Amnesty International Australia
Defending Human Rights
Channeling one of the calls from our Community is Everything campaign, the NT Government has announced $18.2 million dollars in new funding including for community organisations to run diversion programs that help keep kids out of the justice system. In the wake of a horrific exposé last year of conditions for children in Don Dale Detention …
Continue reading “Big news: Northern Territory Government funds new approach to youth justice”
Amnesty International has received information that the King of Malaysia has commuted the death sentence imposed on Nigerian national Osariakhi Ernest Obayangbon (aka Michael Phillips). Obayangbon, who was sentenced to the mandatory death sentence for murder in 2000, was scheduled to be executed in the early hours of 14 March 2014. Amnesty was notified just …
Continue reading “Good news: Death sentence of mentally ill prisoner commuted in Malaysia”
A historic court ruling has blocked the Kenyan government’s unilateral decision to shut the world’s largest refugee camp. In his ruling, Justice JM Mativo said the government’s orders to shut down Dadaab were discriminatory and amounted to collective. He also described the orders as excessive, arbitrary and disproportionate. The High Court ruling came in response …
Continue reading “Historic ruling blocks closure of Dadaab refugee camp”
Amnesty International welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement today that it will finally ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which it signed in 2009 but had not committed to implementing until today. Ratification is an important step towards ensuring respect for the rights and dignity of all people held in detention under …
Continue reading “Government commits to prevent future #DonDale”
Dylan Voller, a boy who was tortured at Don Dale detention centre, has been released on bail from prison eight months early, to participate in a youth rehabilitation program. What happened? Dylan Voller shot to national attention as one of the young boys abused and tortured by NT juvenile detention centre guards, as exposed by …
Continue reading “Good news: Dylan Voller released early on bail”
On 21 January Danilo Maldonado Machado (also known as ‘El Sexto’) was released from El Combinado del Este, a maximum-security prison on the outskirts of Havana. Danilo Maldonado was arrested at his home in Havana the morning of 26 November 2016, hours after the announcement of Fidel Castro’s death. That same day, a Cuba-based newspaper …
Continue reading “Cuban graffiti artist El Sexto released from maximum-security prison”
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’”
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 …
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 …
