Schedule a meeting with your local Member of Parliament to talk about the investigation and prosecution of Australians who have fought with Da’esh in Iraq and Syria.

Talk about what the issue means to you; tell them why it matters to you. Is it a matter of human rights, gender justice, peace and security, general decency?

Before you go, familiarise yourself with the issues. You will see an outline of the three crimes in the ‘about’ page of our website. You’ll also find general information on our news page, but consider current issues you may have seen in the media or heard about in our community.

We have prepared a brief for parliamentarians that you can take with you. You can use it to guide your discussion, or hand it over to them during the meeting.

The key points are:

1. Investigate the use of sexual violence by Australians fighting with Da’esh
2. Prosecute individual cases in a court of law
3. Ensure relevant authorities are sufficiently resourced for these investigations and prosecutions

Have something to ask

Be sure to have some specific asks of them when you go into the meeting. We would recommend you ask them to:

1. Raise the issue in their party room
2. Raise the issue in any relevant committees they sit on
3. Ask questions during Senate Estimates or Question Time

Follow up

Take a picture with your MP. If you like, you can cross your arms in the photo and caption in with #getcross about sexual violence in armed conflict. Post it on social media, tag them and use our hashtag #prosecutedontperpetrate as well as #UNSCR1325 and #stoprapenow.

We would also appreciate if you sent us any pictures from the meeting, with a short blog piece we can post on our website.

If your MP or their staff ask any more of you, make sure you follow up. They are very busy people, if they ask for anything, it will most likely be because they want to do something.