2016 Projects

Refugee Camp in My School

A simulated refugee camp, providing high school students with the opportunity to experience what a camp feels like and the many challenges and difficulties refugees face, and to dispel myths and stereotypes. The project will be run by the Gymea Community Aid & Information Service (NSW) in conjunction with Kirrawee and Caringbah High Schools.

Freedom Stories

This documentary film tells the intertwining stories of twelve ‘boat people’ who are now Australian citizens. Amnesty’s grant assisted the development of the documentary as an educational tool for use in school and community settings. Working with the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) and educational distributor Ronin Films, Freedom Stories is now on DVD with an accompanying study guide.

Rights of Indigenous Peoples Memes

Kalinya Commications partner with Luke Pearson, founder of ground-breaking Twitter account @IndigenousX, to develop, design and promote shareable social media content to make the Declaration of Indigenous Human Rights accessible to a broad audience via tweets, GIFs and images.

1000 Days

Barberry Films have received a grant for a short film composed entirely of content shot on mobile phones on Manus Is. and/or Nauru, focusing on what the subjects had dreamt of during the last 100 days – to study, start a family, to find a job in their profession or merely to feel safe and valued.

Integrity 20

Integrity 20 is an annual 3-day event that examines some of the greatest global issues of our time. With human rights and global insecurity at the heart of the 2016 program, Amnesty provided funds to bring two international human rights activists to speak – Ma Thida, a Burmese surgeon, write, human rights activist and a former prisoner of conscience, and Rafael Marques de Marais, a multi-award winning human rights activist, and investigative journalist.

FUSE 2016

Amnesty’s grant provided support for 10 delegates from WA, NT and Tasmania to attend this national 3 day summit hosted by the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) Australia. FUSE 2016 will bring together emerging young leaders from refugee/asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds to develop and apply their advocacy and leadership skills, build human rights awareness, engage with MPs and decision-makers, and develop action plans for active citizenship and local, state and national levels.

Home Among the Gun Trees NSW

This program offers brief holidays for Sydney-based asylum seekers and their families with Australian families in country and regional NSW, who offer friendship and hospitality. Amnesty’s grant will enable this volunteer group to develop and expand their network of support groups throughout rural and coastal areas of NSW.

2015 Projects

Behind The Wire

Bringing a new perspective to the public understanding of mandatory detention, this project will document the stories of men, women and children who have experienced mandatory detention in Australia over the past 22 years. The oral histories will be acquired by the Immigration Museum of Victoria, with further interactive digital designed as an education resource.

Crossing Borders Monash

Crossing Borders Monash is an initiative by medical students to remove barriers and advance health standards of refugees and asylum seekers. The annual Victorian Refugee health Symposium, aims to equip medical students with the knowledge and skills required to give the best possible care to refuges and asylum seeker patients.

Community is Everything

The following two projects were funded by the Human Rights Innovation Fund as part of Amnesty’s Indigenous Youth Justice campaign, Community is Everything, which aims to end the over-representation of Indigenous young people in detention within a generation.

Justice Reinvestment

Support for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency for the production of a short animated film about Justice Reinvestment (JR) and its application to Indigenous youth offending and incarceration. The film will be used to educate Indigenous community members about the approach of JR and its use to reduce levels of imprisonment of Indigenous youth.

Diversion from Detention

One girls’ and one boys’ camp for teenagers identified by community leaders, the school and local police as being particularly at risk of being detained by the juvenile justice system. The camps will be run by the Mowanjum Aboriginal Corporation in conjunction with experts from the WA Derby community, the Boab network and Indigenous leaders.

2014 Projects

Sarah Holcombe

This funding was granted to enable two Indigenous translators from Papunya to travel to Canberra to translate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the Pintupi-Luritja — a central Australian Aboriginal dialect of the Western Desert language group, and the first language of about 2000 people. The Declaration set a world record in 2009 for being the most translated document in the world, and this is the first translation into an Australian Aboriginal dialect.

The completed translation was published on the United Nations website and distributed to schools, youth programs, police, and regional land councils in Central Australia.

Football United NSW

Support for the International Human Rights Day Football Festival, a project to promote awareness and understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Amnesty International’s role and activities among disadvantaged and diverse youth from eight high schools in Sydney’s Southwest and West.

A Fairer World, Tas

Key infrastructure support for the Hobart Human Library, an exciting and innovative international human rights program. Established by a joint collaboration of a diverse group of diversity/human rights organisations, it is essentially a living library, with people rather than books, who tell their stories to school children or individuals at public events and festivals.

Apollo Bay Rural Australians for Refugees, Vic

A multi-day human rights Festival of Hope during Refugee Week in Apollo Bay, which will combine the creative arts with lively debate and information, with a particular focus on celebrating the contributions of refugees and asylum seekers to the community.

2012

Racing Pulse Productions

The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe is a theatre work based on the personal stories of four African women, addressing the effects of trauma, what it means to be a survivor of horrific abuse while attempting to build a new life in a new country.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (SA) Inc

Production and wide distribution of a 2013/14 Aboriginal Treaty Calendar which will carry significant Aboriginal dates and promote a range of Reconciliation and human rights issues.

Amnesty International groups in Western Australia

A human rights and cultural diversity musical event to be held at the Fremantle Arts Centre in November 2012. Songs for Freedom will be supported by Amnesty’s refugee network, its school and local groups, the Association for Services to Torture and Trauma Survivors, the Refugee Rights Action Network and other refugee support and community groups.

Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation

Production of 3-5 minute ‘diary entry style’ audio segments for radio broadcast. Radio Diaries – Walk In Our Shoes aims to achieve a practical impact on the right to culture of Indigenous people, by capturing different experiences and aspects of the daily lives of Indigenous diarists, drawn from a diverse cross-section of the Indigenous population in Darwin.


2013

Jubilee Australia

With Rio Tinto wanting to re-open the Panguna Mine, two Bougainvilleans from the region of the mine will come to Australia to raise awareness of the past abuses of human rights, land appropriation, poisoned rivers, village relocations and social disruption which took place before the mine closed in 1989.

Purple Heart Productions, Vic

Funds to complete a feature length documentary which follows the West Papuan Freedom Flotilla journey to Indonesia, to draw attention to the 50-year long genocide of West Papuan people.

Mercy Family Services – Romero Centre, Qld

Support for the Intercultural Dialogue segment of a larger participatory media project and intercultural leadership forum for young people titled Brave New Welcome, which will promote the voices of young people in the human rights agenda across multiple sectors in Queensland.

ARTillery, SA

An Amnesty International initiative now running in several states, which combines art and action on human rights. ARTillery in SA launches with an outdoor concert and a ‘Write for Rights’ campaign to mark International Human Rights Day.

Peace and Conflict Studies Institute Australia

To support the Community Café Dialogues program which provides an innovative and creative environment to encourage meaningful conversations about challenging issues, involving members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, migrant and refugee, new, emerging and firmly established communities in Brisbane.

Nyoongar Tent Embassy, WA

Workshops to build human rights dialogue and discussion amongst Nyoongar people covering native title, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Nyoongar sovereignty, WA legislation and the work of Amnesty International.

Women’s Legal Services NSW

To produce a smartphone ‘App’ designed to support and complement the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010–2022 by empowering the community to voice their concerns and ideas.

NSW Reconcilation Council

Funds to enable the inclusion of a human rights strand in each of four workshops as part of the Wreck Bay reconciliation festival in November 2013.

The Bahraini Australian Youth Movement

Public seminars and meetings will be organised with interest groups for Rula al Saffar, President of Bahrain Nursing Society, to raise awareness and build solidarity with Bahrain’s ‘forgotten Arab Spring’, which faces ongoing violent repression in Bahrain.

2010

All Together Now Inc.

Reducing Racism in Australian Families and Communities – a social media package to promote the rights and responsibilities of individuals as members of a tolerant, inclusive society. Will engage with young people and empower them to speak out about racism in a positive and courageous way.

Peace Brigades International – Australia

Human Rights Defenders at Risk – three high-profile public events specifically to build the membership of the Political Support Network, which provides crucial and highly organised advocacy and influence to enhance the protection of human rights defenders in PBI’s project countries – Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico and Nepal.

ActNow Theatre for Social Change

Safe and Free – development of script/performance and three pilot presentations to school students on bullying, using homophobia as a case study.

Central Land Council, the Urapuntja Aboriginal Corporation, Utoptia outstation residents and North East Arnhem Land homelands

More Than Bricks and Mortar – The issue of shelter and housing is a significant priority for Aboriginal peple in the NT, and this project will bring together two strong Aboriginal groups and leaders to meet, share and exchange their experiences and knowlege on housing and human rights issues.

Jagath Dheerasekara

Manuwangku: Our Country is Our Spirit – a mobile photo exhibition produced by Jagath Dheerasekara, documentary photographer and human rights defender, to engage the Australian public in support of the Aboriginal community of Muckaty (Manuwangkyu) to defend their country from radioactive waste dumping. The photo exhibition will give the Aboriginal communities’ affected a collective voice against the proposed waste dump. It will be toured by the Beyond Nuclear Initiative over three years.

Deaths in Custody Watch Committee of WA Inc

Build Communities Not Prisons: Justice Reinvestment – education and consultative forums and the formation of a WA Human Rights Community Justice Coalition to lobby government and other stakeholders on justice reinvestment. An approach to reduce prison and corrections spending and reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and strengthen communities.

Australians for native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR)

Success Stories: Aboriginal Communities in Control – publication of case studies of Indigenous community-led initiatives in the Northern Territory and other materials targeting policy and decision-makers, demonstrating the benefits of more evidence and human rights-based approaches rather than the predominant top-down interventions.

Australian Corporate Accountability Network, VIC

Launch of Australia’s first multi-disciplinary network of civil society organisations who will work collaboratively on projects that encourage greater corporate accountability for human rights abuses.

 2011

Just Sustainability Australia

JSA work broadly in the area of anthropogenic climate change and its human rights implications. The grant will enable two speakers, one from Asia and one from the Pacific, to address the current and likely future human rights impacts of climate change of Australia and countries in our region to audiences in several capital cities.

Mallee Family Care Incorporated

The Mildura Human Rights Festival – a range of activities in and near Mildura including film screenings and workshops, a civic reception and a human rights media campaign, all designed to increase awareness and knowledge of human rights in the community. On International Human Rights Day, 10th December, there will be an outdoor film and arts festival involving dancing, story-telling, poetry, music, visual arts and cooking!

Reconciliation South Australia

Funding to assist with the development of resources for an Adelaide and regional seminar series, part of the 90%+ Campaign. The seminars are designed to build conversations in the community about the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition within the Australian Constitution and the repeal of discriminatory clauses within it.

Hobart College Students Against Racism

Production of a DVD version of a proven successful student workshop on why people leave their homelands, the journey that brought them to Australia and settling in a new country. Additional resource materials and ideas for activities providing a teacher/student resource for Australian high schools.

Burma Campaign Australia

This project will raise awareness of the human rights crisis in Eastern Burma via street stalls in five capital cities, culminating in a photo petition to the Australian Government.

East Turkistan Australian Association

Support for an exhibition at the Migration Museum in South Australia about Uighur culture, history, the community’s contribution to Australia’s multicultural society and the human rights issues facing the Uighur.

Billard Learning Centre

Funding to assist this innovative learning facility near Beagle Bay in WA to prepare a life-affirming mural generated by participants in indigenous suicide-prevention summits.

2008

ACTNow Theatre for Social Change, SA

Right Act – Five political theatre workshops to empower and engage young people, enabling them to develop and utilise theatre for social change.

Banksia Gardens Community Centre, VIC

Stand Up and Be Counted – A series of human rights workshops, a story competition and publication, which uses human rights awareness to empower the community to take ownership of the challenges they face, helping them enact positive change.

Darfur Australia Network, VIC

Far to Here – A photographic exhibition by the Darfur community which shed light on how refugees from Darfur bridge the divide between memories of conflict and loss, knowledge of ongoing violence in their homeland, and beginning a new life in Australia.

Youth Arts Team, Youth Action Network Amnesty International, WA

ARTillery Youth Arts Festival – A creative celebration of human rights and the arts in honour of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included workshops, actions and performances.

2009

Larrakia National Aboriginal Corporation, NT

Human Rights Flavoured Citizen Journalism – training 15 Indigenous young people to use creative digital media in order to foster a community of interest in human rights in the Top End.

Voice of Women Organisation (Australia) Association, SA

National speaking tour – A national speaking tour by Suraya Pakzad, a globally-recognised human rights activist who founded the Voice of Women Organsation NGO in the then Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 1998.

Glow Worm Productions, VIC

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, a documentary film providing a visceral insight into the terrible and frightening journey of an asylum seeker from detention in Indonesia to Australia.

Banksia Gardens Community Centre, VIC

Stand Up and Be Counted: Youth Educate for Hume’N’Rights in Schools is a pilot program introducing human rights education into Victorian secondary schools.

Humanitarian Crisis Hub, VIC

Communities with Power is a project which aimed to increase and improve the capacity of community-based groups, to collaborate and campaign on human rights protection in international humanitarian emergencies.

Friends of ‘Comfort Women’ in Australia, VIC

Our fund gave an opportunity for the group to invite a ‘Comfort Women’ survivor from Korea to Australia, to speak to Australian MPs in support of the passage of a parliamentary motion on this issue.

Featured projects

Bright young multicultural leaders

Don’t judge a book by its cover!

Reconciliation is a multi-layered process

Living in between: diversity education through storytelling

Bearing Witness: Promoting nonviolence and protecting human rights defenders

Sunraysia Human Rights Week

Giving Racism The Finger

Building communities, not prisons

A Better Way: Success stories in Aboriginal community control in the Northern Territory

Suraya Pakzad - Voice of Women Organisation Afghanistan

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