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All of our income comes from individuals like you, and allow us to maintain full independence from any governments, political ideologies, economic interests or religions. Amnesty International Australia does not take any funds from governments or political parties and we accept support only from businesses that have been carefully vetted.
Frequently asked questions
Q How do I update my contact details, or my credit card/bank account details?
You can update your personal details, change your communication preferences and/or update your payment details through your Amnesty online account. Please see the instructions below for how to access this.
You can also email supporter@amnesty.org.au or call 1300 300 920 and our Supporter Care Team can assist you.
Q How can I access my Amnesty online account?
You can access your Amnesty online account by logging in via our website. You may already have an account, or you may need to set one up. Please try logging in with the email that we contact you on. You may need to set or reset your password by following the prompts.
Through your online account, you can access your donation history and receipts, update your payment information, contact details and communications preferences.
Please note that you are unable to cancel or change your regular gift amount through the online portal. Please call the Supporter Care Team directly on 1300 300 920 and we can assist.
Q How can I find my tax receipt?
Tax receipts for one off donations are generated within 1 business day and are sent via email or mail. Tax receipts for regular donations are sent at the end of financial year. Regular donors can expect to receive this by the end of July.
If you are having trouble locating your receipt or you require this sooner, you can access your tax receipt and donation history through your Amnesty online account.
Please log into your account here with the email address that we contact you on. You may need to set or reset your password by following the prompts.
If you have any issues accessing your online account, please contact the Supporter Care Team using the details above. We can also easily provide you with a tax receipt via email or mail.
Q How can I cancel or make changes to my regular gift?
Thank you for your incredible support as a Human Rights Defender. Because of you, we’ve been able to achieve incredible things – like helping to free hundreds of people unjustly imprisoned, changing oppressive laws, and exposing human rights abuses. Read more about the wins you’ve helped make possible here.
To cancel or make changes to your regular gift, please contact the Supporter Care Team directly by calling 1300 300 920 and we can assist you.
Q How can I make a one-off donation?
Thank you for your generous support to defend human rights!
We can accept donations online, via phone, mail or direct deposit. Please call us on 1300 300 920 during business hours and we can process your credit card donation over the phone, or provide information about how you can make a direct deposit.
If you would prefer to donate via cheque, mail order or cash, please mail your donation to the address above and include your details so we can issue a receipt.
You can also donate directly via Paypal using this link: https://www.paypal.com/au/fundraiser/charity/3496537
For more information about donations, visit our Donation FAQs here.
Q How can I support Amnesty’s work as a regular donor?
Thank you for wanting to support Amnesty as a Human Rights Defender. Regular donations are the most powerful way to contribute to Amnesty, ensuring we can keep challenging injustice so that everyone can be treated fairly and with dignity.
You can set up a regular donation online here. Alternatively, please call us on 1300 300 920 and we can help you set up a regular gift over the phone (card only), or provide information on how to set up a direct debit.
For more information about donations, visit our Donation FAQs here.
Q How can I become an Amnesty member or renew my membership?
AIA members are part of the biggest human rights community in Australia. For a small, once yearly fee of $22, you can become a member and meet like-minded people, stand for board positions, join committees and feed into the overall direction of Amnesty – even contribute to global decisions!
Sign up as a member online here, or call us on 1300 300 920 and we can sign you up over the phone (card only).
To renew your membership, please contact us directly via phone, or email and we can send you a renewal form.
Q How can I get more involved with Amnesty to defend human rights?
Thank you for your interest in getting involved with Amnesty International. You will join a global movement of over 10 million people standing together to defend human rights worldwide.
There are many ways to get involved with Amnesty, whether as an activist, member, volunteer or staff – among other opportunities! This includes getting involved in your local action group, where you can connect with like-minded people and campaign in your community through letter writing, petitioning, calling, holding events, research and meeting with your local representative.
To find out more about Amnesty and the different ways you can challenge injustice as an activist, please complete this Expression of Interest form and we will invite you to our next Get Active session.
If you are interested in joining Amnesty International as a staff or volunteer, visit this page where you can see the positions we are currently recruiting for. If you require more information, please contact our Supporter Care Team on 1300 300 920 or email supporter@amnesty.org.au.
Q Can I do an internship or work experience with Amnesty?
Amnesty International Australia is not currently offering any internships.
We encourage you to keep an eye out on the Positions page where you can find information about the current positions available.
Q I’m having trouble with Amnesty’s website.
If you are experiencing issues with our website, we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Please contact the Supporter Care Team using the details above, and explain the issue you are experiencing. We will then be able to investigate and help resolve the issue. We may ask you to provide additional information such as a screenshot of the error or the browser you are using. We thank you for your patience and your assistance in helping us resolve this.
Q Why do I have to give you my phone number/personal details?
We collect some basic personal information from our supporters for a few reasons. One is so that we can identify them properly in our database system, allowing us to collect petition signatures, store donation information, and send receipts, for example.
