Young Australians linger apprehensively on death row in Bali, awaiting a final judicial appeal ruling, out of sight and mind, Alexia Hall says. Australia should be campaigning widely for a death penalty-free region, and engaging directly with Indonesia…
The draft report of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Australia’s civil liberties and human rights performance has been released, and it contains some clear surprises. The USA, for example, wants us to train Australia’s police better in respecting h…
How were claims to human rights prioritised when the Universal Declaration was being established more than 60 years ago? CLA member Dr Bruce Kent outlines his perspective in European Human Rights 1919-1950: From Negative to Positive Example?
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There’s a new agreement on the block which some people say will restrict access to all sorts of material from overseas, or at least make it much more expensive. The final version of ACTA, the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, is out.
The Gillard Government’s proposal to hold a referendum with a view to recognising Indigenous Australians in the Constitution will produce nothing substantive or useful, scholar and author Dr Bede Harris says. The move gives ‘the appearance of doing the…
Behind claims of internet piracy, huge corporations are involved in big money battles, using laws, courts and international treaties to wage a fight to enforce their copyright. Here software engineer Arved von Brasch gives us the rundown on what it’s all…
In a recent series of articles, The Economist queries the sanity of the USA locking away more and more people in jails, some for almost unbelievable ‘crimes’, at increasingly greater cost year by year. There are lessons here for Australia.Crime and p…
Each political party complains about how the other parties waste billions of taxpayer dollars. Yet I’ve not seen or heard any party leader discuss the nearly $2billion annual spend for war in Afghanistan, “security” in Iraq, and physical and mental heal…
Britain investigated the “use” of a dozen of its passports in the assassination of Mahmud al-Mabhuh in Dubai. Their investigation determined that Israeli security services were responsible for cloning those passports – passports taken from their owners b…
The relatively new Human Rights Council has created new power blocs in international affairs. Australia will come under the spotlight in the four-yearly Universal Periodic Review, in early 2011, of how well we’re doing as a nation in terms of ensuring th…