29 April 2023. Marking the end of Ramadan, WBI hosted a special Human Rights Eid Celebration with Amnesty UK at Aspex Gallery to conclude Amnesty’s national series of Human Rights Iftars, which started in Edinburgh and went on to Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield before finishing on a sunny note in Portsmouth.
[Audience members seated for the event’s presentations]
The event inside the bright, beautiful space of Aspex Gallery Portsmouth was fully booked, and we were so pleased to see so much interest on the ground for human rights advocacy. We welcomed our local community and partners to a discussion program centred around three human rights themes before enjoying the food together.
[Guests in conversation with the event hosts + The food spread for Eid]
The first presentation delivered by Amnesty UK’s Country Coordinator for China and Taiwan, Nabila Hanson, spoke on the treatment of the Muslim Uyghur and Turkic minorities in China. It underlined the importance of grassroot movements to expose injustice – especially when there is widespread state monitoring and censorship.
[Nabila Hanson, AIUK’s Country Coordinator for China and Taiwan]
Dr Bonny Ling’s presentation focused on the corporate responsibility of businesses to respect human rights, using the cotton industry and how it intersects with the human rights abuses of the minority Uyghur population in China as an example.
[Dr Bonny Ling, WBI’s Executive Director]
Shipa Ahmed Khan, the Health Inequalities Lead for Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust, highlighted the health gap affecting ethnic minorities and spoke about the important work currently under way to close this gap, such as digital literacy workshops, which WBI helped organise last February.
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[Shipa Ahmed Khan, the Health Inequalities Lead for Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust]
The thought-provoking talks were followed by a number of questions by the engaged audience. The event attracted people from different walks of life. Students and local residents from multi-ethnic backgrounds shared their personal experiences, concerns and hopes with the hosts, speakers and other like-minded community members.
[Audience members during the event]
It was great! I had fun. Made new friends. The presentations were insightful and educational. The food was wonderful! Hopefully, there will be more events like this in the future.
– participant feedback
We would like to give a special thanks to Shakeel Mohammed from Portsmouth University, vice chair of the upcoming University Amnesty Chapter, for introducing the speakers, and to our volunteers for all their efforts to make the event a success.
[Portsmouth University student Shakeel Mohammed vice chair of the upcoming University Amnesty Chapter]
[ WBI team with the group of volunteers and community members, including asylum-seekers who helped out at the event]
This was the first tispecial Amnesty event during Ramadan came to Portsmouth, but we very much hope we can repeat this again next year.
This event was organised by Work Better Innovations and Amnesty UK in the hope to strengthen our solidarity with human rights and connect residents in Portsmouth, who would like to become more involved in Amnesty’s grass-root advocacy campaigns. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.
[All photography by POOW Media. Photo Credits to WBI]
