Every day across the globe, despicable violations of human rights are quietly claiming helpless lives. Countless crimes are constantly committed, with so many of them hidden in the shadows. Although these crimes may be invisible to us, the suffering of innocent individuals is anything but. In Australia, we live in a so-called progressive society that reacts to human rights violations with outrage. However, there is a bias to this outrage. Below the surface, so many tragedies persist with no action taken against them; they are dismissed as distant problems. The impact of these horrors is far-reaching, and as a community, it is so important for us to bring these acts of evil into the light – before more lives continue to be lost at the price of our indifference.
You might be thinking that you are well-informed regarding these tragedies because you watch the news and keep up to date on other platforms, but even when these crimes are reported it is in the face of illusion: the news reports global injustices when they are ‘trending’ but the next day, or week, or month they disappear. Once the headlines fade, these injustices are ignored without any action, even though their victims continue to suffer.
In September 2022, a young Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the Iranian government’s mortality police after she was arrested for wearing her hijab improperly. Her death sparked a massive protest movement with the name ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’, a campaign with the goal of forcing an end to the Islamic Republic’s discrimination and oppression against the women of Iran in the name of Islam. Mahsa’s death caused global outrage, receiving mass media coverage, televised recordings of protests in Sydney and more. But it was not even a few months later that the movement completely disappeared from headlines. Thriving in systems that perpetuate injustice, the criminal leaders of Iran have continued to intensify their war on women. In 2024, nearly 1,000 individuals were executed in Iran. This included a rise in the number of women executed, as well as a notable portion of these executions being identified as protestors. And the world hardly blinks.
It is also pertinent to realise that the citizens of Iran have been putting their lives at risk in the name of protest for the last 43 years since the Islamic Revolution – and yet 2022 was the first year that they were globally acknowledged.
Meanwhile, as of 2017, China has been under massive scrutiny, with accusations against the nation of committing genocide against its Uyghur and Muslim population. There have been countless investigations over recent years, attempting to bring forward the crimes against humanity committed against the hundreds of thousands of Uyghur men and women. These are innocent individuals subject to persecution, mass surveillance, cultural assimilation, and torture. Nearly 400 detention camps were identified in 2020 alone. Institutions where individuals are forced to undergo ‘re-education’. This includes extreme punishment for Muslim individuals when they are found to own a Qur’an or abstain from eating pork, forcible mass sterilisation of Uyghur women to eliminate the population and removal of children from their families. A number of high-ranking individuals from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have come forward to accuse China’s crimes against humanity as an act of genocide. And yet, the most recent credible article that I came across was written in 2022. Yet another disgusting, unremitting violation of innocent people.
A lot of the time, it is hard to bring ourselves to care about these issues because of how disconnected we are from them. When a terrible tragedy happens nearly 13,000 kilometres across the ocean, it is harder to muster up empathy, but the reality is that these silent crimes are just as prevalent close to home.
Nauru is a small country located northeast of Australia. Its main features include the coral reef that surrounds the island, its beautiful white-sand beaches, and its refugee processing centre that is used by Australia as an offshore immigration facility. Initially established in 2001, Nauru is one of several islands in Oceania used by the Australian government as a refugee centre. The island itself has housed an estimated 7,536 refugees since August 2012. The Australian government has labelled these refugee camps as a necessary response to the increased numbers of asylum seekers in Australia, a beneficial approach which allows for assistance towards these individuals as well as the deterrence of further arrivals to manage the asylum process. But in reality, our own leaders have generated a policy-driven crisis where these asylum seekers are subject to appalling conditions from which some never make it out alive — and their stories continue to remain unheard.
Women in these camps are routinely sexually harassed and face abuse by guards consistently. Children as young as seven years old have become catatonic and suicidal. Omid Masoumali, an Iranian refugee, doused himself in petrol and then on fire as a form of resistance against the conditions of the island. Dr Peter Young, the former chief psychiatrist within Nauru’s detention centre, has come forward to describe the camp’s toxic environments where individuals are subject to processes comparable to torture. These asylum seekers are stripped of their humanity and forced to live in an Australian-made zoo, their voices screaming out, yet our media turns a blind eye.
We must refuse to stay silent about these crimes. We must look beyond the headlines, beyond the manipulated illusions and seek out the truths that are kept within the shadows. Awareness is not passive; it is the beginning of action — the start of change. And while your voice may feel insignificant in the face of global injustice, spreading the light of your knowledge will allow it to grow stronger. So continue to educate yourself. Discuss, resist and raise awareness. Advocating for these individuals who are treated as if they are invisible, as if they are replaceable, is the first step in bringing hidden crimes against humanity into the light of justice.
