Most Australians understand the importance of fairness, justice and equality. But human rights stories can be pretty negative. We don’t really want to engage with things that seem hopeless or consistently pessimistic.

Our mission at Right Now is to provide something different in the human rights conversation, to use art and beautiful writing to inspire, to engage and to generate a better debate on human rights.


We've been doing this for over eight years and in that time we have published some of Australia's best writers, thinkers and artists, people like Tony Birch and Anne Manne, Julian Burnside and Malcolm Fraser and Shaun Tan and Pat Green.

Our next step is to expand our online magazine and for that we'll need you, our wonderful readers and supporters, to get it done!

Why?

Because it's time we grew. Our expanded online magazine will allow more people to read about human rights in more places, it will enhance our writers' voices, it will allow us to better support and debate their ideas and it will push the conversation in Australia to be that little bit more humane, compassionate and just.

By contributing to our target, you will help us to continue to publish free and accessible media that tackle some of the most pressing human rights issues facing Australia today.

Who are we?

We're independent, not-for-profit and fully run by a team of wonderful volunteers which includes writers, lawyers, artists, communications professional and filmmakers.


From asylum seekers to Indigenous rights, race and discrimination to health and women’s rights, each month we ask a diverse range of authors – including journalists, academics, former judges and human rights defenders – to delve into human rights in all their complexity.

For a taste of our work:

- take a moment and sit down with Alice Pung's beautiful new essay 'Back to School', on her journey back to her school in Braybrook and the kids she meets who do (and don't) make it out.
- or perhaps this, Dana Affleck asking why is the Minister for Immigration attacking the Refugee Convention?
- and here, in one of our most enduring pieces, Anne Manne writes with power and compassion in the devastating 'Catholic Clergy and Child Sex Abuse'.

Over on RRR, every month the Right Now Radio team interviews prominent human rights experts and commentators, takes you through the most pressing human rights stories of the day and throws in some human arts and science to boot! 



We also publish a variety of fiction, visual art and poetry that engages both the heart and the mind. Creative responses to human rights can often be the most powerful means of broaching difficult topics.



Our contributors include some of Australia’s most respected human rights voices, such as Julian Burnside, Malcolm Fraser, Tim Costello and Michael Kirby and voices from across the breadth of Australian society.

We welcome contributions from the public, especially underrepresented groups. With our support and connections, young artists and writers can publish inspiring and challenging content.

Testimonies

So why human rights?

Some of our other work

Your pledges will be used to hire a professional web designer who will develop an expanded Right Now online magazine that will make human rights more accessible and more engaging for our readers. Some of the features of the expanded online magazine include:

• Mobile optimised online magazine – so that you can read our articles on your phone in a mobile-friendly format.

• Writer and artist profiles – our writers and artists will be featured in their own profile page with a list of their published articles and creative works.

• More curated content – we will be able to feature editors’ picks, list our most popular articles and group our content thematically.

• Improved search functionality – there will be an advanced search feature that will allow readers to filters articles by themes, times and keywords.

• Greater social media integration – this will make it easier for readers to share our content with their network of friends through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn.

• Integration of our RRR podcasts in the online magazine with embedded audio player, searchable archives and interactive show notes.

If we exceed our target, the funds will go towards the development of a Right Now app so that you can access our stories on-the-go and receive notifications whenever a new article is published.

As a fully volunteer run, not-for-profit organisation, we do not receive any ongoing funding and rely on our own fundraising efforts and the generosity of our supporters to cover our ongoing costs. We have in the past received grants for specific projects, but with recent budget cuts to arts funding, the availability of such grants is not guaranteed in the future. A successful Pozible campaign will help us to continue challenging and inspiring more people to make human rights part of their everyday conversations.