Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
Every year write for rights gets bigger and better, and in 2016, Amnesty activists across the globe collected an astounding 3.4 million actions (and counting). Here in Australia, we gathered a phenomenal 125,000 actions! A massive thank you to all of you who helped us reach this staggering figure. We’d like to give a big …
Continue reading “3.4 million actions in Write for Rights 2016”
NAIDOC Week is one of the best opportunities to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture, talent and resilience. NAIDOC week, which is celebrated annually in the full first week of July, stands for ‘National Aboriginal and Islanders Day of Observance Committee’. The week began in the 1957 when Aboriginal organisations, state and federal governments …
Whistleblower and human rights hero Edward Snowden thanks the more than 1 million supporters who raised their voices for him. “I want to thank you, humbly and with a full heart, for your unwavering advocacy and support. More than a million of you came together to say in one voice that the truth matters. My …
Continue reading “Edward Snowden: ‘Your support keeps me company during the fight’”
Australia Day is not a celebration for all Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples mark this day as Survival Day. Since colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been subjected to government-sanctioned violence, policies that removed children from families, the removal of people from their lands and the denial of self-determination. This year …
Did you know that there is a Federal Inquiry into Freedom of Speech in Australia? This was announced by the government last year after a case from Queensland failed under section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. The terms of reference of the inquiry, rather than focusing on the serious threats to freedom of expression …
Continue reading “Protecting Australians from racial discrimination”
With less than a week left in his term, President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning today. Manning had been serving a 35-year sentence in a maximum security prison after releasing information pointing to potential crimes by the U.S. military. Manning, who has been in jail for nearly seven years, will be freed on …
Continue reading “Good news: Obama commutes sentence of WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning”
Dolma Tso, a 30-year-old Tibetan woman who was imprisoned in 2013 for helping a neighbour, walked free from detention unharmed in December 2016. In 2013, Dolma Tso moved the body of her neighbour, Kunchok Tseten after he had set himself on fire. The Chinese authorities have a policy of immediately seizing the body of people who …
As the crisis in Syria continues unabated, now into its sixth year, civilians are paying the highest price. Refugees in the region More than 4.8 million Syrian refugees are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt: Turkey hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country worldwide Lebanon hosts approximately 1 million Syrian refugees which amounts to around one in …
While 2016 had more than its fair share of setbacks, thanks to you, we’ve found a lot to be positive about. This year, you helped us free more than 650 people from unfair imprisonment. We helped change laws in 40 countries. We helped convict war criminals. We helped teens stay out of adult prisons and we saw …
Are you interested in helping us develop our grassroots? The Grassroots Working Group is seeking three new members: A current or recent convenor from a capital city-based Group; A current or recent convenor from a regional-based Group; and An activist who has stepped down from an Amnesty International Australia (AIA) leadership role in the past …
