2020 Write for Rights

On January 28 Group 11 of AIUSA will hold its annual Write For Rights event. You will be able to sign prepared letters on behalf of notable defenders of human rights in ten countries.

• Date:  Tuesday, January 28
• Time:  Come between 6:30 and 8:30pm to sign letters
• Place:  Goddard-Riverside Community Center, 647 Columbus Avenue near West 91st Street

Please invite your family and friends to stop in to sign letters.  Bring your return address labels for the letters.

Refreshments and music from Todd and George during the event.

American Muslim

Coming up Fri 1/17/2020

Amnesty is co-sponsoring a screening of a new documentary, “American Muslim,” on Friday evening, January 17, 2020 at the Jewish Community Center, Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street in Manhattan. The film follows several Muslim activists who live in NYC and who are protesting Trump’s Muslim ban. It shows life in NYC for American Muslim activists. Following the film, there will be a Q&A including the film’s director and Amnesty’s own Daphne Eviator (she spoke at Group 11 last year). The film is at 7pm, tickets are $18.00, available at www.cinematters.film or there.

In addition, Lenore and Sandi will be tabling on Sunday afternoon at the JCC with Group 11’s letters and brochures. There will be films and events taking place all weekend. More information should be available at https://jccmanhattan.org/arts-film/film/cinematters.  As an Amnesty member you can get a 25% discount on all films Saturday evening and Sunday (but not Friday, sorry) by going to the website above and entering the discount code AmnestyCinematters2020.

A flyer about the event is here.

Group 11 Annual Dinner

Members celebrated at Pearl’s Chinese restaurant the evening of Tuesday, 1/7/2020. Todd Schwarz was the big raffle winner who had the closest guess as to the total # of letters sent by Group 11 in 2019.

2019 Annual Benefit Concert

On Sunday, Dec. 8th Group 11 held its 44th Annual Benefit Concert. The approximately 200-seat Christ & St. Stephen’s Church was packed. As people gathered after the performances ended, everyone seemed to agree that it was a great success. We are greatly indebted to Marcia Eckert, pianist and producer of the concert, for this success. For more info see our highlights page.

Group 11 Meetings

Group 11 meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm at the Goddard-Riverside Community Center, 647 Columbus between 91st and 92nd Streets.  Enter on Columbus Avenue and ask for Room 9.  At these meetings we review the cases and campaigns we are working on, sign prepared letters and petitions on them and discuss current human rights situations. We often have a guest speaker on a pressing human rights issue.

Prospective members are always welcome to our meetings, but we would appreciate hearing in advance if you wish to attend a meeting. You can let us know and also obtain more information about Group 11 by signing up below.

Stay in touch! Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on upcoming meetings and current cases (please see the subscription box on the right side of this page).

Current Work: Cases

Our group is working on cases in the countries listed in the slider below. To learn more about the cases, please click a country that interests you.

Current Work: Campaigns

We are actively working on a range of Amnesty programs such as Security with Human Rights which aims to ensure national security without sacrificing human rights (our group advocates against the unlawful and abusive detention at Guantanamo and in favor of securing accountability for torture), International Criminal Court (we seek to promote greater involvement by the Court and United Nations in deterring human rights violations throughout the world), Death Penalty abolition campaign, and Women’s Rights campaign.

The 2017 Individuals at Risk Case Commitment Award

In 2017 Group 11 received the Individuals at Risk Case Commitment Award for demonstrating exceptional dedication and leadership by helping to free Teodora del Carmen Vazquez, a Salvadoran women who spent 10 years in prison after giving birth to a stillborn baby. Read about Teodora and our creative campaigning on her case here.

Past Activism

One of the oldest Amnesty groups in the U.S., Group 11 has a rich history of campaigning for those who are imprisoned or face abuse and intimidation for rising against injustice. The group campaigned on behalf of prisoners of conscience, launched a series of special projects (click here to learn about the book of correspondence between Group 11’s activists and a Ukrainian dissident), and participated in numerous human rights campaigns. To learn more about Group 11’s past activism, please see this page, and to read about Group 11’s 45 year history please click here.

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