School Action Pack - May 2012

SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012

Stop executions of child offenders Act now for an Arms Trade Treaty Inside Australia’s detention centres Amnesty International Australia | www.amnesty.org.au

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012

Contents SECTION 01

01.1

Updates and news

SECTION 02

CAMPAIGNS 02.1 Act now for an Arms Trade Treaty 02.2 Our big win for homelands 02.3 Inside Australia’s detention centres 02.4 Stop the execution of child offenders

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CAMPAIGN ACTIONS: AT A GLANCE Campaign

Action

Target

Arms Trade Treaty

Sign a banana action card

Friends, classmates, teachers, parents

Homelands

Make a thank you card

Your local MP

Rethink refugees

Draw a self-portrait with a message

Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen

Individuals at risk

Write a letter for child offenders

Minister for Justice, Sudan

Cover: A child soldier, Ethiopia, 27 May 2007. Š Private

Amnesty International is part of the global movement defending human rights and dignity. We work with people in Australia and our region to demand respect for human rights and protect people facing abuse. We campaign, conduct research and raise money for our work. Our active members, such as school action groups, play a vital role in achieving our aims through writing letters, sending online actions, organising creative awareness-raising activities and fundraising in their communities.

UPDATES AND NEWS

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 01.1

ATT launch, Melbourne, 23 March 2012. © AI

ARMS TRADE TREATY – 100 DAYS AND COUNTING On 23 March Amnesty International activists from across the world came together to tell governments that the world needs a strong Arms Trade Treaty.

Throughout terms two and three students can participate in 100 days of action for an Arms Trade Treaty. There are lots of ways to get involved – see more in Section 02.1.

New Zealand activists hand out fresh bananas to raise awareness at an information stall, March 2012. © AI

RIVERSIDE’S MARKET DAY Riverside Girls High School’s Amnesty International action group (in Sydney, NSW) organised an Amnesty Market day on Thursday 5 April. The action group encouraged students to sign up to the Amnesty International website, take action online and donate. They handed out badges, stickers and balloons for donations and organised a cake stall.

Overall the action group raised over $650!

This term Riverside have been focusing on the refugee campaign. During an assembly they even conducted a flash mob, where they performed the refugee facts eg ‘The number of refugees who have arrived by boat who have been terrorists = zero’.

Well done Riverside!

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 01.1

“

“

Young people have the

I love working in an

capacity and the passion

environment where

to make such a difference

every day is devoted to

in the lives of those who

achieving human rights

face human rights abuses

and improving the lives

– not tomorrow but today.

of those who might not

I love inspiring them to

have a voice.

get educated on what’s

– Simone

going on in the world and how to get involved.

– Alex

Youth interns Alex (left) and Simone. © AI

MEET THE YOUTH INTERNS Alex Long and Simone O’Connor are part of our new youth program for over-18s, based in Sydney.

Alex is a long-time supporter of Amnesty International and has just come back from a year travelling in Europe. She is putting her background as a high school teacher to good use by working on resources to bring human rights into the classroom.

Simone has started her Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University after finishing a Bachelor of International Studies at Wollongong University. Simone developed her passion for social justice after volunteering in community development in Cambodia. She is currently developing exciting workshops for school students.

CAMPAIGNS : INFORMATION AND ACTION

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.1

Act now for an Arms Trade Treaty THE UNITED NATIONS AND AN ARMS TRADE TREATY It can be confusing talking about global treaties, international meetings and complex issues. Here is a rundown on what the United Nations (UN) does in creating international laws and regulations and how they decide on global treaties.

The UN aims to create the world as it should be – just, fair, equal rights for all ... the list goes on. The UN is made up of 193 member governments – nearly all of the world’s countries. These governments come together at the UN to discuss important global issues and try to reach common ground about what standards all countries should follow. This is the way that international law and global treaties are made.

These international laws and treaties not only affect how countries behave with other countries but also how governments treat their own people.

For this to happen, each country’s government also needs to incorporate international law into national laws.

Confused? Imagine that there is a neighbourhood with lots of different houses.

