This is a world where many adults often underestimate Generation Y. Being only a few years out of being a teenager myself, I feel I can make this statement with certainty. However, I have been the Youth Intern at Amnesty International for just under two months now, and I am completely floored by how innovative, enthusiastic and capable the youth of today are. Sure, kids are still kids. They will yell and swear on the bus and play loud strange sounding music all night. Yet during this year’s Freedom Challenge I have seen firsthand how passionately youth can engage in the human rights struggle. What is Freedom Challenge, I hear some of you ask? Kindly continue reading and all shall be made clear!
Amnesty International coordinates a yearly event called Freedom Challenge, a youth leadership event highlighting a global human rights issue. This year Amnesty’s global Stop Torture campaign was chosen with the focus on the detention and abhorrent torture of eight Azerbaijani youth. The guys were arrested on false charges of inciting public arrest, the use and distribution of firearms and explosives, and using and selling of drugs. The real reason they were arrested? They were members of the youth group N!DA and moderators of a Facebook group that organised public assemblies of peaceful protest for gaining democracy and respect for human rights in Azerbaijan.
Each year school groups around the country become actively involved in creating awareness within their community and fundraising in creative and vibrant ways. This Freedom Challenge we have a school where male teachers have volunteered to have their legs waxed by students in front of the whole school, to showcase what pain is. Torture, hot wax, pain; you’re with me on this right?? Other schools have organised prefect auctions where the highest bidder for each prefect gets to use them as a servant for one full school day. (I would like to add that teachers monitor this!). One school is attempting to break the world record of the most people tied together in one hour, and other schools are rallying to assist them. I could continue to list other amazing school events, but that is not the focus of why I am writing this.
Rather, I write this to showcase the amazing spirit of New Zealand youth. Generation Y, or Millennials, are intrinsically aware that the technology of today creates solidarity between ‘us and them’. New Zealanders and Azerbaijani. Why do the New Zealand youth care what happens to some random guys in some random country? Where the heck even is Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan is below Russia, next to Georgia and Armenia, and above Iran. Clear as mud? Good. I don’t think it actually matters where Azerbaijan is located to Kiwi youth. It is interesting to know, sure, but not of great consequence to them. What is of consequence is the abuse and torture of eight guys. Nationality, colour, language, gender aside; our youth care about them. Our youth empathise and feel outrage for what has happened to the eight members of N!DA. Since when does organising a peaceful protest get you arrested, tortured and thrown in jail for close to a decade? Since when does being a member of a youth group who wants respect for human rights get your teeth knocked out and lose the hearing in one ear for months?
There is a beautiful aspect to Kiwi culture that says ‘we may be a small place, but we have important values’. We stand up for what we believe in. We were the first country to give women the vote and one of the first countries to legalize same sex marriage. We campaigned relentlessly against apartheid South Africa and the Springbok tour, universal women’s suffrage and our anti-nuclear stance.
We as New Zealanders don’t sit around and wait for someone else to say ‘this is wrong’. Our youth are the same. Give them a cause and they shall fight for it! Freedom Challenge week gives teenagers a platform in which they can stand up and vocally campaign in an effective and peaceful way. Events like I have previously mentioned (and many others), plus petition signing, letter writing, photos with banners of outrage, all contribute to a global campaign of awareness, finger pointing the crimes of the Azerbaijan government. The New Zealand youth have added their voices towards the existing cry for the release of the eight N!DA boys and to the worldwide Stop Torture campaign.
New Zealand youth you do us proud.
Find out more about Freedom Challenge.
Take a look at some of the photos from Freedom Challenge events:
Louise Daprini, Youth Intern at Amnesty International
