Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
In May 2017, a bill aimed at decriminalising abortion in NSW was voted down by the Legislative Council. A similar bill failed to pass in Queensland last year. This means that right now — in a country that prides itself on championing gender equality — a woman can still be prosecuted for exercising her reproductive …
Continue reading “7 shockingly sexist laws that still exist today”
When Ngau Masar watched her husband Le Mei Tah speed off on his motorbike on the morning of 4 December 2016, little did she know she might never see him again. Two weeks earlier, heavy fighting had prompted the family to flee to China from their village in northern Myanmar. When they returned, they joined …
Community Kouzina brings us powerful stories from people with refugee backgrounds, of new beginnings and maintaining strong cultural ties through cooking. “Before the war, Mum had the most amazing cookbooks. When we left, a neighbour actually broke into our house to take her recipe books and keep them safe. Everyone knew how amazing they were …
Community Kouzina brings us powerful stories from people with refugee backgrounds, of new beginnings and maintaining strong cultural ties through cooking. “We learned on the way. After we left Iraq, we lived in Syria for seven and a half years and then Turkey for two and a half years. We learnt to keep starting over. …
Community Kouzina brings us powerful stories from people with refugee backgrounds, of new beginnings and maintaining strong cultural ties through cooking. “My mother and father were amazing cooks. Especially my father, he taught me so much”. Sajeda is of Rohingyan heritage, an ethnic minority in the predominantly Buddhist country of Burma where she was born. In …
Continue reading “Siggussū – Rohingyan Style crispy beef with Sajeda”
“It’s called ‘shaking the house’. In Iran there is a custom that before the New Year people must clean the house upside down. Shake the carpet, clean everything, and paint the wall. Everything is sparkling and polished. Everyone wears their new clothes. Even the poorest people buy something new. People try to help others that …
Continue reading “Mahii Shekam Pour – Stuffed Fish with Ladan”
Khadija McCarthy-Naidoo, who is in year 12 at Methodist Ladies’ College, is a winner in our Junior Blogging competition. Here she shares her heartfelt plea for the government to shut down the Manus and Nauru detention centres. “She cries all the time. She has cut herself with a razor on her chin, face, and chest. Every …
The moment you step outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, the first thing that strikes you are the roses. They are everywhere – lining the dusty motorway into town, clustering flowerbeds in traffic circles, blooming in private gardens. The second thing you see is fear. Foreigners hide behind their sandbagged walls, barbed wire, armed guards …
While grand and public gestures go a long way in shining a light on our government’s inhumane treatment of people seeking asylum, small gestures count too. Here, three former refugees share the kindest things Australians did to make them feel welcome. “A policeman risked his job to let me phone my mum in Iraq” Surgeon …
Continue reading “Refugees share the kind act that helped them most”
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was detained on 17 June 2012 and sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison for creating an online forum for public debate and accusations that he insulted Islam. He was also sentenced to a cruel and inhuman punishment of 1,000 lashes, and on 9 January 2015 he received the …
Continue reading “‘Our father is brave. We wait for him with hope in our hearts’”
