Writer
Elaine Pearson
Elaine Pearson is the Australia Director at Human Rights Watch. Based in Sydney, she works to influence Australian foreign and domestic policies in order to give them a human rights dimension.
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Australia: Rights failings tarnish regional credibility
The Australian government must reduce indigenous incarceration and stop subsidising fossil fuels. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. What Next for Australian ISIS Suspects? Government Should Pursue Full Investigations, Fair Trials (Human Rights Watch)
The Australian government is taking an important step by helping eight Australian children of suspects of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) return home from northeast Syria. The children were held for months without charge under horrific conditions in Syria’s al-Hol Camp. The youngest is two years old. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australian Children are Trapped in Syria and the Government Must Bring Them Home (Human Rights Watch)
An ABC Four Corners investigation has exposed the callous indifference of Australian officials over the return of Australian children held without charge in foreign camps for families of Islamic State members. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. China’s Efforts to Curb Australia’s Academic Freedom: What Universities Can Do.
There’s been a vigorous debate of late in Australia about the extent of Chinese government interference in domestic politics. Less has been said about what occurs on our university campuses. Pressure from the Chinese government comes in numerous ways, including censoring discussion topics, putting students from China under surveillance, and threatening those who participate in Continue reading »
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Open letter to Marise Payne: Will Australia let James Ricketson unjustly spend 6 years in Cambodian prison?
Dear Foreign Minister, Human Rights Watch writes to urge you to press the Cambodian Government to quash the conviction and immediately release imprisoned Australian journalist and filmmaker James Ricketson. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Cambodia’s ‘dirty dozen’ have no place in Australia.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s crackdown on dissent is in full swing ahead of national elections later this month. But who are the generals around Hun Sen who act like a praetorian guard protecting him and the ruling party, helping to crush or eliminate political opponents, and then obstructing efforts at accountability? Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s Government must guard against foreign interference, but not by curbing our rights.
Authoritarian governments around the world use broadly drafted national security laws to silence human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, and critics of the government. Australia should not join them by passing a revised espionage and foreign interference law that excludes safeguards for legitimate disclosures in the public interest. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s lame response to Anwar Ibrahim’s detention was a mistake
The region looks to Australia as a functioning democracy. We shouldn’t sideline human rights issues for trade and security ties. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON and JOHN BLAXLAND. Myanmar Rohingya crisis: Australia needs to stand up and help as the situation worsens
The world seems to be sitting on its hands as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar descends into what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Continue reading »
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JOHN BLAXLAND AND ELAINE PEARSON. Myanmar Rohingya crisis: Australia needs to stand up and help as the situation worsens.
The world seems to be sitting on its hands as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar descends into what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia Should Suspend Military Sales to Saudi Arabia
The Australian government should immediately halt military sales to Saudi Arabia following numerous unlawful Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Australia should also release details about military weapons and material it has sold to other members of the Saudi-led coalition carrying out the Yemen campaign and whether any Australian-made arms Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s harsh refugee policy is no global model.
This week in New York, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said, “Our policy on border protection is the best in the world,” and he’ll be touting the Australian model of offshore refugee detention and resettlement at two refugee summits this week. But Australia’s approach should give world leaders some pause. “I understand the need to protect Continue reading »
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Elaine Pearson. Time for an Asia-Pacific Anti-Death Penalty campaign.
Many Australians are sickened that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australians sentenced to death by Indonesia’s courts for drug smuggling, have been transferred to an Indonesian island in preparation for their imminent execution. They are slated to be executed alongside three Nigerians, a Filipina, a Brazilian, a Frenchman, a Ghanian, and an Indonesian. “I Continue reading »
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Elaine Pearson. Australia should reconsider refugee transfers to Cambodia
The Australian government should press Cambodian authorities to implement key reforms to improve treatment of refugees in Cambodia before transferring any refugees from Nauru. In new Human Rights Watch interviews, asylum seekers and refugees living in Cambodia described hardships as a result of the Cambodian government’s failure to process regular nationality documents and due to Continue reading »
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Elaine Pearson. The civil war may have ended, but not the persecution.
What’s happening to boatloads of Tamil asylum seekers on the Indian Ocean? Allegations that Australian authorities have intercepted at least two Tamil boats and handed them over to the Sri Lankan navy after only brief telephone interviews are extremely troubling. Until now, the Australian government has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations – giving the now long-tired excuse of Continue reading »
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Elaine Pearson. Cambodia: A poor choice for Australia’s refugee resettlement
“It’s not about whether they are poor, it’s about whether they can be safe,” Australia’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in defence of Australia’s plan to resettle refugees currently housed on Nauru to Cambodia. It appears Cambodia and Australia are in the final stages of signing such an agreement. But is Cambodia a safe place for Continue reading »
