ADVOCACY
We marked World Environment Day 2024 by funding the planting of 150 fruit trees by farmers in Ethiopia! It's our own litle way towards ensuring the future of food sustenance in a country that needs it most.
The Australian Human Rights Commission launched a new iteration of the Racism. It Stops With Me campaign today, calling on Australians who do not have lived experience of racism to reflect on its causes and do more to challenge it.
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The campaign includes a Community Service Announcement that will be broadcast on national television, which you can view here. We’re also launching a new Racism. It Stops With Me website, with information and resources to support action against racism.
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We hope this will create public discussion – because talking openly and honestly about racism is vital if we are to create meaningful change. But we need your help to make this happen.
We’re asking you to support the campaign and help raise awareness about the nature of systemic racism and inequality in Australia. You can do this in several ways:
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Download our Supporter Kit and share the content on your own social media accounts, or in your workplace and community.
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Register as a supporter of the Racism. It Stops With Me campaign to receive ongoing information about our anti-racism work, and ways to get involved.
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Like and comment on our posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The campaign invites all Australians to commit to learning about racism and taking action against it. It urges supporters to reflect on the inequality racism causes, and to work within your sphere of influence to create meaningful change.
You can also support the campaign by signing your organisation up as a supporter and joining a community of hundreds of other organisations committed to making change. We also have a range of merchandise available.
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No matter how challenging the conversation, we need to talk about racism and the causes of inequality.
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By taking a stand against racism, we can build a fair and equal society – for all.
Thank you for supporting the campaign and helping spread the message.
Chin Tan
Race Discrimination Commissioner
On 21 March 2021, His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Rtd) declared the Welcome Wall as Australia's National Monument to Migration.
The National Monument is one of the museum's most important and visible tributes to our migration heritage
Today's Australia has been shaped by migration. We've come from all the lands on earth to build this great country.
The museum collects the stories of migrants to Australia, and the National Monument is one of our most important and visible ways of recognising the people behind these stories.
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Over 30,000 names already appear on the 86 bronze panels that are joined together and run down the northern promenade of the museum, facing Pyrmont Bay.
Register to be part of the next special ceremony
You can honour a migrant – a loved one, a member of your family, yourself, or a new arrival – on Australia’s National Monument to Migration at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
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https://www.sea.museum/support/national-monument/register
Contact the National Monument Team
Phone: +61 (02) 9298 3777
Email: nationalmonument@sea.museum
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IGPSG PARTICIPATES IN DFAT AUS-VIETNAM AND
AUS-LAOS DIALOGUES
School children on the way to school in Laos
IGPSG President Dr Zeny Edwards and Senior Adviser Dr Keith Suter participated in the dialogues with DFAT regarding human rights problems in Vietnam and Laos. Crucial concerns were shared between advocacy groups and DFAT regarding specific situations including modern slavery and human trafficking, climate change, ethnic prejudice and racial discrimination, children's welfare and education, freedom of expression and unjustified incarcerations.
Zeny reiterated the value of being able to access important resources that enable IGPSG to learn more about the human rights issues affecting Vietnam and Laos and our commitment to continue to rely on them and civil society advocacies in finding out first hand information about what really happens in these countries.
Dr Keith Suter also represented IGPSG in the briefing of the the newly-appointed Ambassador to the UN, Amanda Gorley.
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The Aus-Laos Submission was made by Dr Edwards on behalf of the Australian Council of Human Rights Education where she is the immediate past president.
Aus-Vietnam Dialogue Submission
Aus-Laos Dialogue Submission in partnership with ACHRE
African Union-European Union 2022 Summit: Civil society declaration for a common sustainable future
IGPSG endorses the African Union–European Union summit during the French European Union Council Presidency to be held on 18 February 2022. The Summit is a crucial opportunity to develop a closer partnership between the neighbours, and build a common sustainable future.
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We are committed to promoting global governance to address inequality, socio-economic development, climate change, peace and security. Effective global governance can ensure all people have peaceful, dignified and prosperous lives.
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We therefore recognise the urgent need for a multilateral approach between Africa and the EU. The two continents face common challenges including COVID-19 and climate change, and share a common vision of a shared space of peace, democracy, human rights, security, mutual respect and solidarity.
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO THE SAME:
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https://www.wfm-igp.org/news/au-eu-declaration/
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Building Back Together and Greener
Twenty Initiatives for a Just, Healthy, and Sustainable Global Recovery
Strategies to promote timely, effective, and global joint action for a future that is healthy, sustainable, and leaves no one behind
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BY Richard Ponzio · Cristina Petcu · Joris Larik · Banou Arjomand · William Durch Editor
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September 21, 2021
As COVID-19 took its toll on lives and livelihoods, climate change was also altering daily life worldwide, with heat waves, droughts, wildfires, record rainstorms, and ruinous floods. The trillions of dollars devoted to pandemic economic stimulus by the world’s richest countries show that financing can be found to grapple with serious issues when political will is mustered, as it needs to be for climate as least as much as COVID-19. We need the will to battle COVID-19 and the climate crisis both, building toward a future for humanity that works with nature, not against it; that is broad-based and inclusive; and that is driven by creative ideas, clear goals, and urgent timelines. Twenty such ideas are presented in this report, which also advances a strategy to promote timely, effective, and global joint action, beginning with the United Nations and G20, to help build a broad consensus on, and then set out to build, a future that is healthy, sustainable, and leaves no one behind.
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“The COVID-19 pandemic once again reminds us: Global crises require global solutions. We must act together to end the pandemic. And we must not forget those who are affected by extreme poverty and hunger. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are, and will remain, our compass for a better world.”
— Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
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Read the full Report:
https://www.stimson.org/2021/building-back-together-greener/
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THE STIMSON CENTER
Engaging new voices, generating innovative ideas and analysis, and building solutions to promote international security, prosperity, and justice.
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Australian nuclear submarine plan ‘wrong direction at the wrong time’, Nobel prize-winning group says
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons warns the plan will isolate Australia from its regional neighbours who want a nuclear-free Pacific
Thu 16 Sep 2021 14.25 AEST
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Australia’s decision to build nuclear submarines will isolate Australia from its regional neighbours who have, for decades, pursued a nuclear-free Pacific, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) has said.
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While the Australian government and defence force have insisted the submarines will be nuclear-powered, and never nuclear-armed, Ican, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, argues that a military nuclear reactor built in Adelaide was a “foot in the door” towards weapons development.
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“As the world is moving towards making these weapons illegal, this is the wrong direction at the wrong time,” Gem Romuld, Australia Director of Ican, told Guardian Australia.
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Pacific anti-nuclear campaigners have reacted with disapproval, while the New Zealand government says Australia’s nuclear submarines will be banned from its nation’s waters.
Romuld said the decision to build and operate nuclear submarines, part of the broader Aukus security alliance announced by the US, UK and Australia on Thursday, had “no social licence”. She also warned it could make Adelaide a target for attack.
“This is not something the Australian people have agreed to,” she said.
“Important questions remain over construction of the submarines and the potential imposition of military nuclear reactors on Adelaide or other cities, making construction sites and host ports certain nuclear targets.
“Military nuclear reactors in Australia would present a clear nuclear weapons proliferation risk and become potential sites for nuclear accidents and radiological contamination long into the future.”
The Guardian understands Australia does not plan to build the submarines’ nuclear reactors domestically. Instead, the reactor modules would be delivered, sealed, to Australia from either the US or the UK, where they would be installed into the vessels.
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But Romuld said the nuclear submarine decision was “alarming” because it represented an escalating nuclearisation of Australia’s military capabilities; increasing military ties with nuclear weapons powers the UK and US; and a “shift towards nuclear interoperability at a time when the world has moved towards making these weapons illegal”.
In January this year, a global treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW), came into force, outlawing parties to the treaty from developing, testing, producing, possessing, or stockpiling nuclear weapons.
It is not supported by any of the world’s nine nuclear-armed states. Australia, also, does not support the treaty, relying on the deterrent effect of the US “nuclear umbrella”.
Australia, however, is a party to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which establishes a nuclear weapons free zone in the South Pacific.
Prime minister Scott Morrison said the Aukus security alliance, and the adoption of nuclear submarines, was not a step towards nuclear weapons development.
“Let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability.
“And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.”
A joint statement from Morrison, US president Joe Biden, and UK prime minister Boris Johnson, said: “the development of Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would be a joint endeavour between the three nations, with a focus on interoperability, commonality, and mutual benefit”.
Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly
Director: Andreas Bummel
Andreas is co-founder and director of the international Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA) and the Democracy Without Borders organization based in Germany.
The idea behind the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA) is to begin mitigating the “democratic deficit” at the UN by establishing an assembly of representatives from parliaments around the globe to advise the General Assembly. The hope is that the UNPA will evolve over time into a genuine elected global parliament, in a similar way to the European Parliament. The idea has been endorsed by the principal regional parliaments, the European Parliament, the Pan-African Parliament, and the South American Parliament MERCOSUR, but by very few national parliaments as yet.
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We endorse this campaign wholeheartedly. Bob Brown, the former leader of the Green party, has twice proposed in the Senate that the Australian parliament should endorse CEUNPA, but neither major party was willing to debate the issue seriously.
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“The best way to understand the UNPA proposal is to look at it not as a static model but as an institutionalized process that we would like to set into motion. We envision a UNPA to function as a catalyst for UN reform and to strengthen democracy and global governance over time”, Bummel said at the UN75 Global Governance Forum that was held from 16-18 September 2020 on the occasion of the opening of the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN).
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Urgent Appeal To Take Action for Afghanistan’s Scholars, Researchers, and Civil Society Advocates
The IGPSG has joined other institutions including higher education associations, networks, and leaders in the field of scholar protection to take immediate action to secure the lives and careers of Afghanistan’s scholars, students, and civil society actors. Many of the undersigned organisations are leaders in the field of provision of support to researchers and scholars at risk.
For the better part of the past twenty years scholars and civil society actors in Afghanistan have fought for a new, human rights-respecting, forward-looking, knowledge-based Afghanistan. Many have worked for or in partnership with EU institutions, NATO partners, European governments and other international and civil society organisations. Hundreds travelled to Europe to seek an education and returned to their homeland, dedicated to values of openness tolerance and free expression. These are not the values of the Taliban, so their lives are now at risk. Timely government action can still make an enormous difference.
We implore you to act on their behalf now to: • Continue evacuation flights for as long as possible so as to include scholars, students, and civil society actors who have supported the forward-looking, pluralist vision of Afghanistan that the EU, European governments, NATO partners and other international and civil society organisations embraced. Do not end flights until all are safely out who wish to leave the country. • Increase resettlement quotas to help those in need of international protection, including researchers, scholars, and civil society actors. Ensure international protection is provided to current Afghan protection applicants through an expedited process, and prioritise and expedite family reunification applications.
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WE’RE FOR ALL PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA
Amnesty works closely with Indigenous communities and people seeking asylum to fight discrimination, unfair detention and to demand safety and a fair justice system for all. We also have a very active women’s and LGBTQIA+ activist network campaigning on important gender and sexuality issues.
We put pressure on the Australian government to adopt laws that respect the human rights of all our citizens and to meet our international human rights obligations.