In 1997, the World Health Organisation invited me to be a short-term consultant to visit Iran and advise on HIV control among people who inject drugs and the spread from them to the large low-risk general population. At the time, HIV was spreading rapidly in Iran. I felt honoured to be invited to a country with such an ancient past. (more…)
Tag: Human Rights
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Is there a shift in our appreciation of dissent?
Since the Israel/US alliance went into full-throttle war machine mode in the name of Israel’s right to self-defence, fissures have appeared in the global community, delineating various camps. Roughly speaking: those who support Israel, those who condemn Israel, and those who question Israel. (more…)
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The displacement of Gazans: Between possibility and impossibility
Recently, US President Donald Trump spoke about the displacement of Gaza’s residents to Egypt, Jordan, and a group of neighbouring countries, as well as turning Gaza into an area under US control. This proposal sparked a wave of criticism and condemnation at various levels. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Francesca Albanese addresses a group in Berlin amidst challenges from the police. The City of Sydney passes a motion for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS), while Patricia Karvelas calls out the facts on Angus Taylor. (more…)
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Australia’s silence on Trump’s ICC sanctions is nothing but shameful
Last Friday 79 nations signed a statement condemning the announcement 24 hours earlier by genocide enabler US President Donald Trump, that he was imposing sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court because they had issued a warrant for the arrest of architect of genocide of the Palestinian people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (more…)
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Public letter to my MP about Israel’s actions in Palestine
Dear Julian Leeser MP, I live in your electorate, Berowra. In this letter I respond to your statement in your newsletter: “These differences [between the major political parties] are most notable on Israel and Ukraine where we have failed to stand by our values and stand with our friends as previous governments both Labor and Liberal have done.” (more…)
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Another trail of tears
While there is no mistaking the happiness on the faces of the displaced Palestinians who have been allowed to return to what remains of their homes as a result of the ceasefire, no sympathetic observer could fail to fear for their futures. At least one young woman on the march has been killed by a drone. (more…)
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Youth Justice: punishment or prevention?
In the last three years there has been a blizzard of new laws with respect to youth justice across Australia. While some laws have been welcome, a substantial number have been retrograde. In this category, laws with respect to young children have been the most controversial. This fact has attracted critical attention from a number of respected international and non-governmental human rights organisations. (more…)
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To the PM: The costs of our gullibility and ignorance re Syria
The letter below was sent to Prime Minister Albanese on 24 January 2025. In it, I refer to the abduction of Professor Rasha Al-Ali from the University of Homs. Reports indicate that Dr Al-Ali’s body has been found and that – either before or after her murder – her fingers were cut off. Her abduction and killing is reminiscent of Margaret Hassan’s, who was head of CARE in Baghdad. (more…)
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How can pro-Palestine protests be intimidating to Jews when Jews attend them?
Jillian Segal, a former President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and now Australia’s controversial Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, has described weekly pro-Palestine protests as “intimidatory” to the Jewish community. Adding to this narrative, U.S. Rabbi Abraham Cooper has urged Kevin Rudd to move these protests away from the CBDs to “less disruptive and intimidating locations.” (more…)
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Marwan Barghouti – the world’s most important hostage – must be released
A litmus test of Israel’s commitment to abandon genocide and start down the road towards lasting peace is whether they choose to release the most important of all the hostages, Marwan Barghouti. During the past 22 years in Israeli prisons he has been beaten, tortured, sexually molested and had limbs broken. What hasn’t been broken is the spirit of the greatest living Palestinian – a symbol of his people’s ‘legendary steadfastness’ and determination to win freedom from occupation and resist the genocidal forces of the US, Israel and their Western enablers like Australia and New Zealand. (more…)
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From Kabumba to Uganda: A story of survival, advocacy, and hope
Mulumehoderwa Balangalizi, also known as Jean Peter, was born in 1999 in the village of Kabumba, located in the Kanyola zone of Walungu District in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For much of his early life, Kabumba was home to his family’s farmland and a mountain rich with minerals—resources that eventually brought turmoil to their lives.
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Decriminalising drugs: “Open secret that most of the NSW Cabinet now support major drug law reform”
As Francis Hodgson Burnett said more than a century ago “at first people refuse to believe that strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done – then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.“ This is the spirit that is needed with drug policy.
