Stamford and Rutland Amnesty International Group prepares for Festival of Social Justice

Stamford Anti-Racism Group chairman Louise Thomson is among those who will speak at Amnesty International's Festival of Social Justice next month.

Louise will discuss the film Clemancy and causes of miscarriages of justice in America.

“I have always been interested in both criminal and social justice issues and have known from a young age that I wanted to pursue a career in law," said Louise, who studied law and is a pupil barrister based in London.

During an internship in Arizona, Louise supported lawyers working on death penalty appeal cases.

The festival has been organised by Stamford and Rutland Amnesty International Group and will also feature portrait photographer Eddie Botsio, whose The Truth to Power project captures and celebrates journalists who have held power to account. It will be displayed as a digital exhibition.

Extreme athlete Dan Martin will talk about how the connections he made and the understanding he gained while cycle touring 40,000 miles through different parts of the world, including Syria, Somalia and North Korea. The kindness of strangers is a constant theme.

Chilean Stamford resident and Amnesty member Jorge Diaz-Munoz, who lived in Chile under the Pinochet regime, will form part of a panel for a questions and answers session about the current unrest in Chile following Stamford Shoestring’s animated reading of extracts from Widows by Ariel Dorfman.

A full list of events for the Stamford and Rutland Amnesty Festival of Social Justice, which runs from May 19 to 30, can be found here.