On Palm Sunday, diverse refugee activists were literally running rings around reflexive fear mongering politicians. (more…)
Tag: Human Rights
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Human rights protections underpin safeguarding national security ordinance
Grenville Cross says new legislation incorporates guarantees lacking in other common-law jurisdictions’ similar laws. (more…)
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On Syria, sanctions, terror and war – an open letter to Australian parliamentarians
When we choose not to show empathy for the people of Syria, it leads us to ignore their country’s ancient history and the rich fabric of Syrian society today. (more…)
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Gaza, Assange, and the destruction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As we speak, international law is being openly flouted by powerful actors, [the US, the UK, and Israel] with devastating results for Julian Assange, and other political prisoners, for thousands of innocent civilians slaughtered in Gaza, and for the continued viability of international human rights and international law themselves. (more…)
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UK/US: Time to end prosecution of Julian Assange, UN expert says
GENEVA (1 March 2024) – A UN expert today expressed concern that the possible extradition and imminent prosecution in the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could have serious implications for freedom of expression. (more…)
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How have we come to this? “Othering” is humanity’s original sin
“Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think.” Hannah Arendt (more…)
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The 8th of March is our Women’s Day
It is the once-a-year day when the media wants content on how women are fairing. That is not a spelling error but my description of the limited ‘equality’ that women have gained over the last half century. The following is my perception, now in my mid 80’s, as I have been actively involved in feminist equality, on what has been both gained and failed to be gained over the years since 1972. (more…)
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The persecution of Julian Assange
I see in the persecution of Julian Assange, a parallel with a technique put together by the United States in the destruction of Iraq that they called shock and awe, wherein all of the institutions of state were destroyed and plundered, with the exception of the department concerning itself with the production of oil. Now the parallel in publishing, in journalism, is Julian Assange. Every aspect of his life is absolutely destroyed. His family, facing bankruptcy in pursuit of some sort of freedom or justice for Julian, and intimidation and crushing, absolute crushing of the courage. There’s just no chance now that anybody will take upon themselves the work of Julian Assange, knowing that the United States will just simply destroy you, John Shipton says in an interview with John Jiggens. (more…)
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UNRWA is at a breaking point
It is impossible to adequately describe the suffering in Gaza. The death toll in Gaza is staggering. More than 30,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in just 150 days. 5% of the population is dead, injured or missing. Doctors are amputating the limbs of injured children without anaesthetic. Hunger is everywhere. A man-made famine is looming. It is a stain on our collective conscience that for 75 years UNRWA has had to fill a vacuum left by the lack of a political solution and a genuine peace. And yet UNRWA is now facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them, writes UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. (more…)
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Night Falls in the Evening Lands: The extradition of Julian Assange
As we await the UK High Court decision on Julian Assange’s extradition to the US, the implications of Assange’s persecution and the repercussions for human rights, journalism, peace and justice will be explored at the conference Night Falls in the Evening Lands: the Assange epic, which will be held in Melbourne on March 9. (more…)
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Palestinians in Gaza massacred, starved and raped
The Australian government remains silent, continues to call Israel “our friend”, and rewards Israel’s war machine in a new contract with the Israeli arms firm Elbit. The Federal Government sends more troops to the Middle East while starving Palestinians in northern Gaza are massacred as they desperately seek food for their families, babies in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration and the IDF sexually abuses and rapes Palestinian women prisoners. (more…)
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Children die of starvation, dehydration: UN warns life is “draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed”
“The international community is facing a moral and humanitarian test to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said a Gaza Health Ministry official. (more…)
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Australian Civil Society submits statement on Gaza genocide to the International Court of Justice
As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Australia is obliged to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people and failure to do so risks complicity in genocide. In the absence of a response from the Australian government to the ICJ ruling, at least 100 groups representing civil society are observing with concern Australia’s failure to act to prevent genocide in Gaza, and have made the following submission to the International Court of Justice. (more…)
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‘Horrific’: Israeli escalation would kill another 85,000 Gazans in 6 months, study shows
“Even in the best-case cease-fire scenario, thousands of excess deaths would continue to occur,” said the authors of a new report. (more…)
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Washington is the supporter of genocide who sits in judgment of others
China’s contrasting political repression and economic development in Tibet and Xinjiang does not hold a candle to US-sponsored state terrorism by Israel against the Palestinian people. (more…)
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Street play: A thing of the past?
