Coventry and North Warwickshire Euro MP Christine Oddy will be lending her support to Amnesty International - the organisation which campaigns for the rights of people imprisoned or persecuted for political or religious beliefs when she attends two events in her constituency during the next week.

On Sunday 6 December she will attend a service at Solihull Methodist Church to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The service is being organised jointly by the Central Solihull Fellowship of Churches and the town’s Amnesty group and will be conducted by the Rev David Blanchflower, Solihull's Methodist minister.

Ms Oddy will hear an address to the congregation by Beatriz Miranda, who has lived in Britain since fleeing her native Chile where she was a victim of the brutality of the Pinochet dictatorship.

On Thursday 10 December, Ms Oddy will join members of Coventry's Amnesty Group for a ceremony in the cathedral ruins to mark the Declaration. It will comprise a reading of the Declaration, together with brief statements about selected Prisoners of Conscience and Amnesty International campaigns. The ceremony will be attended by the Lord Mayor of Coventry, Cllr Maggie Rosher and representatives of the city's football club and trades council.

Ms Oddy said:

"It is a sad reflection that half a century after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an organisation like Amnesty is so busy supporting those who have been victimised for their beliefs. Hopefully in another half century Amnesty will not be needed but meanwhile its work deserves the support of all of us who believe in the freedom to express our views peacefully without fear of reprisal."