2023 FREEDOM CHALLENGE

You - our rangatahi - are today’s agents of change.

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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 RAISE HER VOICE - the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, and seeks to challenge the Taliban's brutal gender persecution.

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2023 THEME: RAISE HER VOICE

If you were a woman or girl in Afghanistan right now, your voice and freedoms would be under attack.

The Taliban, a religious extremist group in Afghanistan, is slowly erasing the rights of women and girls in all parts of life. This war on women is so extreme that it counts as a crime against humanity.

The Taliban is trying to erase women and girls' right to education, consent, work, resistance, independence and freedom and forcing them to live in the shadows of society.

But many women and girls are raising their voices to fight for their rights and for their lives. They are boldly speaking out against the Taliban’s war on women, despite risk of arrest, torture, or worse.

Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand is asking you to stand in solidarity with Afghan women and girls

See below for resources to help you. Once you have registered, we will also send out physical resources.

Freedom Challenge FAQs

WHO CAN REGISTER?

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WHAT CAN I DO?

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WHEN IS IT? 

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WHERE DO I START?

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“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.

2021

2018

2015

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.

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FREEDOM CHALLENGE: PAST THEMES

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