Bruce Kent Will Speak At Meeting To Set Up Amnesty International Group In Ely

VETERAN human rights campaigner Bruce Kent is the main speaker at a meeting to form a new branch of Amnesty International in Ely.

The open meeting will take place at the Cathedral Centre on Saturday, April 18 and organisers say people of all ages are welcome and a concern for human rights is the only requirement. Amnesty is a movement independent of any government, political group, economic interest, faith or non faith commitment.

Bruce Kent, the former general secretary of CND, said: "It is an honour to be invited to the launch of a new Amnesty group in Ely. Originally Amnesty was an international struggle to protect the human rights of prisoners of conscience, the tortured and the unjustly imprisoned. The name Amnesty today means hope to many worldwide who thought themselves abandoned. Long may the new Ely group flourish."

Ben Jupp, who has organised the meeting, added: "We are convinced that there will be a great deal of support for this new venture in Ely. There are about 7,800 other Amnesty groups in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide: each given the task of promoting general awareness of human rights and opposing specific abuses of human rights wherever they occur."

INFO: the meeting takes place in the Cathedral Centre in Ely and starts at 7pm

* Amnesty International is a movement of ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Its purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, freedom and truth are denied. See also www.amnesty.org.uk

The organisation was launched in 1961 by Peter Beneneson, a British lawyer. He wrote a newspaper appeal after reading about two Portuguese students who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom.