Thursday, September 25, 2008

Nominations for the HREOC Human Rights Awards

The HREOC Human Rights Awards recognize the efforts and commitment of everyday Australians committed to defending Human Rights. There are 9 categories of awards including the Human Rights Medal, Young People's Human Rights Medal, Community (individual) Award, Community (ORganisation)Award as well as awards for human rights work in the fields of Law, Literature (non-fiction), Print Media, Television and Radio.

You can nominate yourself or others for these awards by visiting www.humanrights.gov.au/hr_awards or by telephoning 02 9284 9618.

Nominations close on the 3rd of October.

NSW Training programs

The NSW Training program is kicking off tonight with the Website and online campaign training. See below for details of other training workshops over the next 2 months. Please rsvp for training workshops to ruby_johnson@amnesty.org.au

Tuesday 7th October - 6:00 – 7:30
Event organising and excel training

Amnesty International Activism training coordinator ‘Naomi Alexander’ will be delivering an event management workshop, joined by Sarah Fusco’ presenting a brief introduction to excel. All people who are organising an event to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights are strongly encouraged to come along. This workshop will build upon existing event coordination skills and consider how events can have a better human rights impact.

Saturday 18th October 11-2pm
Economic, social and cultural rights training
by Anoushka Perram (NSW BC & Convener of the Legal Network)
More details TBC RSVP Essential

Please note: confirmed details of training for the 21st of October and 5th of November will be published in the October Events newsletter and on the website.

International Day Against the Eradication of Poverty Friday 17th October

Amnesty International Australia has joined the Make Poverty History Coalition and will be participating in Stand Up Against Poverty from 17 - 19 October. Last year, 43.7 million people stood up to remind governments of the commitments they made to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals. This set a new Guinness World Record. Lets try and break that record. Please stay tuned for details regarding the major event in Sydney and a blog that will be posted on the National Website.

16 days and Lobbying around the National Plan of Action

With the Federal Government committing the creation of a National Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 16 days of Activism presents an important opportunity to get active in your community and influence change.

To mark the 16 days of activism we will be encouraging activists to participate in a strategic lobbying of their local MPs and hold events strategically within the electorates that we are lobbying. To prepare people for this process we will be running a short training night on how to engage with the process.

Please let us know if you have any specific connections with your local MP or an electorate in your area. Stay tuned for the action kit and more details of how you get involved!

World Day Against the Death Penalty Friday 10th October

World Day against the Death Penalty is approaching rapidly and there are lots of great actions people can do to get involved. This year our focus will be on Vietnam and Indonesia, so stay tuned for on-line actions. We have also just received a new death penalty campaign toolkit so please let us know if you need some of these for the day.

To mark the 10th of October the Anti-Death Penalty Network and activists from the NSW region will be meeting at the QVB (town hall end) from 12:30pm – 2:00pm to take part in a collective action. We will be laying out the flags of countries that still have the death penalty and asking people to sign actions on prisoners of conscience on death row in Vietnam and Indonesia. 136 down 60 to go! Join other activists to stand up against the death penalty. Pledge your participation by emailing nswaia@amnesty.org.au or calling 8396 7670.

We are also asking all groups, networks and activists to help cover Sydney with Amnesty ‘Stop the executions’ posters. Please drop past the action centre and pick up some of these posters and tape if you are interested in helping out. Alternatively let us know ASAP if you need us to send them out in the mail.

Good News - U Win Tin

Amnesty International welcomes the release of at least seven prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, including U Win Tin who has been imprisoned for 19 years and was one of longest serving political prisoners in the country. Activists and local groups in NSW and across the country have worked continually on this case and its great to see all that hard work has had a powerful human rights impact.

With 21000 political prisoners remaining behind bars it is important to continue putting pressure on the Myanmar authorities. In the next week, two action postcards for political prisoners ‘Ma Khin Khin Leah’ and Ma Khin Khim Leh’. Contact the action centre if you would like some of these postcard actions.