Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
The Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (CRSI) is calling on government to create a system that allows the generosity of ordinary Australians to flourish, welcoming refugees into our communities. CRSI is a joint project of the Refugee Council of Australia, Amnesty International Australia, Save the Children Australia, Welcome to Australia, Rural Australians for Refugees and the …
Continue reading “New initiative aims to foster Australian community spirit in welcoming refugees”
Amnesty calls on the United Human Rights Council to act ‘for the sake of humanity’. Australia is attending its first session as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Responding to the impending vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council on a resolution on the situation in Eastern Ghouta, Kevin Whelan, Senior …
Amnesty International has welcomed today’s commitments from the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Opposition to a national change to our youth justice system. These commitments followed the Federal Government’s response to the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. “The COAG’s First Ministers acknowledgement that the Royal …
The returned Palaszczuk Government must raise the age of criminal responsibility in Queensland, after Deputy Premier Jackie Trad rejected the recommendation to Amnesty International’s Human Rights Agenda for the Next Queensland State Government. The Deputy Premier, in a written response to the agenda, supported some recommendations that Amnesty International said would contribute to a strong …
Continue reading “New Queensland Govt must act immediately on outstanding human rights promises”
The Bangladesh government must abandon all plans to relocate more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees on to an uninhabitable island. On Tuesday, the Bangladesh government approved a $280 million plan to develop the isolated, flood-prone and uninhabitable Thenger Char to temporarily house Rohingya refugees until they are repatriated to Myanmar. “It would be a terrible mistake …
Continue reading “Bangladesh: Rohingya refugees must not be relocated to uninhabitable island”
The Federal Government must seize the opportunity presented by the forthcoming release of the report of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory to take national action on youth justice issues through the development of a National Youth Justice Action Plan, according to the Change the Record Coalition. …
Continue reading “Abuse highlighted in NT Royal Commission demands a national response”
In response to a notice issued by Papua New Guinea (PNG) authorities on Thursday morning at the Lombrum refugee detention centre on Manus Island stating that refugees must leave the centre by 11 November or be forcibly removed, Amnesty International said: “It is imperative that the PNG and Australian authorities immediately allow aid into the …
Continue reading “Authorities in PNG must allow aid in, must not use force to move refugees out”
Amnesty International is warning that authorities in Australia and Papua New Guinea must ensure that a tense standoff with refugees on Manus Island does not descend into violence by security forces as the authorities try to move hundreds of people from the refugee detention centre to so-called transit facilities on Manus Island. Tensions have continued …
The civil engineering company Canstruct International Pty Ltd (‘Canstruct’) has taken on a toxic contract to run facilities on Nauru where the Australian government has trapped refugees in a system that amounts to torture, Amnesty International said today. Canstruct, an Australian family-run company, has signed a contract to run refugee processing centres on the island, …
With Australia’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council last night in Geneva, Amnesty International is calling on the Australian Government to end its hypocrisy on human rights at home. Despite its election to the Council, Australia continues its inherently abusive offshore detention regime, and oversees astronomical rates of Indigenous incarceration. “If we’re serious …