Australia is the only democratic country in the world without a charter of human rights in either legislation or the Constitution. On 1 July the deadline for submissions will close on the federal government’s current Inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework. In this Inquiry the government is seeking comments on whether the Human Rights Framework Continue reading »
Human Rights
Doing the rounds on YouTube is the case of a black American Tyshon Booker arrested when he was 16 for being present (with a gun) at a murder which he did not commit (the murderer confessed). He was given a 51 year minimum sentence. This case is, of course, is only the disgraceful tip of Continue reading »
Australia is fast approaching a reckoning with its past, its present and the state of the nation’s soul. And if the last month is any indication to go by, we will be found wanting. A hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud wrote a paper called, Mourning and Melancholia. In it he mapped the divergent paths of Continue reading »
Maybe it’s a quirk in my character that in times of calamity I always look for the silver lining. It doesn’t often appear, but in this darkest hour of despair, when nothing seemed possible and the collapse of hope was profound, I found it. The spark. I found it growing in the refugee camps of Continue reading »
Most people can focus to see if they’re looking at a bird, a car or a person. Throw in a military scope and the sharp eyes of youth and ask yourself if you would spot the difference before you pulled the trigger. So why does the IDF constantly claim they mistakenly shoot civilians? They’re either Continue reading »
Australians are more used to pointing the accusing finger at other countries than having it pointed at us. Many Australians criticise China for allegedly engaging in genocide against its Uighur population and harvesting their organs. We have for decades been expressing concern about Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya and the repression of women in Iran, Saudi Continue reading »
Atrocities don’t happen overnight. They ramp up over time. The Nazi death camps, were preceded by at least a decade of smaller, selective and escalating removals of human rights for Jewish and LGBTIQ+ peoples. Similar patterns allowed for the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia – incremental and selective removals of minority rights built momentum and Continue reading »
"If You Indict Putin, Make Sure Joe Biden Is With Him" – Alfred de Zayas on Ukraine and International Law
The post Ukraine, Human Rights, and International Law, with Alfred de Zayas appeared first on MintPress News.
The recent Robert Gregory blog in Australian Jewish News demands a response. Gregory introduces his piece with the observation ‘Australia/Israel relations are at a tipping point’. He goes on to draw attention to some important but nevertheless modest decisions by the present Labor government in the first twelve months in office. They at least evidenced Continue reading »
Human Rights activist Miko Peled on the theft of priceless archaeological treasures from Gaza, which he argues is part of a larger Israeli campaign of genocide and erasure.
The post The Cultural Looting of Gaza appeared first on MintPress News.