Greetings form the Amnesty UK AGM/Annual Conference! Well, I've managed to sneak out of the least relevant plenary session to hijack a computer at a quiet moment and here I am, a true addict to blogging.

In fact, it's the best moment because I'm very concerned I'm going to forget a few things later on. Just come out of a truly inspiring talk by Bobby Muller, he spoke without plan, but so inspiring, spirited, enthusing, it was simply magic. Realistic, relevant and with lots of good advice on how to campaign but also on  how to keep it up in spite of, well, losing battle after battle.

Today marked the first test for my own motion instructing AIUK to take action on the disproportionate force in the removal of "failed" asylum seekers, particularly families with children, and the call for a family amnesty for any asylum seeking family who's been in the UK for three years or more. The debate in the working party didn't have any opposition, so that's a good sign. One substantial amendment was proposed, but didn't get support (and certainly didn't get mine - in an attempt to delete the three years, and in the spirit to bring it down to a lower amount of time, the amendment effectively deleted the call for a family amnesty). I'm very positive that the motion will be carried overwhelmingly if not unanimously at tomorrow's plenary session.

Taking part in that particular working party, unfortunately I did not manage to listen to the heated debate of strategy and future direction of AI's work, but I'm sure the summary of that will still be as controversial and enlightening.

Last night, Emmanuel Jal spoke of unimaginable experiences as a child soldier between Sudan and Ethiopia. Conscripted at the age of 7, he was a child soldier until he was 13, and led a life beyond my imagination, at one point very close to starvation and eating the meat of a starved friend. He didn't, and thanks to an aid worker got smuggled out to Kenia, where he started to get into music. He now has a budding musical career and manages to use music as an outlet for the trauma he went through, while slowly adapting to lead a normal life. The spirit of the individual to cope and overcome such experiences is ever surprising and amazing, and maybe one thing that should keep us all going.

The Burma/Myanmar coordinator has been very busy and plenty of action available to the conference attenders, I think I signed about 15 petitions or so. It's not that many really, thinking that the political prisoners in Burma are in the thousands.

Finally, got all prepared for my first appearance in a constituency lobbyist hat: The workshop on how to lobby effectively really cleared up a few things, and I'm now looking forward to the first meeting with my MP Tom Harris. I also managed to stock up on all the new branded materials, as well as on materials for a public talk I will be giving on the Stop Violence Against Women campaign in Kilmarnock in two weeks time. So I'm all prepared. It makes a great difference. I really have to commend the section for these new materials - they are very focussed, useful for what we actually do, up to date, and in spite of not liking the branding at first, I now believe it actually works.

back to the conference...