Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
Five years ago, activist Osama Nassar, a Syrian human rights activist witnessed first-hand the public protests and violent government response which sparked Syria’s bloody armed conflict. Since then, he and his family have been arrested, intimidated and forced underground. He tells Amnesty their story. At the beginning of 2011, I met with a group of …
Continue reading “Underground and under fire: An activist’s life in Syria since 2011”
Five years ago, Bashar al-Assad’s government brutally suppressed mass protests which began on 15 March 2011. The violent response sparked the region’s most severe armed conflict. On the fifth anniversary of the start of the Syrian war, we look at eight key facts about the conflict and its devastating effects on the people of Syria. 1. …
Continue reading “Eight things you need to know about the Syrian war”
Escalating violations, including possible war crimes, that have sparked a humanitarian crisis amid Yemen’s armed conflict will only worsen unless all states immediately impose a comprehensive embargo on arms transfers that could be used by any of the warring parties, Amnesty International warned today as a meeting on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) got under …
Continue reading “States must halt all arms flows to the Yemen conflict to stop serious violations”
Albert Woodfox, the last imprisoned member of the ‘Angola Three’, has been released after more than four decades in solitary confinement. What happened? Albert Woodfox was initially jailed alongside Herman Wallace and Robert King in 1971 following a conviction for armed robbery. In 1973 Wallace and Woodfox were confined to solitary in Louisiana State Penitentiary, …
Continue reading “Albert Woodfox free after 43 years in solitary confinement”
Five years after a wave of protests demanding widespread reform rocked Bahrain, hopes for progress on human rights and accountability for past and present abuses have faded. The mass protests, which began on 14 February 2011, were met with violence by the security forces, who shot dead and injured protesters. Others died in custody after …
Continue reading “Hopes for justice and reform fading in Bahrain”
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria’s violent civil war, Amnesty Intern Cheye Gameren reflects on the past five years. A lot can happen in five years Take a moment to think about it – five years is a long time. A lot can be achieved and a lot can be …
Continue reading “Lives shaped by violence: growing up in Syria”
Rodney Dillon here. I’m an Aboriginal man from Tasmania and I work as an Indigenous Rights Advisor at Amnesty. We launched our Community is Everything campaign in 2015 because we don’t want to see Indigenous kids locked up anymore. We want to see them living in happy, healthy communities, finishing school, getting good jobs and …
Continue reading “About our Community is Everything campaign”
Our new report ‘I want a safe place: Refugee women from Syria uprooted and unprotected in Lebanon’ reveals that Syrian refugee women don’t feel safe in Lebanon. Here are four reasons why, and four possible solutions. 1. Refugee women are often threatened and sexually harassed in public Amnesty recently interviewed 65 Syrian refugee women in …
Continue reading “Why don’t Syrian women feel safe in Lebanon?”
During war and conflict, crisis researcher Joanne Mariner is the first on the ground to gather evidence of serious human rights crimes. She tells us how your support makes her life-changing work possible. 1. Training “I’ve had training in first aid, facing hostile fire, and dealing with hostage situations. I’ve seen how high velocity bullets …
Omar, a refugee from Syria, was just 12 years old when he accidentally arrived alone in Sweden. It took months of tears and worry, emails and phone calls before his parents and big brother could join him. As Denmark proposes delaying family reunification for up to five years, their story shows why the right to …
Continue reading “Stranded in Sweden aged 12: Why reuniting with relatives is crucial for refugees”
