AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GET ACTIVE! HOW YOU CAN DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS

Who is Amnesty International? Defend human rights We campaign for a world where HR are enjoyed by everyone. A world in which everyone’s rights are respected as enshrined in the UDHR and other HR standards. A worldwide movement of people, working to promote and protect human rights. World’s largest human rights organisation. 7 million people in 150 countries. Our collective voice is our most powerful asset, our campaigns are won largely based on the strength of our grassroots activism, it lets abusers know the world is watching. Impartial – form all political parties and ideologies, economic interests, religions. Diverse and democratic movement – all the power in our movement comes from members. We have a record of real achievement. Sustained research, advocacy, and activism results in prisoners of conscience being released. Death sentences are commuted. Torturers are brought to justice. Example, death penalty: When we started in 1961, only 9 countries had abolished state executions. Now 140 countries (two-thirds) have stopped using the death penalty.

We are a movement that creates change. How do we create change? Our theory of social change involves 3 aspects. Research: we search out the facts and expose what is happening. Our experts do accurate, cross-checked research into human rights violations by governments and others world wide. Amnesty International’s research is recognised globally for its reliability. We are consulted by governments, inter-governmental organisations, journalists, scholars and other human rights, organisations and campaigning groups. (QLD link) We lobby governments and decision makers to advocate for change and influence them to do the right thing (QLD link) We campaign and conduct mass mobilisation through petitions, letters, protests, engaging with the media (ask people what tactics they can think of?) (QLD link) We’re the only human rights organisation in the world that does all 3, which is why we have such success (QLD link)

Our current campaigns

Campaigning Outcomes Defend human rights We campaign for a world where HR are enjoyed by everyone. A world in which everyone’s rights are respected as enshrined in the UDHR and other HR standards. A worldwide movement of people, working to promote and protect human rights. World’s largest human rights organisation. 7 million people in 150 countries. Our collective voice is our most powerful asset, our campaigns are won largely based on the strength of our grassroots activism, it lets abusers know the world is watching. Impartial – form all political parties and ideologies, economic interests, religions. Diverse and democratic movement – all the power in our movement comes from members. We have a record of real achievement. Sustained research, advocacy, and activism results in prisoners of conscience being released. Death sentences are commuted. Torturers are brought to justice. Example, death penalty: When we started in 1961, only 9 countries had abolished state executions. Now 140 countries (two-thirds) have stopped using the death penalty.

Example of local activism - Manly Amnesty From Left to right + Bottom The Manly Amnesty action group celebrated their 30th Anniversary last year. 30 years of campaigning in their local community. Over the years they have worked on many issues including providing better protection to people seeking safety, campaigning to improve the rights of women in Afghanistan and most recently putting pressure on their local state MP and our Premier to reduce the number of Indigenous kids being imprisoned. June 2015 - CIE campaign launch July 2015 - Strategy meeting in Manly > Manly was going to be a key action group for this campaign because they were in the electorate of state premier, Mike Baird. we knew Mike liked twitter, we knew he was part of St matthews church July 2015 - Public event to discuss CIE called Yarn at Yardham July 2015 - Stall on CIE Sep 2015 - Stall on CIE Sep 2015 - Meeting with Baird’s senior advisor Oct 2015 - Screening of Indigenous rights film screening in local area > invited local church and had rep from local NRL team as guest speaker Oct 2015 - Twitter Action targetting Mike Baird Dec 2015 - Sent 5319 signatures to Baird asking him to put youth justice on COAG agenda June 2016 - CIE stall 222 signatures Aug - Oct 2016 - trying to secure meeting with Baird himself Oct 2016 - CIE Stall 304 signatures post DonDale which enabled them to finally secure a meeting with Baird 6 Dec - Meeting with Baird - 6 Manly group members went to talk through their local activism, their concerns around the imprisonment rates of Aboriginal Kids. This all happened three days before the Council of Australian Governments meeting on 9 Dec - at this meeting the Prime Minister and state/territory leaders come together to discuss issues of shared concern. This year Youth Justice was on the agenda and Baird had the loud voices of his local constituents in his ear.

This is everything we are about here locally - it’s about bringing passionate local people together - people who are in this room today - and connecting them with each other. If we can better coordinate, share our skills, resources and experiences then we can achieve more change.

Getting Involved Locally CONNECT WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE IN YOUR AREA AND BE PART OF THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND OUR MOVEMENT WHAT ARE OUR GOALS AND IDEAS?

WHAT’S NEXT? Events in your local area: https://www.amnesty.org.au/events/ Key Dates, Campaign Info and Training: https://www.amnesty.org.au/activism-planner/ Local Plans:

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