Minutes for the June 2014 meeting

Meeting minutes for Wednesday, 18 June 2014

In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Tilo, Michele, Jeff, Brendan, Kara (via Skype), Colin

(Note from Barb: A big thank-you to Jeff for conducting the meeting in place of Barb, who was suffering from laryngitis.)

Thanks to Tilo for hosting movie night on 30 May. We watched Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.


Discussion of June as Torture Awareness Month

• 26 June is International Day of Support for Victims of Torture (proclaimed by UN in 1997)
• AIUSA's Stop Torture Campaign (#StopTorture) (video)
• Mentioned AI Belgium’s attention-getting Stop Torture advertisements featuring Iggy Pop, the Dalai Lama, and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld
• Barbara will be attending the panel discussion Exposing U.S. Torture: Restoring Human Dignity, cosponsored by AIUSA, Karamah (Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights) and National Religious Campaign against Torture, on 26 June at the El-Hibri Foundation in Washington, D.C. ; the next day she will also join with members of other human rights groups in holding a vigil in front of the White House in support of closing Guantánamo Bay Prison

Actions and Updates 
Letter to President Obama asking him to release—with as few redactions as possible—the Senate Select Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and interrogation program

Continuing Business and Upcoming Events

Further discussion of possible themes for a future AI Philadelphia forum; everyone liked the suggestions made at the May meeting:

• General AI topics
• Other suggestions: water rights, Palestine, making campaigning more effective, using social media

Upcoming Events

Meeting on 16 July