With Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) fast approaching, and the Jewish year 5776 drawing to a close, we want to wish all our supporters a sweet new year and have a quick look back on our achievements. This year René Cassin:
- Raised a Jewish voice in opposition to the proposed repeal of the Human Rights Act. Human rights are a legacy of the Holocaust and this was emphasised by former Conservative Attorney-General Dominic Grieve MP, who we invited to speak at our event in January. René Cassin also coordinated a letter signed by over forty Rabbis, urging the Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, to keep the UK’s Human Rights Act.
- Trained 25 members of the Jewish community to support and guide refugees and asylum seekers going through the asylum process, (sign up for our November workshops here!)
- Mobilised the Jewish community to take action against indefinite detention and support our campaign #Time4aTimeLimit.
- Brought a Jewish, Muslim and Christian coalition of 80 people to Parliament during the passing of the Immigration Bill – resulting in significant detention reform amendments such as a 72-hour time-limit on the detention of pregnant women.
- Graduated our third cohort of René Cassin Fellows: a group of young professionals who we empower to become human rights activists through our yearlong René Cassin Fellowship Program. Next cohort starts in January 2017, get in touch if you interested.
- Addressed the issue of increasing hate crime, highlighting the solidarity that we, as part of the Jewish community, have with groups facing hostility and prejudice today such as the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
And many more…
But there is still work to be done!
In the coming year we will continue to concentrate our efforts on our four main campaign areas, using Jewish values and experience to promote and protect universal human rights:
- Tackling discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in the UK
- Ending indefinite detention of asylum seekers
- Fighting modern day slavery and trafficking
- Protecting human rights safeguards in the UK, including challenging the proposed repeal of the Human Rights Act
We thank you for your support and hope that this will continue in the new year.
Shana Tova, may it be a sweet one for all.
The René Cassin team
