November 8, 2009 – 8:49 pm
While the asylum seeker debate continues here, it is worth looking at approaches taken to refugees in other ‘developed’ countries. Italy continues to set the pace when it comes to rich continues blatantly breaching human rights laws and putting refugees lives at risk. They have reached an agreement with Libya – a nation with an [...]
On Tuesday night, July 28, around 300 people filled the Brisbane Room in Brisbane’s City Hall to hear speakers from the front line of climate change – residents of the Torres Strait and Pacific Island nations Tuvalu, Micronesia and Kiribati. It’s very rare for me to attend a forum with seven speakers all addressing the [...]
The irrational obsession with pulling out all stops to prevent asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia is placing our country at risk of being party to human rights abuses on refugees much worse than those of the Howard era.
This week , the federal government is taking the unusual step of having the Prime Minister [...]
The National Human Rights Consultations, launched by the federal government late last year and chaired by Father Frank Brennan, is finally coming to the end of its public consultation phase, with general public submissions closing on 15 June.
There will obviously be a lot of interest in the contents of the report flowing out of the [...]
There will a renewed focus over the coming month on the continuing human rights abuses carried out by the Chinese government, as we come towards June 4 – the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where thousands of protesters were killed by the military.
The ‘tank man’ photo from that day has become hugely inspirational [...]
It is often asserted that the refugees arriving in boats to Australia could safely stay in countries such as Malaysia that they pass through on the way. Before giving credence to such an idea, it is worth examining some of the evidence.
The Chapter on Malaysia from the most recent World Report of Human Rights Watch states:
As [...]
March 25, 2009 – 11:14 pm
As Australia moves away from some of our past discredited, damaging, expensive and inhumane policies in the area of immigration detention, it seems the USA and Italy have moved in the opposite direction.
While there is room for further improvement, there is no doubt Australia has made major advances in recent years in the laws and [...]
February 20, 2009 – 12:00 pm
Human Rights Watch reports on a concerning court ruling from the USA which has echoes of the major human rights breaches enabled under Australian laws permitting the indefinite mandatory detention of innocent people who have no other country to go to and the forcible transportation of refugees to Nauru where they were beyond the reach of [...]
January 23, 2009 – 1:20 am
I used the focus on Barack Obama’s extraordinary achievement recently to write a post about some other politicians who overcame even higher odds at greater personal costs in 2008.
Of course many people who aren’t politcians show even greater perseverance and courage. Many of them remain anonymous, but some become known and on occasion they can [...]
January 4, 2009 – 9:44 pm
Recent experiences in Australia understandably lead many people to suggest that areas such as detention without trial, migration & asylum seeking provide key examples of why a stronger legal framework to protect human rights is needed.
I agree that focusing on these areas provide many examples of how Australia’s legislative framework is seriously inadequate in protecting [...]