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‘Many die and are turned into body parts, their limbs mixed together and lost.’ Mass graves are a violation of human dignity
For Palestinians in Gaza, there is no room for death, as there is no room for life, due to Zionist crimes and Israeli savagery, writes Refaat Ibrahim from occupied Gaza. “Many die and are turned into body parts, their limbs mixed together and lost… They transport them into Israel, subject them to examination, sometimes steal organs in certain cases, and then return them as remains of many individuals, often mixed together. Thus, these bodies bear no features, and their identities remain unknown, eventually buried in mass graves in a way that degrades human dignity and attacks it even after death…”
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A five-minute scroll
The world voted to support the mandate of the UNRWA in Palestine, while Israel continues to ignore international law in Syria. Syrian born British journalists advises that the media has been lying about Syria while Francesca Albanese puts Gaza back on the table as it disappears from the news. (more…)
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History repeats in the most chilling of ways
Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a cartoon by the irrepressible Cathy Wilcox. I gazed at the image for a long time. My first thought was that she’ll pay a price for this, and so might the Herald. And, true to form, there was indeed a strong reaction in some quarters. (more…)
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They destroyed what was inside us: The children of Gaza
From the day the war began, 15-year old Ghazal’s life was irreversibly changed. “They destroyed what was inside us,” she said. Her story is a window into the larger tragedy of how war has devastated children, especially those with disabilities.
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Offshore people dumping by a spooked government
The Albanese Labor Government has been spooked by recent High Court decisions which protect the human rights of non-citizens who cannot be returned to their home country because they are owed protection obligations. (more…)
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Courage in public office and Australia’s recognition of Palestine
“No room for robust debate” within ALP caucus. “There is so much courage that Australia could exercise. We could come out and be the real champions of human rights, and human life, that we claim to be – especially within the Labor party.” High profile Senator Fatima Payman and former Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds discuss courage in public office, Australia’s recognition of Palestine, Australia’s Voice, and the difficulties of standing up for one’s principles within a party political system. (more…)
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A call to all Christians in Australia to strive for a just peace in the holy land
In the Name of Christ, Our Peace – The time has come for people of faith to hear the cries of the people of Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon and to do everything in our power towards the ending of the death and destruction they are suffering. (more…)
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Politicking wins, vulnerable people lose out
Isn’t it better to hold on to integrity, uplift the lives of the most vulnerable in our society and risk losing an election, rather than win an election through the brutal treatment of society’s most vulnerable people? (more…)
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The prescience of Corporal Hijack
A year ago, Mussa Hijazi, a stone-throwing young teenager of the first Intifada who became a long-serving Canberra lawyer, laid out three options on how the conflict in Gaza would end. (more…)
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A necessary reckoning of bloodletting in Gaza
The premeditated bloodletting in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and many other largely forgotten parts of the world speaks hauntingly of the normalisation of death and destruction, largely for cruel, self-serving and illusory reasons. (more…)
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China speaks for conscience of the world at UN over horror in Gaza
Disgraceful veto of draft ceasefire resolution by US coincides with arrest warrants by International Criminal Court for Israeli pair on war crimes. (more…)
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If Tel Aviv was reduced to rubble like Gaza, the world would stop the war immediately
My mother survived the WW2 Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp, and she always asked why was the world silent? Why did they look away from the genocide of the Jews and do nothing? Today we know the answer as our government and media look away and do nothing for the Palestinians. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
A defendant who spied on JUlian Assange during his embassy asylum faces criminal charges for falsifying evidence. At the UN the State of Palestine reiterates that despite of labes of ‘terrorism’ Palestinian people have a seven -decade just cause while Piers Morgan interviews Francesca Albanese. In Pakistan, Imran Khan supporters are being brutally attacked, while pundits advise why Khan fell out with the establishment. Footage of Lindsey Graham supporting the ICC against Putin reveals the hypocrisy of politics, while David Shoebridge calls out the Albanese governments for fear politics. On ABC’s Media Watch, claims by Dick Smith in relation to green energy are overturned while the ABC Ombudsman calls for broader perspectives on contentious topics. (more…)
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The politics of ignoring genocide
Jews in Germany, Bosnians in former Yugoslavia, Tutsis in Rwanda, and now Palestinians in Gaza. In a recent interview, Francesca Albanese posed a rhetorical question: What kind of monsters have we become to see the live-streamed genocide of Palestinians and not act? (more…)
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Fighting coercive control: Why we can’t police our way to safety
Last week the state of South Australia moved another step closer to criminalising coercive control, with the bill passing through the House of Assembly on its way to the Legislative Council. (more…)
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Addressing harms caused by Australia’s response to ‘Slavery’
Chris Evans’ involvement in anti-trafficking responses in the late 2000’s was a heady time for the sector; John Howards’ ousting led many to hope migration would no longer be the political weapon of choice, human rights became important and collaboration with civil society became funded, fair and feasible. (more…)