People from each house meet and decide the rules they want for their community. Every house must then commit to following these rules. The people from each house not only need to follow these common standards with other households but also with their own household members.

A box of ammunition captured in South Kordofan, Sudan, July 2011. © Private

Munitions (mostly 155mm shells and fuses) abandoned by Gaddafi’s retreating forces, Ajdabiya, Libya, 26 March 2011. © AI

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.1

What is the Arms Trade Treaty?

The Arms Trade Treaty is a global treaty that aims to restrict how weapons are traded between countries, including countries in that weapons pass through to reach another country.

The UN will decide at a special negotiating conference in July whether or not the world needs a global Arms Trade Treaty. Seeing that millions of people are being killed, injured, raped or forced to flee their homes due to conflict or armed violence, it is definitely time the world got an Arms Trade Treaty.

What is Amnesty International calling for?

We are calling for the strongest Arms Trade Treaty possible – one with human rights protection at its core. This type of Arms Trade Treaty would: 1. Include the Golden Rule on human rights The Golden Rule means that weapons should not be traded with countries that are likely to use these weapons to commit serious human rights abuses.

This includes systematic killings, mass rape, forcible recruitment of children as soldiers.

2. Be comprehensive The treaty needs to cover all weapons, bullets, small arms, missiles, aircraft and tracking systems. It must include all export and import, as well as weapons that are in transit, for example when shipments of weapons stop in a country for re-fuelling.

3. Be enforceable

ACT NOW>> Fill out the banana action card and add your voice to the call for an Arms Trade Treaty – remember to photocopy it so your friends can take action too.

Please send to youth@amnesty.org.au or Youth Coordinator, Amnesty International Locked Bag 23, Broadway NSW 2007 Got more time?

In Australia we are able to play and hang out in parks without the risk of armed violence. Organise a lunchtime picnic and gather students, teachers and parents together and talk to them about why a strong Arms Trade Treaty is important. Don’t forget to ask them to sign a banana card – email us at youth@amnesty.org.au for a stack.

Any other ideas?

In the next 100 days you can do lots of different things: hold a stall with banana action cards hanging off a banana tree, speak at your assembly or do something else. You are only limited by your creativity.

Need some help? Email youth@amnesty.org.au or contact your Schools Network Outreach member.

The Arms Trade Treaty must be enforceable otherwise it will be nothing more than a piece of paper. Governments need to check up on each other (peer review); there must be public reporting on who is selling what, to whom, and which countries are allowing these cargoes to pass through their country; and there must be streamlined processes so countries can easily monitor the arms trade.

CASE STUDY :: SYRIA As of January 2012, Amnesty International has obtained the names of 4,345 people who have been killed in the Syrian authorities’ crackdown. We have continued to work on the Syrian unrest as part of our crisis work. Last year students took action for Syria, asking the authorities to respect human rights. You can continue to help out the Syrian people by supporting the Arms Trade Treaty.

Khaled-Al-Hamedh On 31 July 2011, 21-year-old construction worker Khaled al-Hamedh left his home in the city of Hama to buy medicine for his four-year-old brother. He never came home. Several hours later family members found his crushed body with a bullet wound in his back – clear evidence of the devastating impact that weapons in the wrong hands can create.

The Russian Federation is reportedly Syria’s biggest arms supplier.

According to various reports, Russia supplies an estimated 50 per cent to 70 per cent of Syria’s weapons.

Khaled’s story would have been different if we had a strong Arms Trade Treaty. The Syrian Government could not have legally received weapons from Russia.

A dawn candlelit vigil to mark the one year anniversary of Syria’s uprisings, Sydney, 15 March 2012. © Hamish Gregory/AI

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.1

UK 7%

GERMANY 7%

CHINA 6%

FRANCE 6%

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74 per cent of the world’s weapons are supplied by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, one of the most influential countries in the European Union.

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Worldwide arms deliveries by supplier, according to value

Source: Congressional Research Service, 22 September 2011

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.1

ACT NOW Sign our global petition and demand that all governments stand up for a Treaty with strong human rights protection rules at the UN negotiations in July 2012.

