To celebrate International Human Rights Day which falls on 10 December 2024, I attended Amnesty International’s Annual Human Rights Day Reception in Parliament.
I joined other Members of Parliament, staff and campaigners from Amnesty International to celebrate historic human rights achievements.
I was delighted to catch up with Anoosheh Ashoori whose incarceration I raised every week in Parliament at Business Questions when I was Shadow leader of the House. (below left). His case together with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe showed what Parliamentarians with civic society can achieve and this year’s event provided Members of Parliament a moment to reflect on and celebrate those achievements. Now we have to raise the case and release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Amnesty has been at the forefront of the debate from adopting wide-ranging equality legislation to bringing about the Arms Trade Treaty.
We need Amnesty more than ever in this fractured world and must never let our hard fought Human Rights slide.