Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
Amnesty supporters joined thousands of Australians, businesses and celebrities pushing our politicians to make marriage equality a reality in Australia. Activism Growth and Development Coordinator Belinda Lowe looks at what’s happening on Canberra’s Capital Hill in response. In March, Australians across the country sent letters of love to their senators calling on them to support marriage equality …
Continue reading “Where to next for marriage equality in Australia?”
An independent investigation into Queensland’s youth justice system has recommended an overhaul of the old, broken approach of punishing vulnerable children, and instead working with communities to help young people. The Queensland Independent Review of Youth Detention was announced last August, the day after Amnesty International exposed images and allegations of abuse in detention on …
Continue reading “Independent Review must usher in new era for Queensland kids”
Today Attorney-General George Brandis announced that scheduled funding cuts to community legal services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, won’t go ahead. This means that $55 million will be allocated to maintaining community legal services over the next three years, including $16.7 million for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. This decision …
Continue reading “Good news: Funding cuts to legal services reversed”
A lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes to keep up momentum for the Community is Everything campaign in the wake of the release of an interim report by the NT Royal Commission into Youth Detention, and a visit to Australia by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. …
Continue reading “Community is Everything update: April 2017”
Last year, 37-year-old charity worker Nazanin and her two-year-old daughter Gabriella were holidaying in Iran to visit her parents. While on their way home, Nazanin was arrested at the airport check-in desk. Her daughter had her British passport confiscated, and is now stranded in Iran with her grandparents. On Change.org, Nazanin’s husband shared a touching letter that Nazanin wrote …
Continue reading “#FreeNazanin: A letter to my sweet daughter”
Amnesty International released its 2016 global review of the death penalty today. Here is a snapshot of executions around the world in the last year. Global figures At least 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries in 2016. In 2015 Amnesty International recorded 1,634 executions in 25 countries worldwide – a historical spike unmatched since 1989 …
Continue reading “The current state of the death penalty around the world”
The Australian prison system is currently so broken that child abuse in detention centres is happening right under our government’s watch. There are children being tear gassed and locked in solitary confinement, and it’s not just at Don Dale. When the entire prison system seems designed to punish children rather than help them, it’s little wonder …
Continue reading “Think there are no better alternatives for kids than prison? Here are seven”
Update 01/11/17: Even more good news! The Thai authorities have announced that all charges against the three activists will be dropped. In early March 2017, the Thai military dropped the criminal case against an Amnesty International chairperson and two other human rights activists who were facing prosecution for reporting on torture. Somchai Homla-or, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet …
Continue reading “Good News: Thailand drops case against human rights activists”
Bucking the trend of rising racial hatred around the world, the Australian Senate tonight took a stand against racism in Australia by voting down proposed harmful changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. “This vote shows that Australia is ready to move on from this divisive debate. It follows last month’s decision by …
Continue reading “Senate stands against racial hatred – now PM Turnbull must do the same”
On 27 March 2017, the Supreme Court of the Province of Tucuman in northern Argentina unanimously decided to acquit Belén, a 27-year-old woman who was sentenced to 8 years in prison after suffering a miscarriage in a public hospital. What happened? In March 2014, Belén went to the public hospital in her province complaining of abdominal …
Continue reading “Good news: Belén acquitted of all charges”
