Australia needs better human rights protection. The Tongan Constitution of 1875 contains more rights than Australia’s 26 years later. By human rights standards, South Africa’s Constitution is without peer, but ‘entrenched’, constitutional bills of rights are not the only way of protecting rights. In recent years, the UK and Aotearoa/New Zealand have passed ordinary acts […]
There are the moral and legal arguments in favour of human rights, which ought to be enough, but, let’s face it, sometimes it helps to come up with self-interested reasons for abusers to cease and desist and for governments to protect and promote. And in this geo-political clime, ‘national security’ is leverage par excellence. Here’s […]
Vying for the honour of the first human rights treaty of the 21st century is the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. After 25 years of work, the text of the draft convention has been passed by the UN Human Rights Council and now awaits adoption at the General Assembly […]
Eleven years after Europe’s largest mass murder since World War Two, there is the prospect of justice for the victims and survivors of the massacre of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the UN ‘safe haven’ in Srebrenica. The trial of seven former Bosnian Serb officers began last month at the International Criminal Tribunal for the […]
You may be unwittingly suffering an infringement of your human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), drafted during the Cold War, states that "any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law." The 152 countries that are a party to this treaty must legislate against war propaganda as "contrary to public […]
Indian architect Miloon Kothari has been UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing since 2000. He has just concluded a visit to Australia to assess compliance with human rights obligations in relation to housing. Since ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976, Australia has been obliged to fulfil […]
Business suits or pantyhose. Former British PM Margaret Thatcher is said to consult her lawyers before travelling abroad for fear of being arrested for international crimes (for ordering the sinking of Argentine warship the General Belgrano as it sailed away from the conflict during the Falklands/Malvinas War in 1982, at the expense of 323 lives). […]
I heard David Hicks’ defence lawyer, the affable Major Michael (Dan) Mori, speak in Melbourne today and (updating a previous post) he mentioned that Hicks’ British citizenship was revoked shortly after it was granted. Mori is pressing to have it restored. Mori emphasised the importance, in so politicised a case, of the Australian public (and […]
There’s a venerable principle of criminal law that seems to be turning on its head in Western democracies, and a number of human rights along with it. The principal begins with an acceptance of the fact that no system of criminal justice will ever be inerrant. There will always be wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals. […]
Dr Andrew Vincent, Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney said recently after a trip to Lebanon: "What we’re seeing at the moment is a massive attack on a neigbouring country. Now just imagine if an Arab country was attacking another Arab country: destroying its infrastructure, […]
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