As we welcome the festive season, I want to recall some of our many successes this year and remind you that it is your support - alongside 2.2 million others around the world - that has led directly to such positive change.
It’s been a fantastic and eventful 2008 for human rights.
In Australia, refugees no longer need to apply for temporary protection visas, or be held for weeks on end in the prison-like conditions of Nauru detention centre.
During the run up to the Beijing Olympics, tens of thousands of you helped secure the release of Falun Gong practitioner Bu Dongwei and pushed the Chinese Government to continue its relaxation of media regulations after the Games.
In November, you seized the opportunity to call on President-elect Obama to alter American policy in his first 100 days in office and close Guantanamo Bay for good.
And U Win Tin - a Myanmar activist serving almost 20 years in prison cells intended for military dogs and deprived of food, water, bedding and family visits - was finally set free.
Please remember, these things do not happen by themselves. It is you - those who contribute a lot of time to our campaigns and those who can only spend a little - who are at the heart of our fantastic organisation. We could not achieve so much without you.
And this is why I am asking you - one more time in 2008 - to lend your voice to our campaign for national human rights protection in Australia.
Please tell the Government that we want a Human Rights Act for Australia.
Unbelievably, Australia is the only liberal democracy without a Human Rights Act or similar national human rights protection. The mandatory detention of asylum seekers and enactment of anti-terror laws have highlighted what can happen when our rights are not protected.
Human rights are NOT a luxury - please tell the Government that we will stop at nothing to protect the values we hold dear.
* If you have done so already, please forward this email to a friend who is likely to do the same.
I’m looking forward to another year of decisive, positive action in 2009.
Best wishes for the festive season.
Claire Mallinson
National Director
Amnesty International Australia
Demand human rights protection for Australia
