In response to universities’ orders to dismantle Gaza Solidarity encampments, Amnesty International Australia urges universities to protect and support students’ rights to peaceful and safe protest on campus. Amnesty International Australia stands in solidarity with student protests and urges universities to uphold their campuses as spaces where freedom of expression, academic freedom, and the right to peaceful assembly are embraced, safeguarded, and protected. “University campuses should be spaces for academic freedom, open debate, and the right to protest,” says Mohamed Duar, Occupied Palest ..read more

Despite repeated calls on Israel from heads of state, UN officials and humanitarian NGOs to refrain from expanding its ground offensive to Rafah, Israeli troops entered the governorate on May 7. Over 1.5 million people, including 600,000 children, are at serious risk; more than 450,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel first issued unlawful “evacuation orders” there on May 6. While the Israeli army has already taken control of urban areas inside Rafah, the issuance of new “evacuation orders” on May 11 is setting the stage for further advancement of the military invasion, which will lea ..read more

Amnesty International Australia calls for governments, police, and universities to respect student’s right to protest. Amnesty International Australia stands in solidarity with students courageously protesting Australian universities’ associations with the Israeli military and government and against the human rights catastrophe being inflicted on the civilians of Gaza. Amnesty International has documented a series of war crimes perpetrated by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) against civilians and has repeatedly expressed grave concerns at the International Court of Justice’s finding that Israel ..read more

The 15th of May marks the forced expulsion and displacement of 700,000 thousand Palestinians during the conflict that created the State of Israel in 1948. Since then, al Nakba (The Catastrophe), as it is known in Arabic, has been engraved in Palestinian collective consciousness as a story of relentless dispossession. The crimes that were committed in 1948 draw haunting parallels to the action that Israeli forces have been committing in Palestine in recent months. This year on the 76th anniversary of al Nakba we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Al Nakba and its legacy During the ..read more

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE 10 MAY 2024 The Israeli authorities’ demolition on 8 May 2024 of 47 homes in Wadi al-Khalil, an unrecognized Palestinian/Bedouin village in the Negev/Naqab, without proper consultation or compensation underscores the urgency to dismantle Israel’s apartheid system, said Amnesty International today. The demolition orders against the Abu Assa neighbourhood in Wadi al-Khalil were issued by Israeli planning authorities in 2019 to make way for the extension of the route of Highway6 southwards. The demolitions, the highest in a single day since the demolitions of ..read more

Responding to the recent ground invasion in Rafah, Amnesty International Australia’s Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel Spokesperson, Mohamed Duar said: “The horrifying escalation in Rafah risks catastrophe for 1.5 million Gazans already at grave risk of genocide. “No one and nowhere is safe. Palestinians have already suffered unspeakable horrors under constant bombardment and been displaced multiple times. Over a million people in Rafah once again face forced displacement, with no safe haven in sight. People in Rafah are already facing dire living conditions, where starvation is weap ..read more

After another year of defending human rights around the world, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, shares her reflection on 2023: I never expected the state of human rights to lead me to reference the 1980s sci-fi film Back to the Future. Yet here we are. A world spiralling through time, hurtling backwards past the 1948 promise of universal human rights, even as it spins ever faster forwards into a future overtaken by Big Tech and unregulated generative artificial intelligence (AI). Read more about the current state of human rights around the world “Authoritarian” pract ..read more

The Iraqi authorities’ passing of a law that penalizes same-sex relations with up to 15 years in prison is yet another blow to the LGBTI community in the country, said Amnesty International today. Responding to the news the organization’s Iraq Researcher, Razaw Salihy said: “LGBTI individuals in Iraq endure relentless intimidation and violence at the hands of armed actors who operate with absolute impunity hounding, maiming and killing people based on their real or perceived sexual orientation openly. “The latest amendments are an assault on human rights and represent an alarming escalation i ..read more

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE Two young Thai activists were today indicted on ‘groundless’ royal defamation and computer crime charges, Amnesty International has said. Niraphorn “Bie” Onnkhaow, an Amnesty International Digital Rights Champion who recently engaged with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, a prominent protest leader featured in Amnesty International’s 2021 Write for Rights campaign, were today indicted under the charges of lèse-majesté and violating Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act. “Today’s indictment shows that Thai authorities a ..read more

Amnesty International Australia is appalled with the lack of care and respect shown by NSW Police when investigating the deaths of First Nations cousins, Jacinta Rose ‘Cindy’ Smith and Mona Lisa Smith in 1987, after an inquest found that their deaths were not adequately investigated by detectives at the time due to racial bias. In 2022, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found that Coroners should be granted greater power to ensure recommendations made during an inquest were implemented. Amnesty International supports the finding of this inquiry and calls upon the Minns government to legislate this r ..read more