Saturday 18 February 2006

About me

A few people have asked who I am, so...

I have been involved in the human rights movement for about 20 years, as a campaigner, writer and activist. I worked for Amnesty International Australia (AIA) in Brisbane and Sydney for more than 10 years, coordinating various campaigns at regional and national levels. I also spent two years as a policy researcher with Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC).

In 2000, as a volunteer activist, I established AIA's anti-death penalty network. I coordinated the network until 2006 and was the organisation's main media spokesperson until mid-2008. This included being a member of the strategy team and the media spokesperson for the organisation's campaign in late 2005 opposing the execution of Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore.

A journalist by training, I created the Asia Death Penalty blog in February 2006 to report on -- and record -- developments in the death penalty and the abolitionist movement across Asia. While I draw on the important work of various human rights organisations, any views expressed in the course of my posts are entirely my own.

Since my 'day job' is outside the human rights area, I post as often as I can.

I welcome information and story ideas relevant to this blog. I can be contacted by email at:
asiadeathpenalty 'at' gmail dot com

I live in Brisbane.

[Posted 16 August, 2008]

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello from London UK
There are 300 folks on Death Row in Malaysia alone according to Amnesty International - many for possessing relatively small quantities of the plant known as...."Cannabis" with intent to make a small profit to feed their families. Demonstrations outside the Malaysian Embassies in London and Paris 4th March 1pm Would you kill for pot?
Details at ENCOD Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies.

Joep said...

Dear friend

On 4 March 2010, the following statement (http://www.encod.org/info/ENCOD-STATEMENT-TO-THE-MALAYSIAN.html) was printed in the Malaysian newspaper The Sun and presented during picket-line manifestations in front of the Malaysian Embassies and consulates in Copenhagen, Kathmandu, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and (on 8 March 2010) Vienna. Letters were delivered to Malaysian embassies in Berlin and Brussels.

If you want to contribute, please copy this letter and send it to the Malaysian embassy in your country as well.

Best wishes

Joep Oomen
Encod coordinator