The Australian Government today gave its formal support to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma (pictured right), called it a "giant step":
"another milestone in the new partnership forged between Indigenous peoples and governments in February last year with the National Apology to […]
The "villains' charter" debate has reached Australia, it would seem.
Reviewing Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 12 months after it came into effect, the Sunday Herald-Sun's 'star political reporter' Ellen Whinnett wrote last month that the Charter had been "hijacked by criminals."
Her view echoes Britain's Daily Mail which attacks the UK's 'disastrous' Human Rights […]
Last month at the UN General Assembly, rock legend Bono lamented that for ten years he has begged the G8 for US$25 billion to relieve hunger and disease in Africa, with limited success. Suddenly, the United States has $700 billion to spend on Wall Street.
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz estimates that the US bailout package […]
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 […]
With only 2 sleeps to go until International Women’s Day, I’d like to quote at some length an article by Human Rights Watch’s Marianne Mollmann in The Huffington Post:
The United Nations was created in 1945 with a stated objective to put into practice the shared principle that men and women are absolute equals. Since then, […]
Australia awaits with anticipation next week’s long-overdue apology to the survivors of the Stolen Generations, their families and descendants. This landmark step towards reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is something the previous Prime Minister, John Howard — that formidable opponent of human rights — conspicuously failed to do, despite the 1997 Bringing Them Home […]
Fifteen percent of the world’s people consumes more than 90% of all pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile, some 2 billion people cannot get the essential drugs they need.
A right to medicine is clearly a component of the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Drug companies have responsibilities to respect and promote the right […]
Women the world over share a one-in-three risk of physical or sexual abuse, with rates reaching 70% in some countries.
In Australia, over 400,000 men were violent towards women in 2005. Almost 1.3 million Australian women have experienced physical and sexual violence from a current or former partner.
Women are at risk of violence in every society, […]
It’s International Nestlé-free Week. Time to swear off Nescafé, Milo (*gasp*), Butter Menthol and Nestlé chocolate, yoghourt, frozen dinners and goddam Cheerios and find ethical alternatives. Sometimes a lack of joined-up thinking allows people who care about human rights (whole NGOs, in fact) to drink Nescafé. Or maybe they aren’t familiar with the world’s longest-running […]
"The scale of maternal mortality is catastrophic. Every minute a woman dies in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy. . . well over 500,000 women a year. 95% are in Africa and Asia. . . This is global health inequality on a shocking scale. For every woman who dies, as many as 30 others suffer […]