A parliamentary friendship group aiming to take on the advocacy for the recognition of Hazara “oppression and persecution” was launched at Parliament House in Canberra today.
Around 20 members and senators of different political persuasions, including senior government figures, have joined the Parliamentary Friends of the Hazaras group.
The group is chaired by Labor MP Andrew Charlton and co-chaired by independent MP Kylea Tink and Greens senator Nick McKim.
The group will be headed by NSW Labor MP Andrew Charlton, Independent MP Kylea Tink and Greens senator Nick McKim. Credit: Supplied/Keyhan Farahmand
“The members of this group are bound by a shared vision to help end the persecution and oppression of religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan,” he added.
“I am encouraged to see so many of our country’s representatives advocating for the Hazara community on the national stage.”
Ms Tink said she will work for a “more inclusive and truly multicultural” Australia through this friendship group.
“I want to see real inclusion; relationships formed, and bridges built between our Hazara community, our fellow Afghan communities, and our Australian Parliament,” she said.
“I will also strive to see the needs of these communities better represented and included in national conversation.”
Protestors at the candlelight vigils call for urgent action to assist the Hazara community in Afghanistan. Credit: Ahmad Bakhtiary
“The idea of forming this group was seeded after the devastating attack on Kaaj [Academic Learning Centre] in October last year,” Hazara activist Jawad Erfani told SBS Dari.
On 30 September 2022, a suicide bomber targeted the Kaaj Academic Learning Centre in a predominantly Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 54 mostly Hazara teenage girls, and injuring another 112.
Shocked by the attack, Hazara activists from around the globe, including Australia, started the weeks-long #StopHazaraGenocide campaign.
The campaign led to the Dandenong City Council in southeast Melbourne, home to around 12,000 Hazaras, formally recognising the “genocidal violence against the Hazara people in Afghanistan”.
“Anyway, the group’s foundation was formally and seriously laid in December, and fortunately, this group was officially formed in January, and today, which is March 8th, which is a very good day, and it is also International Women's Day, we’re officially launching this group at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra.”
Independent MP Kylea Tink co-chairs the Parliamentary Friends of the Hazaras group Credit: Supplied/Keyhan Farahmand
“We urge our federal representatives to robustly advocate for the urgent needs of Hazaras in Afghanistan, including protection mechanisms for Hazaras inside Afghanistan, priority for humanitarian protection visas, and an equitable approach to aid distribution in the country,” she said.
Hazaras, the third-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, have long been persecuted and targeted by Afghan state institutions and militant groups such as the Taliban and ISIS.
A recent Amnesty International report shows the Taliban have continued to “torture” and “extrajudicially execute” Hazaras.
In addition, a recent report by five members of the United Kingdom’s parliament said that the risk of genocide of Hazaras by ISIS and Taliban has increased in recent months, calling on the UK government to act as members of the UN Genocide Convention to protect the ethnic group and prevent the possible genocide of them.
“The Hazaras in Afghanistan, as a religious and ethnic minority, are at serious risk of genocide by the Taliban and the Khorasan branch of ISIS,” the report reads.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has previously warned that Hazaras face “crimes against humanity or even genocide”.
A ‘Genocide Emergency Alert’ was also issued by Genocide Watch earlier in the year, warning that the “Hazaras face a high risk of genocide under Taliban rule”.
