The Labor government has a policy which requires enforceable commitments to internationally recognised labour rights and environmental standards in trade agreements, and to safeguard the rights of First Nations peoples and women. The announcement of negotiations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year surprised many because the UAE has not ratified some basic labour rights and human rights international agreements and has the worst record on these issues of any Australian trading partner. (more…)
Tag: Human Rights
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Craig Foster: “Refugees are not political footballs”
“Seeking asylum is legal. Refugees are tired of being used as political footballs,” said former Socceroo Captain and human rights advocate Craig Foster while umpiring a Refugee Soccer Match on Sunday. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
Owen Jones reveals media manipulation regarding the soccer in Amsterdam. Palestine, the most well-documented genocide in history, Gideon Levy speaks of the Apartheid state while Andrey reveals the destruction of Bedouin communities. In South Lebanon, attacks on cities intensify while reports Israel has killed more than 200 paramedics are ignored by the press. At home, Jim Chalmers praised for being an articulate on the pulse Treasurer while Media Watch uncovers the truth of media attention for the victims of death at the hands of their partner. (more…)
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Modern slavery in Australia’s diplomatic heart: envoys’ abuse of domestic workers exposed
Court rulings have revealed harrowing stories of abuse and neglect at the hands of envoys operating under diplomatic immunity in Canberra. (more…)
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History cannot excuse the crimes of the present
One of Mark Twain’s more celebrated aphorisms is that ‘history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. Witty, no doubt, but it doesn’t seem quite adequate to Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, its longstanding, settler-led expansion into the West Bank, or the implausible use of history to justify current policy. (more…)
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Netanyahu has been leading the United States into disaster after disaster after disaster
This is a US operation being carried out by Israel but with complete complicity by the United States and silence by Europe. (more…)
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Zionists’ inflammation of antisemitism
The primary focus of the Zionist movement and the Israeli lobby is not combating anti-Semitism but rather combating critics of Israel’s colonial apartheid regime and the crimes it is perpetrating against the Palestinian people. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese speaks out for humanity, Palestine speaks in the UN, the PM of Ireland speaks out for the UNRWA and Bernie Sanders explains the difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Israel. Overnight continued Israeli attacks decimate lives in Beit Lahia, North Gaza, the US State department gives their perspective. At home, the debunking of nuclear power for Australia takes just 90 seconds. A five-minute scroll. (more…)
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The banning of UNWRA: The situation could not be grimmer
Let us be abundantly clear. What Israel is intending is against its obligations under international law. What Israel is intending is against its moral obligations as fellow citizens of the human race. (more…)
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Clean slate for prison reform
The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green). (more…)
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Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity “extreme under any circumstances”
“The events since October 7 have been absolutely overwhelming. And that means they are overwhelming for everybody, but particularly for the people who are experiencing them, those who are suffering. The victims. It’s regularly said that October 7 represented the greatest killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that’s correct. What’s said less frequently is that the killing of Palestinians since then represents the greatest Slaughter of Palestinians in their recorded history.” (more…)
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Lidia, I’m angry, too
A lot has been written in the past few days about Senator Lidia Thorpe and her courageous act of speaking truth to power when she confronted coloniser, King Charles, in the colonial halls of Parliament. Yet amidst the commentary, one voice remains absent: the voice of the criminalised community. As a formerly incarcerated woman, I want to tell you what Lidia means to me, because as a leader, she embodies loyalty, bravery, and an unshakable commitment to pursuing justice for our community. In Lidia, I see a leader who has never wavered in her support for our struggles—a fearless advocate who stands with us when few others will. (more…)
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Nobel messages from East Asia, 2024
Early in October 2024, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award of two major prizes: the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese grassroots peace organisation Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations), and the literature prize to the Korean novelist, Han Kang. From both winners came messages addressed to our troubled times. There is little early indication that they would be heard. (more…)
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Thank goodness for Lidia Thorpe
Calling Lidia Thorpe “un-Australian”, as occurred in Canberra on 22 October, is to be reminded that being “Australian” is to grovel to British royalty, to curtsy, genuflect and pay homage and allegiance to an anti-democratic institution, to a man who has wealth, position, entitlement and power due to birth, and birth only. (more…)
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The treatment of detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra’s City News. (more…)
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Coping with despair: Palestine, Lebanon and beyond
