Troubling Times for Human Rights in Turkey - and Singapore

Emel Kurma [wearing the black cardigan] at our monthly meeting in February

Emel Kurma from Turkey was the guest speaker at our monthly meeting in February. She brought us up-to-date with difficulties in her country.

Singapore

Han Hui Hui is the guest speaker at our monthly meeting this month at the usual venue - the Friends Meeting House, Friargate, York YO1 9RL. Hui Hui is a human rights defender on the Protective Fellowship Scheme for Human Rights Defenders at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.

The meeting takes place on Tuesday 12 March, starts at 7 p.m. with Hui Hui's talk followed by questions and answers and then continues (from 8 p.m.) with the group's regular business. Everyone is welcome to attend and, if they like, to leave after Hui Hui's talk.

Hui Hui introduces her talk like this:

How is life as a 27-year-old Singaporean parent in a typical Singaporean family? Where the International Bar Association said the law "has also been used - time and again - to combat critics ... an effective tool for quashing dissent". Having "between 100,000 and 140,000 households living in absolute poverty ... between 20 and 35 per cent of our households living in relative poverty". A press freedom ranking of 151 and "the second best country in terms of economic freedom but is ranked 173 out of 198 in electoral freedom". The only government in the world which makes profits from public housing, public healthcare and pensions! Join us to find out if it's a democratic society or a violation of human rights.