Minutes for February 2026 meeting

 AIUSA Group 342 meeting

18 February 2026 (hybrid)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Dorothee, April, Struan

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)

• Tightening of gun laws in Australia following Bondi Beach shooting reviewed
• Funding for GVP research in 2026 reviewed
• Decline in gun violence in Philadelphia during 2025 reviewed
• Praise for The Trace (thetrace.org) for gun violence reporting

DISMANTLE THE MASS DEPORTATION MACHINE CAMPAIGN

• Barb urged everyone to contact their US representatives during President's Week and tell them "not one more dime for DHS"

NARGES MOHAMMADI, Iran (Barb)

• 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, activist in Iran
• no updates since she was rearrested in December 2025
• Group 342 will send her and others Nowruz cards next month

MANAHEL AL-OTAIBI, Saudi Arabia (Dorothee)

• No major updates
• Multiple Amnesty local groups are supporting her release of Manahel

LEQAA KARDIA, Palestinian activist in USA

• Participated in a campus protest in 2024, arrested by ICE in March 2025
• Palestinian woman detained by ICE for almost 1 year
• Urgent Action case since October 2025
• She now needs medical attention
• New Urgent Action in February 2026

AIUSA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: March 6-8, 2026, Washington DC

• Barbara and Bob will attend

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 18 March, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)

Write for Rights 2025 certificate

Thanks to all Group 342 members who participated in the 2025 Write for Rights campaign! 

 

Minutes for January 2026 meeting

AIUSA Group 342 meeting

21 January 2026 (hybrid)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Marsha, Dorothee,

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)

• On 1 January, The Inquirer ran a front-page story about how the Department of Justice terminated funding for gun violence prevention groups (including the Cure Violence group in Kensington)
• Washington Post headline: "Justice Department Weighs Rollback of Gun Rules"--> The Trump administration is try to garner more support from the Second Amendment crowd
• Washingon Post headline: "NRA Split Evident in Suit with Nonprofits over Logo"

NARGES MOHAMMADI (Barb)

• 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, activist in Iran
• no updates since she was rearrested in December 2025

REFUGEE AND MIGRANT RIGHTS (Barb)

• There's a page on the AIUSA website on this (link)
• Is there a Group 342 member who can track new and report to the group on this topic?

WRITE FOR RIGHTS

• Unecebo Mboteni, child who died after falling into an open pit (South Africa)
• Sonia Dahmani, lawyer and media commentator (Tunisia)
• Leqaa Kardia, Palestinian activist imprisoned by ICE (USA)

AIUSA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: March 6-8, 2026, Washington DC

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 18 February, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)

Minutes for December 2025 meeting

AIUSA Group 342 meeting

17 December2025 (hybrid)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Marsha, Dorothee

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)

• Australian gun laws passed after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre; after the 2025 Bondi Beach massacre they are tightening up their laws and
• PA legislative elections in 2026: 9 house seats in Chester County, 7 are currently held by Democrats 

NARGES MOHAMMADI

• Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023
• Iranian activist who has spent ten years of her life in prison
• Was on one-year leave from prison but was rearrested on 12 December; the arrest was "particularly brutal," and she has been hospitalized twice

CASE FILE: MANAHEL AL-OTAIBI

• Saudi Arabian female fitness instructor and women's rights activist. Forcibly disappeared in February 2025 and has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
• Dorothee shared messages for group members to post on social media to support Manahel

WRITE FOR RIGHTS 2025

• Dannisoa, displaced person (Madagascar)
• Sai Zaw Thaike, photojournalist (Myanmar)
• Ellinor Guttorne Utsi, Sami indigenous leader (Norway)

AIUSA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: March 6-8, 2026

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 21 January, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)

Minutes for October 2025. meeting

AIUSA Group 342 meeting

15 October 2025 (hybrid)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Marsha, Dorothee, Alex, Jennifer Estrada (from AIUSA)

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

• Jennifer is the community program manager for AIUSA. In her role, she supports groups like ours. She's based in upstate New York and been with AIUSA for six years.
• Dorothee has been waiting (for six months) for our new prisoner of conscience case file. She would also like to do more urgent actions with our group. 
• Paul O'Brien is stepping down as executive director of AIUSA. Barb wonders what will happen next. Jennifer says Nadia Daar has been named as his replacement. (She has been AIUSA's chief strategy and impact officer for the last three years.)
• Alex came to tell us about a screening of the film State Organs at the Chester County Library in Exton on Saturday, November 1, at 1 p.m. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)

• Local level
• Camden, NJ
• No homicides during summer 2025; only 8 so far this year, which is down 45% from 2024
• In 2013 the city dismantled the city police department and since then has used a regional police force (Camden County)
• Philadelphia
• By mid-October 2025, a 15% decreased in homicides over the past year
• By mid July 2025, the number of shootings was the lowest it has been since 2015
• Factors: increased funding to community groups, increased greening of vacant lots (which leaves to decreased violence)
• State level
• PA legislature is working on commonsense gun laws
• ban: ghost guns, switches that turns semiautomatic weapons into full automatic, extreme risk protection orders, universal background checks
• Democrats have introduced these bills; only universal background checks has passed the house but it likely to fail in the Republican-controlled senate
• Illinois: RIFL Act requires gun manufacturers to pay into a victim compensation fund
• National level
• Trump's executive orders are pro-gun and protect suppliers of crime guns
• See the Everytown website for a timeline of Trump's actions

URGENT ACTIONS

• Timofei Kocheshkov, Russian asylum seeker in the USA (UA 84/25)
• Yuval Peleg, conscientious objector in Israel (UA: 91/25)
• Ahmadreza Djalali, Swedish-Iranian academic at risk of execution in Iran (UA: 38/17)
• Leqaa Kordia, Palestinian protested detained by ICE in the USA (UA: 96/25)

PENNSYLVANIANS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY

• "New Survey Shows Pennsylvanians Prefer Preservation of Life Over the Death Penalty" (link)
• PA residents overwhelmingly prefer life sentences over the death penalty for people convicted of murder
• The last execution in PA was in 1999. Since then all governors (Democrats and Republicans) have refused to sign off on executions.

