From: ChilOut [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, 7 June 2004 6:22 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: June 10 Countdown Special
JUNE 10 COUNTDOWN SPECIAL
THIS IS MUCH THE GREATEST THING WE HAVE EVER ATTEMPTED�.
With apologies to Winston Churchill, the Thursday, June 10th has to be the equivalent of our �D-DAY�.
What else can we do? The HREOC report, �A last resort?� has been handed down detailing numerous human rights abuses that have been perpetrated against innocent children through our policy of indefinite, mandatory detention.
We have been to war to �defend� the human rights of Iraqis yet the majority of the population is indifferent to human rights abuses being perpetrated, NOW, by our government, in our name.
Since 1999, children have been detained for increasingly longer periods of time. By the beginning of 2003, the average detention period for a child in immigration detention in Australia was fifteen and a half months. As at 26 December 2003, the average length of detention had increased to one year, eight months and 11 days.
This is not even counting Nauru, where the 74 detainee
children have been detained for at least 30 months or their whole life
(those born there).
The longest a child has ever been in immigration
detention is five years, five months and 20 days. This child and his
mother were released from Port Hedland detention centre on 12 May 2000, after
being assessed as refugees.
These children will NEVER get these months � and years - of childhood back.
�A last resort?� calls for the release of ALL children with their families from immigration detention centres within four weeks from the tabling of the report. It was tabled on June 13, 2004. Therefore all children should be released by June 10, 2004.
They won�t be.
On June 10, the whole refugee movement is mobilising to make the strongest, most visible protest we can � AND WE CAN�T DO IT WITHOUT YOU.
If you have any commitment to human rights, if you are at all affronted by what is happening to innocent children, if you want to send the right message to our children, don�t leave taking action to someone else. Please make the effort to register your opposition to an inhumane policy that institutionalises child abuse.
In Sydney, ChilOut, Amnesty and many other groups are gathering at Sydney Square (between the Town Hall and St Andrews Cathedral) from 4.00 pm on June 10. We will be addressed at 4.30 by such eminent Australians as Dr Louise Newman (Child Psychiatrist and Director of the NSW Institute of Psychiatry), Mr John Valder (former President of the Liberal Party), Sister Susan Connolly, leading politicians and religious dignatories of all major faiths. Some Afghan refugee children will talk about what detention was like.
We need as many children as possible to attend for a special ceremony and bell ringing from 4:30 - 5.00 p.m.
Put off homework for a couple of hours. If your child has an after-school activity, think about the 164 children who have no freedom for after school clubs or anything else. Get together with other parents and come in a group. Teachers, start getting permission slips ready� Boarding schools, get the school bus booked and come down in force. Everybody, make arrangements to leave work/college/uni early that day.
The more people we have, the more we highlight the ongoing detention of 164 children. Every time someone rings a bell, it is a reminder of the human rights of children in detention.
The bells at Town Hall, St Andrew�s Church and St Mary�s Cathedral will all ring out at 5pm. Church bells across Australia will do the same. 164 children will be symbolically �caged� and then released when the bells toll.
Get you and your kids there - with bells on!!!.
As ever, our website has all the details http://www.chilout.org/events/10June.html
If you can�t get into Central Sydney contact your local RAR (Rural Australians for Refugees) http://www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org and join whatever event they have planned.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
- Be there. Or if you really can�t, tell your friends and rellies in Sydney about it so they can come instead of you.
- Ask your church to join in the bellringing at 5pm on Thursday 10 June � a simple and effective way to raise the issue. Especially ask at city centre churches.
- Let your media contacts know about the event and tell them you expect to see it covered! Our press releases will be available on our website the day before. We have to get this issue in the mainstream consciousness.
- Could you � or someone you know � come and entertain the children while we are �mustering�? Please let us know on [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Contact your MP and make an appointment for June 10. You are likely to get one � it is election time - but they might not know what is so special about June 10. Before you get to see you MP check out RAR�s Pre-visiting Parliamentarians tips on http://www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org/action/lobbying_kit.doc
Remember, this is how we are breaching our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which we signed in 1990. We are failing a child�s right to:-
- Be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time
- Be protected from physical and mental violence
- Have their mental health and development promoted and protected
- Not be subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
- Enjoy the highest attainable standard of healthcare
- An appropriate education on the basis of equal opportunity
- A �full and decent life� for children with disabilities
- Receive special protection and assistance if unaccompanied
Minister Vanstone dismissed the report as �disappointing, unbalanced, backwards looking�. Conditions have improved for detainees over the last three years. They no longer get called by numbers or are subject to headcounts during the night. Some children are allowed to attend external schools. BUT the system that permitted such systemic child abuse is still in place�.
IT HAS TO GO!!!
An enormous number of people are putting a great effort into this Thursday�s event. But that in itself won�t pull it off. WE NEED YOU as never before. And not that this is putting us under pressure, but someone on the team has said, only ChilOut could bring this all together. Please, please help us, we can�t do it on our own�
See you on Thursday!!!!
Dianne
for ChilOut
Call to Action is sponsored by Steve Biddulph, author of parenting books in 27 languages worldwide. www.stevebiddulph.com
ChilOut - Children Out of Detention
www.chilout.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For information about the ChilOut announcement mailing list please visit: www.chilout.org/activities/call_to_action.html