We’d cross a long rope across the street and I used to have a dozen kids skipping down there. Even Mrs Munro came out – seventeen stone and she had no shoes on. She’d come out and skip. (more…)
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Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders
The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees. (more…)
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Assange’s draconian prosecution criminalises journalism and grants the US extraterritorial reach
In an extraordinary barely reported turn of events close to the conclusion of Julian Assange’s two day UK High Court Appeal against his extradition, a gaping hole appeared in plans to shunt him onto a plane to the US. (more…)
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First the CIA, now the US Dept of Justice, could take actions that would see WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dead
Documents obtained under FOI applications have revealed a worrying side to official Australian efforts regarding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (more…)
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Critical week: Torture, US jail, awaits Julian Assange – act now
In terms of significant dates and milestones in the long running pursuit by the US of publisher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, this coming week ranks highly. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week a hearing before two judges in the UK’s High Court will hear Assange’s final bid to appeal against extradition to the United States. (more…)
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Andrew Wilkie: Assange must be allowed to return to Australia
“The majority of the Australian parliament, including the Australian government and the Prime Minister are of the view that regardless of what you think about Julian Assange, the fact is he’s been incarcerated in one way or another for twelve years or so. The matter has gone on long enough that the extradition should be dropped and he should be allowed to return to Australia.” Says Andrew Wilkie in an interview with Dr John Jiggens. (more…)
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The Australian Parliament fails to uphold international law preventing genocide in Gaza
The Australian Parliament failed to recognise its responsibilities last week when Greens Leader Adam Bandt, responding to the International Court of Justice interim ruling to prevent genocide, initiated a vote for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. (more…)
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When open justice is an optional ingredient
I had been assuming that Julian Assange, whose case comes up for adjudication in the British Courts soon, was a shoo-in for being Australia’s prisoner of conscience of the decade, but a late entry into the competition is Michael Pezzullo, who appears to have been condemned by an Australian Star Chamber convening in secret, without the public having any satisfactory explanation of what he is said to have done wrong. (more…)
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Australian authorities breach UN Convention on rights of a child
Any Australian parent and grandparent would be aghast by the actions of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victoria Police involving an investigation into a 13 year old autistic boy who was charged in 2022 with terrorism offences. The boy had an IQ of 71. (more…)
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An opportunity for parliamentarians to work for peace
“If wars can be started with lies, peace can be started with truth,” Julian Assange:
Petition EN5846 to the House of Representatives calls on the Australian government to suspend Australia’s ‘autonomous sanctions’ on Syria. A considered, conscientious response to the petition could have major implications for Australia’s foreign and defence policies. (more…)
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Is there a problem with Australia’s approach to human rights in the PRC?
Human rights in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are under increased threat. The PRC government ignores international representations. This begs the question: should Australia even attempt to intervene? What do we risk by doing so? The easy course would be to do the minimum and restrict our representations to cases where Australian citizens and interests are directly involved. This author argues that Australia’s approach to human rights should be recalibrated.
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Assange’s very life at stake
Julian Assange will soon find out whether he will be granted a final appeal in the UK in his fight against extradition to the US. He may soon be on a plane to the US where he will face the full wrath of US vengeance and cruelty. The all-rights-reserved-to-revoke ‘assurances’ provided by the US fail to mitigate a new risk factor in Assange’s health, as the charade of the Rule of Law his own government has genuflected to throughout, nears its conclusion. (more…)
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Toxic effects of censorship on Gaza
Doctors, Teachers, Journalists, Academics are being disciplined, hauled before disciplinary bodies and even sacked for criticising the slaughter in Gaza and, most heinous sin of all, for mentioning genocide. Arrayed against those professionals is a lobby promoting the notion that criticism of Israeli government policies is anti-Semitic, hence the need to censor commentary about the massacres in Gaza. (more…)
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The last flurry: The US Congress and Australian Parliamentarians seek Assange’s release
On February 20, Julian Assange, the daredevil publisher of WikiLeaks, will be going into battle, yet again, with the British justice system – or what counts for it. The UK High Court will hear arguments from his team that his extradition to the United States from Britain to face 18 charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 would violate various precepts of justice. The proceedings hope to reverse the curt, impoverished decision by the remarkably misnamed Justice Jonathan Swift of the same court on June 6, 2023. (more…)
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Groups intensify global push for Gaza cease-fire after ICJ ruling
“An immediate cease-fire by all parties remains essential and—although not ordered by the court—is the most effective condition to implement the provisional measures and end unprecedented civilian suffering.” (more…)