MELBOURNE FILM PREMIERE : INSIDE PEACE - ACMI 3 AUGUST 2017

Dear friends,

For those based in Melbourne - see below for a documentary which might be of interest to you, shared by Australians for Peace.

I will be going along - it looks like it will be very interesting.

If you have events you'd like me to share with the group, let me know and I will be happy to do so.

Wishing you all well.

In peace,

Nivy

Nivy Balachandran
Regional Coordinator, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands 
Part time - Office days are Wednesday and Friday.
Phone: +61 433 238 406 | Skype: nivy.bala | www.uri.org 

URI is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world.

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We would like to invite the Australians for Peace (A4P) Board Members as our special guests to the Melbourne premiere of an award-winning documentary at ACMI on Thursday 3rd August. 

We thought you may be interested in the film, which is about an education program that assists people in dealing with the ups and downs of daily life. A Texas prison is an unlikely setting for an educational program, but the multi award-winning documentary Inside Peace focuses on a peace education program run in the prison which has generated surprising results.

Filmmaker Cynthia Fitzpatrick follows the lives of several inmates within the Dominguez State prison in San Antonio, Texas as they cope inside and outside of prison after being released.  Fitzpatrick says the peace program impacted the prisoners on many levels which resulted in reduced violence, better personal skills and less chance of former inmates reoffending.

The film illustrates how effective the peace program is for ‘hardened’ criminals with intergenerational experiences of hardship, poverty, drugs, violence and disadvantage.  The program currently runs in 74 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and is equally effective in many settings, including social services, drug rehabilitation, returned military services, retirement hospitals and welfare organisations.

The program has the potential to improve personal wellbeing and community safety across a wide variety of settings.

Location:                           ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne

Time and Date:                Thursday, 3rd August at 7.15 pm

Tickets:                               Click here to book your tickets through Try Booking.

If you’d like to be our guests, first choose any ticket type, then click next and enter the complimentary code COMP~

Looking forward to seeing you at the Melbourne premiere of Inside Peace.

Regards

Dawn Rees

On behalf of Southern Events Inc.

PS: Would you kindly forward this invitation to the other A4P Board Members?

For enquiries contact events@southernevents.net.au

The Inside Peace Premiere is presented by Southern Events Inc., a not-for-profit organisation involved in promoting community events in Melbourne

Justice for refugees : boycott for corporations involved in offshore detention centres

Cross-posted with The Network and Advocacy

Campaign for Councils to refrain from doing business 

with companies that abuse human rights

Companies Involved In Offshore Detention

 Frozen Out By City Of Sydney

(IMAGE: Jason James, Flickr)

By Max Chalmers on December 15, 2015 Featured

A growing campaign to stop institutions from doing business with companies that abuse human rights has claimed a major scalp. Max Chalmers reports.

Companies profiting from the offshore detention of asylum seekers could be prevented from doing business with the City of Sydney after the Council resolved to review its investment and procurement policy and bring them into line with the No Business in Abuse campaign.

In a meeting last night, the Council voted to adopt a pledge not to support companies, institutions, or organisations that profit from abusive practices towards people seeking asylum.

Moved by Greens Councillor Irene Doutney (pictured), the successful motion will not impact current contracts, but could cause headaches for companies working in the offshore detention industry when new tenders are released.

Of particular interest will be the implications for Wilson Security, subcontracted by detention centre operator Broadspectrum (formerly known as Transfield) to provide security services in offshore centres. Wilson also provides substantial carparking and security services in Australia and the company has had a number of contracts with the City of Sydney, including an estimated $2.4 million deal to manage the Kings Cross Car Parking Station which is due to be reviewed in 2017.

Doutney told New Matilda that most members of the Council – dominated by Clover Moore’s progressive independents – were appalled by the abuses occurring in detention, and that she expected the motion would make it difficult for the Council to renew contracts with companies like Wilson in the future.

“I just think it’s really important for institutions, particularly councils, to take a stand on these sorts of things,” Doutney said. “People will say ‘it’s not Council business’, but I think anything to do with human rights is Council business. It’s really important to take a stand and, being City of Sydney, maybe other councils will now look favourably on the pledge.”

Doutney said the motion would not have an immediate impact but would put pressure on the Council not to sign contracts with or invest in companies linked to detention in the future. She said the Council already avoids investments in fossil fuels, tobacco, and nuclear.

The City of Sydney’s move comes at the end of a year that has seen Broadspectrum in particular come under pressure for its role in offshore detention, with the No Business in Abuse campaign occurring in tangent to a divestment movement. In August, super fund HESTA announced it was divesting, withdrawing $18 million from the company formerly known as Transfield.

The No Business in Abuse campaign said Leichhardt Council and Yarra City Council had also signed on.

“The City of Sydney is one of Australia’s largest councils, and their decision last night provides unstoppable momentum to the NBIA campaign which has expanded to target the clients of Broadspectrum and Wilson, including councils, schools, hospitals and big resources companies,” Shen Narayanasamy, Executive Director of No Business in Abuse and Human Rights Campaign Director at Getup, said in a press release.

Narayanasamy said the Wilson Group currently had over $3 million worth of contracts with the City of Sydney. If the Council holds its resolve, that number is likely to head towards zero in the coming years.

The Wilson Group could not be reached for comment.

     Source from New Matilda: 

https://newmatilda.com/2015/12/15/companies-involved-in-offshore-detention-frozen-out-by-city-of-sydney/

Religious and ethnic organisations unite against plans by the Australian Government to weaken or abolish race hate laws

Tony Abbott is facing a fight against Australia's indigenous, Jewish, Arab, Chinese, Greek, Armenian, Lebanese and Muslim populations, who have united in urging the government not to proceed with announced plans to abolish or weaken race hate laws.

As his first legislative act, Attorney-General George Brandis wants to introduce a bill to change sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that protect ethnic groups against hate speech. He especially dislikes provisions that make it unlawful to offend or insult people on the basis of their race.

Declaring himself a champion of ''freedom'', Senator Brandis has disparaged the laws used against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt over an article he wrote in which he accused ''white'' Australians of identifying as Aborigines to advance their careers.

The head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, said he could not recall ''any other issue on which there has been such unity of purpose and strength of feeling across such a diverse group of communities''.

''We have read with growing concern that the federal government has plans to remove or water down the protections against racial vilification,'' reads the statement signed by the heads of groups including the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Arab Council Australia, Chinese Australian Forum, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Australian Hellenic Council, Lebanese Muslim Association and the Armenian National Council of Australia.

Jewish leaders have combined in a rare joint protest with prominent ethnic and indigenous leaders.

To read more of this report, please go to this link.

Why racial hatred laws are vital to Australian multiculturalism

Women of Islam - 8

Dr. Amina Wadud (USA, 1952-Present)

In 2005, Amina was the first female imam to lead a mixed-congregation prayer. This act caused a shock wave to run throughout the Islamic world.

 

Some viewed it as an awakening and a return to the equalitarian way of Islam. Others viewed it as an offensive innovation.

 

According to Amina, "The radical notion that women are full human beings is already inscribed in Islam by our notion of tawhid. So the binary that tries to give women less than full human dignity is transformed into a relationship of equality and reciprocity."

 

Despite individuals' views on the subject, she has created a platform where diverse Muslim views can be voiced.

From Huffington Post