Hi, I am __________________________ (first name)

__________________________ (last name)

I call on every government to set up an Arms Trade Treaty that effectively prevents arms from fuelling serious human rights abuses or war crimes. Additionally, I call on the Australian Government to demonstrate increased leadership in the Asia-Pacific region and amongst all UN Member States to support such a Treaty.

______________________ (signature)

Thank you, we will add your name to the global petition. ________________________ ________________________ (email)

_________________________ (school)

__________________________ (school postcode)

_________________________ (date of birth)

Please leave us your contact details and we will update you on the campaign and/or for marketing purposes.

We will not send on your other details.

CAMPAIGNS : INFORMATION AND ACTION

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.2

Our big win for homelands Last year Amnesty International launched a new report about homelands and their significance to Aboriginal Peoples. Titled The land holds us: Aboriginal Peoples’ right to traditional homelands in the Northern Territory, the report highlights how intrinsic homelands are to Aboriginal Peoples’ health, culture, families and livelihoods.

Since last year, students have been supporting the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr Peoples to remain on their homelands. Thanks to your support, the government understood that people care about homelands and that they want to see access to equitable funding, infrastructure and basic services for the people who live on homelands. At the end of term one the Federal and Northern Territory governments announced a $221 million, long-term funding commitment to Aboriginal homelands.

While the government’s commitment is a positive first step, we need to ensure that funding is equitable and that it means that infrastructure and services can be improved.

The money itself is a continuation of the level of funding for homelands between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments. But it is also a continuation of the status quo, which we’ve demonstrated is inadequate. Homelands are still getting a tiny fraction of the overall government spend in the NT.

Top: A signpost showing the way to some of the 16 communities on the Utopia homelands. © AI. Photo: April Pyle Mddle: Aleyak (teenage) girls Rianna Ross and Christalin Jones at the Utopia Health Service. © AI. Photo: Chloe Geraghty Main image: From left: Rosiah Jones Kngwarrey, Justin Long Pwerl and Ethan Jones Kngwarrey from Soapy Bore, hunting along an ilpay (creekbed) on the Utopia homelands. © AI. Photo: April Pyle

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.2

ACT NOW>>

i Homelands are the traditional lands that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have a deep connection to. By raising families on their homelands, Aboriginal Peoples are able to maintain their relationship with land and culture and have control over their lives.

Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected to represent the interests of the people in their electorate. So, your region’s MP is elected to listen to you and take your ideas to parliament.

Make a thank you card for your local MP. Thank them for their commitment to homelands and ask them to continue to respect homelands in their decision-making.

You can find out who your local MP is by going to http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/ourgovernment/government-in-australia-faq Some guidelines for your thank you card: 1. Introduce yourself.

2. Tell your local MP how much you welcome the homelands funding announcement and the recognition of the importance of homelands.

3. Mention that you’d like to see a commitment to ensure homelands are included in all future policies including health, education and infrastructure.

4. Ask them not to abandon homelands.

Send us your card, with the name of your local MP or where you are from and we will forward them on your behalf.

Top: Sunset over the Utopia homelands. © AI. Photo: April Pyle Right: Sisters Myrtle, Violet and Kathryn Petyarr at Mosquito Bore on the Utopia homelands. © AI. Photo: April Pyle

CAMPAIGNS : INFORMATION AND ACTION

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.3

Inside Australia’s detention centres Our refugee campaign coordinator Alex Pagliaro is back from visiting some of Australia’s most remote detention centres with some shocking tales. The two-week research trip covered detention facilities on Christmas Island, Curtin in WA and Wickham in Darwin. Our findings confirm what we’ve known all along: long-term, indefinite detention is crushing people.

You can find lots of information about the detention centre tour online, including video blogs from Alex. Go to www.amnesty.org.au/refugees.

Remember to check with your teacher or parents first as some of the stories are upsetting.

CASE STUDY :: SYED AND FATIMA* Syed, Fatima and their two sons have been at the Christmas Island detention centre for two months. They left Afghanistan in 1999 when civil violence spread and the country became unsafe. The family fled to Pakistan and established a business.

