2024 FREEDOM CHALLENGE
You - our rangatahi - are today’s agents of change.
Your voice is powerful.
Your knowledge is powerful.
Your existence is powerful.
We here at Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand want to support and equip you in your activism journey, so that you can use your power to seek meaningful change. To raise awareness, to inspire action, and to be beacons of hope.
That’s why we created the annual Freedom Challenge!
Freedom Challenge is a call to action for young people across Aotearoa New Zealand. It is an opportunity for rangatahi to apply their leadership, creativity, and visions for justice by standing together against a pressing human rights issue.
Each year, we launch a campaign that is important and relevant to youth.
This year’s Freedom Challenge theme is "Anti-war protest is NOT a crime". It focuses on Russia's targeting of children who oppose the war with Ukraine and parents detained or threatened with having their kids taken away from them because of their or their children’s anti-war activism.
2024 THEME: Anti-war protest is NOT a crime
Imagine being targeted by your government as a 10-year-old for simply speaking out against a war.
Imagine your parents being threatened with the removal of their children because of their own or their children’s anti-war activism.
That’s exactly what’s happening in Russia for kids and adults alike who oppose Russia’s invasion of and war with Ukraine. The very bond between children and their parents is being shamelessly exploited to crush any dissent.
“I didn’t want my children to live a double life, to pretend that they agree with the government or support the war.”Elena Jolicoeur, whose family was forced to flee Russia for their child’s anti-war activism
“In this upside-down world that Russia is becoming, if you are a child and disagree with the government, the police, the courts and even schools represent an immediate threat,” says Oleg Kozlovsky, Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher.
“Those who express dissent against the war are particularly vulnerable to threats of forced separation of families or deprivation of parental rights. Even a remote risk of such reprisals is a prospect horrifying enough to deter many people from speaking up.”
Schools and teachers have become tools of persecution and interference by the state. They are indoctrinating children with false government-mandated narratives and directly reporting those with dissenting views to the police and security services, adds Oleg.
Such targeting has led to severe mental and physical health impacts on children, including stress-related conditions and trauma. Families suffer financial consequences when parents or guardians face persecution, leading to economic hardship and the disruption of children’s education. Some families end up having to leave the country to avoid criminal prosecution or forced separation.
Scary stuff for grown-ups, let alone kids!
See below for resources to help you. Once you have registered, we will also send out physical resources.
PETITION
- Send online solidarity messages for war-dissenter Natalya Filonova
FUNDRAISE
Hold a non-uniform day, a bake sale or raffle at your school, ask for $2, the cost of a stamp for every petition that is signed.
MORE RESOURCES
“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”
- Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Education Activist
FREEDOM CHALLENGE: REWIND
You are never too young to take a stand for human rights.
For nearly two decades, rangatahi across the motu have taken up the Freedom Challenge and helped create lasting change.
Below are a handful of wins, amongst many, that prove that when youth like you stand together and take action, we are able to take one (or more!) steps closer to justice.
The action you took in our 2021 “Please take me to a safe place” campaign contributed to the New Zealand’s Government’s 2022 announcement to stop imprisoning people seeking asylum here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
FREEDOM CHALLENGE: PAST THEMES
