Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
It was the scandal which finally exposed the dark side of the big data economy underpinning the internet. The inside story of how one company, Cambridge Analytica, misused intimate personal Facebook data to micro-target and manipulate swing voters in the US election, is compellingly told in “The Great Hack”, a new documentary out on Netflix. …
Continue reading “‘The Great Hack’: Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg”
Fifty years ago, nine New York police officers stormed the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and began aggressively searching the bar’s patrons. They demanded identification and arrested anyone they suspected of being gay or dressed in a way that didn’t conform to mainstream society’s narrow understanding of gender. The events that followed would spark the …
Continue reading “Fifty years after Stonewall riots: Pride, protest and a hunger for equality”
Fiona* is devastated at how much Queensland’s justice system failed her son. In January, Fiona’s 15-year-old son Mark* spent three weeks in the Brisbane City Watch House for stealing chocolates and paint cans from a shop. Police took Mark to the Brisbane City Watch House, a maximum security detention facility designed to temporarily hold adults. …
Continue reading “Inside Queensland’s broken youth justice system”
Campaigner Michael Hayworth answers some of the tougher questions – like why it is fundamentally important to abolish the death penalty? Anti-death penalty campaigners can rattle off 25 different reasons why we need to abolish the death penalty: its cruel, degrading, inhumane, what about families, it’s just wrong and world peace. Most of us can …
Continue reading “5 reasons some people think the world needs the death penalty”
“It’s that time of the month.” “Red October.” “On the blob.” Many people would rather call menstruation anything than what it is. But in parts of the world the stigma around menstruation goes far beyond euphemisms. For some girls, menstruating means being hidden away in cattle sheds or banned from their houses; others struggle to …
Continue reading “Let’s talk menstruation – and the women breaking the taboos around it”
By Dr. Hannah McGlade Curtin As a Noongar woman, a mother, and human rights advocate I have been very shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of young lives in my community. Young Aboriginal children and youth are ending their lives before they’ve had a chance to build them. Our national health bodies have called …
Continue reading “Eight issues behind Indigenous youth suicide”
National Reconciliation Week runs annually from 27 May – 3 June, book-ended by the anniversaries of the 1967 Referendum and the Mabo decision. This year’s theme is “Grounded in Truth, Walk Together with Courage”. National Reconciliation Week is a time for all people to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore …
Continue reading “Celebrating National Reconciliation Week 2019!”
Ramadan is here. Across the world, Muslims will begin fasting during daylight hours as part of this month-long observance. But in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), Chinese authorities see fasting as a “sign of extremism”. Open or even private displays of religious affiliation – including growing an “abnormal” beard, wearing a veil or headscarf, …
Continue reading ““Forgive my children for not fasting” – Ramadan in Xinjiang”
Iranian lawyer and women’s rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh’s heartbreaking letters from prison reveal the trauma inflicted on families by the government that claims to protect them. Nasrin Sotoudeh is a lawyer who has never shied away from doing what’s right in Iran. In her long and impressive career, she has exposed the injustices of the …
Continue reading ““I miss you my dearest” – Nasrin Sotoudeh’s letters to her children from prison”
With the fourth anniversary of the executions of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia fast approaching, we must continue to challenge the notion of “an eye for an eye”. Here are five reasons why. 1. You can’t take it back The death penalty is irreversible. Absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes …
Continue reading “Five reasons to abolish the death penalty”
