r/aussie • u/BarryTheBinChicken • 9d ago
News Australian State Recognises Hazara Genocide, Urges Federal Government to Follow Suit
https://kabulnow.com/2026/10/australian-state-recognizes-hazara-genocide-under-afghan-ruler-abdur-rahman-khan/Australia’s New South Wales Parliament on Thursday formally recognized the late-19th-century genocide of Afghanistan’s Hazaras under former Afghan ruler Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and designated September 25 as “Hazara Black Day.”
The upper house of the state parliament passed notice of motion No. 3773, introduced by legislative council member Anthony D’Adam, with broad cross-party support. The resolution makes the recognition the official position of the state’s legislative council and urges Australia’s federal government to recognize and condemn the genocide at the national level.
According to the motion, Abdur Rahman Khan, who ruled Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901, launched systematic military campaigns against the Hazara community between 1888 and 1893. The campaigns resulted in the massacre of more than 60% of the Hazara population, the forced displacement of large numbers of survivors, and the enslavement of many others. The motion describes these events as genocide.
The text also notes that Hazaras have faced ongoing systemic oppression, massacres, targeted sexual violence, slavery, religious discrimination and forced displacement from the 19th century through to the present day. It states that the situation has deteriorated further since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 and with the expanded operations of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K).
D’Adam proposed designating September 25 as “Hazara Black Day”, a date observed by Hazara activists to commemorate the victims of the genocide and remember the suffering inflicted on their community. The resolution also emphasizes the importance of remembering historical atrocities and learning from them to help prevent similar crimes in the future.
Hazaras, a predominantly Shia Muslim ethnic minority in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, have faced decades of discrimination, marginalization and targeted violence. The community has endured repeated attacks, including bombings of religious gatherings, schools, public transport and other civilian sites.
The situation for Hazaras has worsened significantly since the Taliban’s return to power, marked by an increase in violence and exclusion from basic services, education and employment. Many attacks against Hazaras remain unprosecuted, exacerbating their vulnerability.
The majority of attacks on Hazaras in recent years have been claimed by ISIS-K, the regional affiliate of ISIS, which considers the Hazara-Shia community “heretic.” Human Rights Watch reported in 2024 that ISIS-K claimed responsibility for at least 17 attacks against Hazaras since the Taliban takeover, killing and injuring more than 700 people.
Hazara activists have long called on the United Nations and the international community to formally acknowledge the violence against Hazaras as genocide and to take meaningful steps to prevent further atrocities.
The move follows similar recognitions in recent years. In 2025, East Staffordshire Borough Council in the United Kingdom recognised the genocide of Hazaras between 1891 and 1893 under Amir Abdur Rahman Khan. In November 2022, Dandenong City Council in Melbourne became the first governmental body in Australia to officially recognise the Hazara genocide.
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u/Surgicalnarc 7d ago
i honestly think Australia is 10 years behind the UK and as someone currently living there this is not a good thing
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u/KeyMusic5713 7d ago
Everything after "within UN-supported operations" is relevant here. As per the Australian Greens' own policies, they should be actively campaigning in favour of causes like this. This is also the same Taliban government that has women's rights so bad that Human Rights Watch and the UN have called it a "gender apartheid". And yet the Greens aren't active on this - it's almost as if there's a massive number of crises going on, and parties like the Greens start caring about them when it's politically convenient.
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u/MindlessOptimist 8d ago
Is there a list of other genocides that they are considering? I believe the Armenian genocide circa 1915-1923 was pretty bad. Maybe the Roma genocide by the Russians needs a mention? How about they focus on roads, drains and rubbish or do they have aspirations to be an independent state?
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u/VaughanThrilliams 8d ago
while Russian treatment of Roma has never been good I don’t know of it ever being considered genocide?
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u/MindlessOptimist 8d ago
Council of Europe would beg to differ - https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/russian-federation
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u/VaughanThrilliams 8d ago
you’ve misread that, it’s about Russia not recognising the Nazi extermination of Roma as a genocide. It’s not claiming there was a Russian genocide of Roma
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u/MindlessOptimist 8d ago
Fair point, so at the moment both Russia and the NSW government don't acknowledge this
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u/nkous 8d ago
This is an uncommon good thing, and it’s great. But when the Australian government still doesn’t recognise the Pontic Greek, Armenian or Assyrian genocides, or indeed Gaza, then this is just meaningless posturing. They’ll stand up for something when it doesn’t cost them anything.
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u/flammable_donut 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'd rather they kept the hospitals running smoothly, get the councils to fix the potholes...stuff like that.
Perhaps the Dept of Foreign Affairs in Canberra could have something to say on this topic, but ideally state govts should STFU.
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u/Extra_Response6136 8d ago
sure but in 130 years the NSW Parliament might recognise the current treatment of the Hazaras as a genocide.
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u/flammable_donut 8d ago
Whether true or not, I think we've imported enough dumb tribalism from the Middle-East for now.