RightsBase

human rights news & views

Calls to boycott this other apartheid

When people like Desmond Tutu describe the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as apartheid, it's not mere hyperbole.
Israel's self-proclaimed 'policy of separation' seeks to segregate Palestinians and Jews in the West Bank, writes Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard.
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning literally, separateness.  It's hard to see how Israel's policy […]

Australia’s first POW an indigenous hero

There have been prisoners-of-war (POWs) as long as there has been war, but international recognition of their right to protection from abuse is much more recent.
The Red Cross has counted over 500 recorded texts attempting to regulate hostilities prior to modern laws of war.  The Chinese, […]

War crimes resisters acquitted

All but one of the 'Raytheon 9' war resisters were acquitted by a Belfast jury yesterday of all charges.
In August 2006 Colm Bryce, Gary Donnelly, Kieran Gallagher, Michael Gallagher, Sean Heaton, Jimmy Kelly, Eamonn McCann, Paddy McDaid and Eamonn O'Donnell broke into the Derry offices of US arms manufacturer Raytheon (pictured right) and […]

N Irish pacifists on trial

The trail of the 'Raytheon 9' enters its likely final week.  These nine men occupied the Derry offices of an arms manufacturer for 8 hours back in August 2006 with the purpose of preventing war crimes.  Claims Eamonn McCann, due to take the stand this week:
"Israel had dropped so many bombs over southern Lebanon, south […]

The right to water in Palestinian Territories & Israel: a petition

If you agree that Israel must stop violating the human right to water and sanitation in the Occupied Territories, please consider signing this petition to the Knesset:

"The human right to water and sanitation is protected under international law. Yet in the State of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, this right is being violated by […]

Australian pacifists suffer ‘miscarriage of justice’

Australia has had a change of government since Donna Mulhearn (39), Jim Dowling (52), Bryan Law (52) and Adele Goldie (31) were convicted under the never-before used 1952 Defence (Special Undertaking) Act for breaking into the US military facility on Australian soil called Pine Gap in December 2005.  And it would appear the courts have […]

Three more Bosnian Serbs arrested for crimes against humanity

Three Bosnian Serbs were arrested last week accused of crimes against humanity committed in 1992.  Veljko Basic, 82, Predrag Bastah, 55, and Goran Viskovic, 54, are being questioned by Bosnian authorities regarding crimes committed in Susica camp in the town of Vlasenica in northeastern Bosnia.
Some 8,000 local civilians, mostly Muslims, were held in the prison […]

Vale Peter McGregor

Peter McGregor, Australian pacifist and ‘education radical activist’ for over 40 years, died yesterday.
An academic by trade, McGregor was also a convener of the Australian Anti-Apartheid Movement along with Meredith Burgmann.  Last year he attempted to arrest senior members of the Australian government on suspicion of war crimes.
According to Queensland anti-war activist Ciaron O’Reilly, McGregor […]

‘Do nothing for evil to triumph’

Last week retired academic Peter McGregor was arrested in the Australian parliament for attempting to arrest Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, accusing the four of war crimes.
This was not McGregor’s first attempt to arrest the Attorney-General.  In a public statement McGregor accused "groups like […]

In awe of Haw

Ordinary people are doing extraordinary things to oppose the war in Iraq; courageous, costly things. And more than just expressing opposition, some are acting to prevent war crimes being committed.
This month, four ‘Christians Against All Terrorism’ were pursued through the courts by the Australian Government for breaking into the secret US military facility Pine Gap, […]