Israel’s atrocities for which they are not held accountable, leaves a world feeling powerless to do more than watch and protest. Intervention to cope with a pandemic of despair, requires life enhancing responses to foster peace and revive respect for international humanitarian law. (more…)
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Make aid reach Gaza, but not until children starve to death for another 30 days, says US
For years, the Israeli authorities have restricted food, fuel and essential supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, turning the deliveries on and off at will. This contributed to the desperate Hamas outbreak on 7 October 2023. Since the beginning of this month, Israel has stopped almost all the deliveries. (more…)
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Terms of engagement: Refusing the Zionist narrative
“Our language shouldn’t be designed to appease the oppressor.” Steve Salaita (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
The onslaught of Israeli horror continues on Northern Gaza. Learn about the victim in the images shared across the world, Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student. Israel has dropped the equivalent of six atomic bombs on Gaza, three times smaller than Hiroshima. We see horror in the aftermath as women and children are found in the debris, and the landscape in Lebanon resembling that of Gaza. There is no safe place for children, says UNICEF. Francesca Albanese is investigating private sector complicity, while Senator Wong sends more empty messages. Our five-minute scroll on X, telling the news and views you don’t see in mainstream media. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
John Mearsheimer on ethnic cleansing and Double Down news debunks the myth of self defence. Francesca Albanese questions Germany’s position on Israel, while chemical weapons are used on UN peacekeepers. Penny Wong announces sanctions on Iran, but not Israel. Life for Palestinian journalists and a record of IDF atrocities. Sophie McNeill corrects the ABC, Abul Rizvi corrects the facts on asylum records. Lula da Silva meets asylum seekers arriving in Brazil, while Australia’s state premiers decline to join the official welcome for the King. Five-minutes scrolling on X. (more…)
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Equality under the law: the differing treatment of Hezbollah and Israel in Australia
Last week the federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was asked by a journalist about the process for making Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based political and militant group, a ‘proscribed terrorist organisation’. As is usually the case for a politician caught out because they don’t know the answer, he became aggressive and sought to belittle the journalist. (more…)
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One year after 7 October: statement by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society
If any lesson can be drawn at this dismissal juncture, it must surely be that violence engenders violence … (more…)
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Life in Gaza and on the West Bank: Political leaders invited to interpret humanity
In the current global turmoil of revenge and war, Australians want to see political leaders speaking about humanity and negotiation, not the old rhetoric which chooses winners and losers. In the following letter to party leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate, we urge all parliamentarians to support their leaders by making their own “Personal Statements of Humanity” in their communities as well as in the Parliament or on their websites. (more…)
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Resilience amongst ruin: 12 months of genocide and resistance in Gaza
Just weeks into Israel’s current genocide in Gaza, I spoke with my cousin as she watched the violence unfold from her home in Khan Yunis. She declared, “We are used to this; it is temporary and will pass.” (more…)
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The media campaign against Julian Assange
The liberation of Australian journalist Julian Assange in late June ended an ordeal lasting 14 years. But it does not lessen the responsibility of his persecutors. Washington, London and Stockholm all acted with the complicity of an institution supposed to speak truth to power and to protect the innocent – the press, for once, were not very supportive of another journalist. (more…)
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Julian Assange gets a positive hearing at last
Appearing in public for the first time since he returned in June to Australia from Britain’s Belmarsh Prison, Julian Assange will give his first official testimony since 2019 on 1 October. (more…)
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A five-minute scroll
A five-minute scroll of X uncovers abhorrent settler behaviour, questions about Peter Dutton’s nuclear platform, South Africa speaking out for Palestine in the UN, Chris Sidoti on the Israeli Army, Genocide Tourism and news of Julian Assange. (more…)
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On war crimes and Western hypocrisy
The death toll has risen to 12 from Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon on Tuesday which detonated explosive materials hidden in thousands of pagers. Another 20 people were then killed in another attack on Wednesday with a second wave of explosions, this time using walkie talkies and home solar energy systems. (more…)
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These are the things I’ve learnt you can’t ask about Israel
In recent years, I have been asked to comment on the Middle East “impasse”, though I am no foreign policy expert. I am merely one of many humanists who mourn this tragic history and rail against the failure of the international community to exert the great influence it has to bring peace and justice to innocent civilians in this area of the world. (more…)
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Sudan’s nightmare: 150,000 civilians killed
UN estimates suggest 2.5 million people will die by the end of 2024 and six million by 2027. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on the world to “wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”. (more…)