Sometimes we contact our supporters to update them with the progress of our campaigns. We may also ask for some help with funds when there is an urgent crisis and need for financial assistance. As we do not accept any government funding, we rely on our generous supporters to ensure the continuation of our human rights work.
We usually do not require you to submit your phone number on petitions if you access our website directly. However, sometimes, if you click on a petition via social media, it will require your phone number.
Please contact us directly or log into your online account to make changes to your communications preferences.
You can also refer to our Privacy Policy if you have any further questions about how your information is stored and used.
Q What is Amnesty doing about X campaign/human rights issue?
Amnesty campaigns on a wide range of human rights issues, both domestically and internationally. Some of our major campaign areas that we actively campaign on at Amnesty International Australia include:
Individuals at Risk
Refugee Rights
Indigenous Justice
LGBTQIA+ Rights
Women’s Rights
Death penalty
Crisis Response
We encourage you to explore our website to find out more about what we do and our campaign areas. If you would like to find out about our work on a specific topic/theme or country, please check out our website where you can find more information. We research and report on the human rights situation in every country in the world, to ensure that everyone is able to live in dignity with their human rights respected. We can only do this work thanks to the generous support of our supporters – so thank you!
Q How do I find my nearest action centre?
You can access contact details and web pages for your nearest action centre. Alternatively, contact our Supporter Care Team.
See below for more frequently asked questions.
More FAQs
Q How does Amnesty International safeguard its independence?
Amnesty International’s independence is a vital part of our effectiveness. We do not accept any money from governments or political parties, so we are free to criticise governments and others for abusing people’s rights, or for failing to protect them. Because we are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion, we can take action to defend human rights wherever they are violated.
We are a democratic organisation, answerable only to our members and supporters, people who come from many different backgrounds but who share a common commitment to human rights.
Q Where does the money come from?
The vast majority of our income comes from the public, who generously contribute to our work. We do not accept money or other direct support from governments or political organisations for our work investigating and campaigning against human rights abuses.
The generosity and commitment of our supporters allows us to:
- Maintain our independence
- Keep up the pressure on governments, companies and other organisations
- Respond quickly to human rights crises when they occur
Q How does Amnesty International know it has the facts right?
Amnesty International’s campaigns are based on the facts – detailed and accurate information about human rights, and the governments and others who violate them. We monitor thousands of media outlets, and gather information from government bulletins, legal documents, medical reports and our contact with reliable sources of information all over the world.
We send representatives to observe political trials, monitor the treatment of prisoners and talk with victims and their families. Details are cross-checked and we take great care to avoid presenting unconfirmed allegations as fact.
Journalists, researchers, governments and United Nations experts rely on our reports. In another measure of our success, the governments we criticise very rarely offer a detailed rebuttal of our information.
Q What right do we have to interfere in the internal affairs of countries?
After World War II, the international community accepted that national sovereignty cannot be used as an excuse for human rights violations, or as a cover to protect people who are guilty of human rights abuses.
Under international agreements and treaties – developed and approved by the world’s governments – individual governments are accountable to the world for how they treat their people.
The cornerstone of the modern international human rights system is the duty of all governments to advance human rights and protect them wherever they are under attack.
Some governments hide behind arguments that their human rights record is an internal matter, but Amnesty International continues to hold them accountable.
Q Aren’t human rights a luxury, especially in less developed countries?
Under international law, the human rights on which Amnesty International defends are:
- Universal – they apply to every person without distinction
- Indivisible – one group of rights cannot be considered “more important” than another
Governments in every region, representing societies at all stages of development and people of many different cultures, have formally agreed that certain basic human rights – such as the right to life, shelter and freedom from torture – apply universally. We are not asking countries to do anything to which they are not already committed.
In any case, people from all cultures and regions agree their basic rights should be respected, and they should not be tortured, persecuted or driven from their homes in order to advance other human rights.
Q Don’t human rights have to be restricted to ensure security?
Amnesty International recognises that governments have an obligation to protect the security of their citizens, just as they have an obligation to protect people’s human rights. However, human rights should not be compromised in order to protect our security, and they do not have to be.
In fact, lasting security can only be based on respect for human rights. Governments should be responding to security challenges by upholding the values, including human rights values, they claim to defend.
In some countries around the world, governments are using the current ‘war on terror’ as an excuse to ignore human rights, or to justify the repression of their political opponents. Many other countries have introduced laws that erode the human rights of their people. Amnesty International is campaigning to promote security with human rights.
Q What do we do about human rights abuses here in Australia?
Amnesty International members in Australia are campaigning to ensure that the government meets its international human rights obligations. We highlight Australian issues within each of our global campaigns.
Members of Amnesty International’s refugee casework team also provide assistance to hundreds of asylum seekers in Australia each year.
In addition to these campaigns, Amnesty International members encourage the government to ratify international human rights treaties, adopt laws which respect human rights standards and ensure that human rights are promoted in foreign policy.