiusa-agm@igc.org for additional updates and meeting details. |
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