Book through the box office 020 8567 5184
The Questors Theatre, 12 Mattock Lane, Ealing W5 5BQ

Update: Photos from the play are viewable here on Questors Theatre website.

Friday 23rd June at 7 pm
SOAS- School of Oriental and African Studies. Khalili Lecture Theatre.
University of London. Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1

Organised by: Peace Brigades International
In association with SOAS Latin American Society

Night of discussion and music in celebration of people struggle to protect freedom of speech and human rights. With the unique opportunity to listen to the testimony of Alejandro Cerezo Contreras a 24-year-old student of Sociology at UNAM (Autonomous University of Mexico) and former prisoner of conscience. Live music by Ruben H & the Landing Sky.

Alejandro is a member of the Cerezo Committee, an organisation that campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience in Mexico. It was founded in 2001 in response to the sentencing of Alejandro and his two brothers for allegedly setting off explosives in banks in Mexico city. The boys were sentenced to 13 years imprisonment under charges of terrorism, organised crime and concealing weapons at home.

Their guilt has never been proven, according to the Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights (LIMEDDH) and other human rights organisations. The Cerezo brothers had participated actively in the campaign against the privatisation of the UNAM in 1999 and in other social struggles alongside indigenous people. In 2003 thanks to their efforts in campaigning the charges of terrorism were dropped and the sentences were reduced to seven and a half years. In March 2005 Alejandro was released but his two brothers are still in a high security prison in which they say they have suffered continued harassment and tortures.

Members of the Cerezo Committe have been the subject of death threats and surveillance due to its commitment to the defense of human rights in Mexico. They are able to carry out their vital work thanks to the international support and the work of Peace Brigades International, whose international observers accompany and protect them.

Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a non-governmental organisation working to promote non-violence and protect human rights. It was set up in 1981 and currently has projects in Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Nepal and Indonesia. PBI international observers are symbols of the international community's will to ensure human rights are upheld. PBI goes into countries where its international presence has been requested and is effective in dissuading violence, providing protective accompaniment to persecuted activists at grassroots level and to communities and organisations experiencing violent conflict. PBI effectively deters potential aggressors from perpetrating acts of violence, and in so doing, widens the democratic space in which local activists can safely maneuver, thereby creating a "space for peace".

More information:
Peace Brigades International UK
1b Waterlow Road, N19 5NJ London
Tel. 020 72 81 53 70
Email: coordinator [at] peacebrigades.org.uk
Website: http://www.peacebrigades.org/uk.html