CASE FILE

• Dorothee has done work on prisoners of conscience for 54 years. She has been waiting for six months to get a new case file from Ken Myer.
• Jennifer says there seems to be some miscommunication. Ken is a country specialist (focused on North Africa) and is not the person who handles case files. She suggests that Dorothee go back to Cynthia Gabriel-Walsh, who is the person who assigns those files. 

INCREASING OUR GROUP MEMBERSHIP

• Jennifer
• What's the goal of having more people involved in our chapter? To get more people who turn out and do things?
• Maybe 5-10 people at a meeting is enough to plan events—then try to get more people to those. (For example, the Philly group has only 4-5 people at planning meetings.)
• The best way to get more people at meetings is to be visible in the community.
• People are often less inclined to come to meeting but more inclined to come to an event/action
• Possibilities for tabling: farmers' markets, local concerts, community fairs
• Will send us information on recruitment strategies; maybe we can have a follow-up conversation about this later.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 17 December, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)

Minutes for the May 2025 Meeting

AIUSA Group 342 meeting

21 May 2025 (hybrid)
In attendance: Barbara, Bob, Dorothee, Struan, Marsha

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

MEETING SCHEDULE MOVING FORWARD

• Barbara had a recent conversation with Frank about the frequency of our group meetings. They discussed the possibility of moving to monthly meetings (except for July and August), keeping them at 7:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month.

LOBBYING DAY 

• Barbara contacted the two PA senators (Fetterman and McCormick) as well as Representative Chrissie Houlahan 

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob)

• Local level: The Trace is the only news organization that covers gun issues in detail. 
• It has local reports on Philly; one of their staff writers, Mensah Dean, was formerly with The Inquirer. 
• They maintain the Gun Violence Data Hub as a repository for data that researchers and analysts use.
• State level: CeasefirePA has its annual advocacy day in Harrisburg on April 18. (Bob has been participating in this for over fifteen years.)
• Participants asked lawmakers to sign a "Dear Colleague" e-mail in support of $100m in the budget for gun violence prevention. 
• CeasefirePA is working on proposed laws (reintroduced from the last legislative session): ERPO (Extreme Risk Protection Orders), universal background checks, and a ban on ghost guns.
• Participants visited various state representatives/senators. The only one they meet with was Chris Piell. They tried to see Craig Williams and John Lawrence but were only able to speak with their administrative assistants.
• National level
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold the Biden regulation requiring ghost guns to have serial numbers. (There is concern that in response to this the Trump administration will tell the AFT to get rid of this law. Therefore we need state laws on these issues!)
• U.S. Supreme Court will hear challenge to Minnesota law that prohibits concealed carry permits for people under age 18.
• Local police departments sell their old guns when they get new sones
• At least 52,500 former police guns have turned up at crime scenes since 2006
• Agencies that destroy guns lose the trade-in value for the guns and have to pay to have them destroyed
• Bob will team up with Tom Buglio to ask local police departments what they do with their old guns

IMMIGRANTS' STATUS AND RIGHTS

• Barb would like a Group 342 member to report on this issue for each meeting. (This is especially important now with changes in ICE politics and actions, and more arrests and deportations in the news.)
• Struan says he will start this in September.

CASE FILE: DO WE WANT A NEW ONE?

• Itai Dzamara, Zimbabwean journalist and human rights activist, was forcibly disappeared in March 2015, and there has been no news from him since them. The London AI office thinks he is deceased and suggests we get a new case file.
• Dorothee wants to be the point person for this effort. Barb will work with Dorothee to complete the online form to request a new case file.

STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE WORLD

• Report issues in April 2025
• Barb reviewed highlights of human rights cases in the USA. 

URGENT ACTIONS

• Blessed Mhlanga, journalist in Zimbabwe (UA: 29/25)
• Rita Karasartova, human rights defender and civic governance expert in Kyrgyzstan (UA: 49/25): She was a 2024 Write for Rights case; she was released by has been redetained.

GOOD NEWS

• Idris Hasan, Uyghur activist, has been released from a Moroccan prison after 43 months of detention. He has resettled in the USA.

PAUL O'BRIEN, executive director of AIUSA

• Barb recommends the interview he did on the podcast More to Her Story on April 30, 2024 (link

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 18 June, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)

(Several members will be traveling than and unable to attend, so this meeting might be canceled.)

Minutes for the March 2025 meeting

 AIUSA Group 342 meeting

15 January 2025 (online only)
In attendance (via Zoom): Barbara, Frank, Bob, Dave

GREETINGS AND CHECK-IN

AREA COORDINATOR REPORT (Dave): 

• Amnesty International USA is concerned that it may lose its tax-exempt status under the Trump administration.
• Dave also suggested these ideas for Group 342 that he gleaned from other local chapters:
• For Human Rights Day, invite a guest speaker to make a Zoom speech of his/her choosing.  Invite Group 342 present and past members
• When sending petitions on behalf of individuals, include an image of that person

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION (Bob): Everyone is invited to lobby at GVP Advocacy Day in Harrisburg on April 8.

NORWUZ 2025: Barbara presented this year's cases. The remained of the meeting was spent writing Nowruz cards to those individuals.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, 21 May, 7:30 p.m. @ United Way in Exton (or via Zoom)