Nashville Amnesty Chapter Spreads the Seeds of Human Rights

The Nashville Chapter of Amnesty International held its third annual conference this past Saturday, addressing several hot human rights issues.

The Nashville Chapter of Amnesty International held its third annual conference this past Saturday, addressing several hot human rights issues.

The Nashville Amnesty Chapter held its third annual conference this weekend. Speakers addressed several hot human rights issues, and the conference ended with advice on activation-starts with oneself. Held in the community room of the Church of Scientology, more than 25 activists came to listen, network and learn.

Experts were called in from across Tennessee to speak on the death penalty, immigrant rights, human trafficking and prisoners of conscience-people imprisoned for speaking their mind or exercising other basic rights. Among them included Avi Poster who is Chair of the Coalition for Education about Immigration, Stacy Rector who holds the position of Executive Director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Cecilia Gomez who is over the Hispanic Division of Free for Life International and Caroline Blackwell, Executive Director of the Nashville Metro Human Relations Commission.

Blackwell concluded the conference with an exercise from The Coaching Game: Points of You where audience members looked at how they themselves could achieve their goals in human rights, what they could do and what would bridge the gap between what is reality and what is the ideal.

For the first time, the conference welcomed area human rights organizations to display information on tables in the event hall to further educate the community. Participating organizations included Free for Life International, Exodus Inc., Women on Maintaining Education and Nutrition, My Global Voice, United for Human Rights, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Conexion Americas.

For more information on Amnesty International, visit amnestyusa.org. For information on how to get involved with the local chapter, visit www.meetup.com/Nashville-Amnesty-International.