Unfortunately the Pakistani Government started to become less tolerant of refugees. Syed and Fatima’s children were banned from attending school. Then in 2010, the Taliban kidnapped their eldest son. Fearing for the lives of their younger sons, the family fled again.

The family is yet to start the formal process of applying for asylum, despite being in Australian territory for more than 70 days. They do not know when this will begin or when they will be transferred to the mainland. They know that applying for refugee status could take months or years, and are worried that their children will not receive a proper education while they wait.

Fatima is grateful for the safety her family has found in Australia. When asked if there are any problems with their conditions on Christmas Island, she said that sometimes her children feel lonely and bored in the small compound. She understood that on such a small island activities and excursions are limited but said that young boys need space to play.

Syed said, “Everything is for my family. If I die, no problem. But my wife and children, they must have a life”. *Names and details of origin have been changed to protect identities.

Above right: An action for Amnesty International’s campaign to release migrant children from detention. “Kids don’t belong in detention centres” says the t-shirt of one young campaigner in Australia. January 2005. © AI Other images: Curtin detention centre. © AI

Other developments Amnesty International recently helped release a report on children in detention around the world – children just like Fatima and Syed’s. The report, Captured Childhood, details the horrors faced by the tens of thousands of children detained around the world, 500 of whom are in Australia. It asks governments to end child detention and outlines an alternative that is more humane and less expensive.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.3

ACT NOW>> Draw a self-portrait with a message saying why, as a young person, you don’t think you should be in detention. We will deliver your message to the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen.

Got more time?

We are inviting schools to help celebrate Refugee Week by participating in Walk Together. This event involves thousands of Australians uniting on Saturday 23 June to walk in solidarity with asylum seekers, refugees and other new Australians and celebrating Australia’s history of welcoming people to our shores. It will take place in every capital city and some regional areas – for more information contact youth@amnesty.org.au

Message:

CAMPAIGNS : INFORMATION AND ACTION

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.4

Stop the execution of child offenders in Sudan Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed and Ibrahim Shareef Youssif from Darfur, Sudan, have been sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were children.

Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed and Ibrahim Shareef Youssif are part of a group tried for carjacking in May 2010. The group, allegedly affiliated with the Darfurian armed opposition group, included another two men who were also children when the alleged crime happened.

In Sudan many people do not have birth certificates, so courts at times rely on medical examinations to establish people’s ages. The other two men were medically tested to prove they were minors, but Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed and Ibrahim Shareef Youssif were not.

They were therefore placed in adult detention facilities and tried and convicted as adults.

i Abdelrazig Daoud

The application of the death penalty to a child is forbidden by Sudan’s 2010 Child Act and by Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Sudan is a state party.

Abdessed and Ibrahim

Although the Supreme Court in Sudan’s capital Khartoum ordered a retrial because children were involved, in November 2011 the Special Criminal Court in North Darfur upheld the death sentences.

prison awaiting execution.

Shareef Youssif remain in

Above: Stills grab from a sand art video produced by Amnesty International Korea that highlights the death penalty. © AI Left: Death Penalty action at Amnesty International’s International Council Meeting, Mexico, 15 August 2007. © AI

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ACTION PACK MAY 2012 | SECTION 02.4

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Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed and Ibrahim Shareef Youssif are facing the death penalty for crimes committed when they were children. You can help save their lives by writing a letter to the Sudanese Minister of Justice urging him to commute their death sentences.

Some key points for your letter: •

Call for Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed and Ibrahim Shareef Youssif to be retried in proceedings that meet international standards of juvenile justice.

•

State that international human rights law and standards and the Sudanese 2010 Child Act prohibit the execution of children.

•

State that you oppose the death penalty as it is a violation of the right to life and an ultimately cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment.

•

Ask that all death sentences be stopped.

Please make your letter polite and respectful.

Address your letter to: Minister of Justice Mohammed Bushara Dousa Sudan Salutation: Your Excellency Please send your letters to: Amnesty International Att: Youth Coordinator Locked Bag 23 Broadway, NSW 2007 We will collect your letters and send them on.

Jabbar Savalan at home immediately after his release, 26 December 2011. © IRFS