Stuart Rees
Stuart Rees AM is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney & recipient of the Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize.
Stuart's recent articles
12 October 2021
Nobel Peace Prize recipients Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov have some lessons for Australia
Australian journalists should try imitating the extreme courage of Nobel Peace Price winners Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov justice needs to be done on many issues.
10 October 2021
Maria Kalesnikova: Amazing courage for Belarus and beyond
In democracies, there are few risks in challenging abusive policies, though courage to do so is often missing. Yet in a brutal, dangerous country, young Belarusian leader Maria Kalesnikova is displaying that indispensable quality.
6 October 2021
Adoption of anti-Semitism definition is absurd and abusive
Anti-Semitism is racist, bigoted and should never be tolerated. Yet in arguing for the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, Australian politicians' rationale has been thoughtless, often absurd and usually abusive of the rights of Palestinians.
21 September 2021
An Australian Story of Cruelty: the Biloela family
On Monday, former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone was wringing her hands on ABC TV. Not on behalf of the persecuted Biloela family, though. She was crying crocodile tears to defend a powerful, inflexible government.
14 September 2021
Anti-Palestinianism is as damnable as anti-Semitism: a statement is long overdue
Before endorsing the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of anti-Semitism, politicians in Australia and other western countries should consider the implications for the rights of Palestinians.
22 August 2021
Morrison shows selfishness and cruelty towards Afghans.
At press conferences about the Afghan tragedy, Prime Minister Morrison boasts that Australia is rescuing Afghans, and to resettle refugees will implement humanitarian programmes. Each claim displays selfishness and cruelty, as in policy statements which are cover for cowardice and devoid of generosity.
18 August 2021
Biloela and Assange: compliance with governments, not justice
In Australia, to utter the words High Court assumes a sense of justice. In the UK, claims about British justice imply adherence to principled conducted influenced by law. But in both countries, judges and lawyers have been displaying not passion for justice but compliance with revengeful governments.
11 August 2021
Climate urgency, Australia's selfishness
In response to the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Treasurer Josh Frydenberg rushed to Sky News to repeat the platitude that technology, not taxes would overcome threats from global warming. Before a Canberra press conference, a smirking Prime Minister claimed Australia would reach targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions because this country always achieves its goals.
5 August 2021
Sanctioning Israel: Courage to Present a Petition to Parliament
A petition to be presented to Federal politicians on August 9 seeks the imposition of sanctions on Israel. It asks for condemnation of apartheid as a crime against humanity, demands an end to the cruel 15 year siege of Gaza and the 54 year military occupation of Palestinian lands.
1 August 2021
Covid-fuelled violence threatens civility and democracy
In common with the thugs who invaded the US Capitol on January 6, the Australian protesters against lockdown measures on July 24 displayed extremism which threatens the civility of democracy and thereby others freedoms.
24 July 2021
Humpty Dumpty, Michael Easson and Israeli Apartheid.
Humpty Dumpty told Alice, When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
20 July 2021
Mandela Courage for a Dangerous World
Not for Mandela the contemporary, pragmatic tactic of polling by sticking a finger in the air to test in which direction voters interests are blowing.
12 July 2021
Peace and global citizenship: student's present concerns and future hopes
Zoom conversations with students from Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, France, India, Bangladesh and Ghana, reveal dismay about universal cruelties but also their hopes to experience peaceful futures.
11 July 2021
Julian Assange and the culture of revenge
To lessen the macabre prospect of Julian Assange spending 175 years in a US maximum security prison, the US Department of Justice suggests that he could serve prison time in Australia. In a decades long tragedy, this latest act looks like nurture for an all consuming culture of revenge in which legal theatre has provided only a convenient rationale.
29 June 2021
Fascism is alive in Australia
George Orwell wrote that almost any English person would accept bullying as a synonym for fascism. Political theorists refer to fascism as characterised by secrecy in government, by goals for national regeneration plus promotion of masculinity and derision of democracy.
17 June 2021
Immigration: language of cruelty or words for humanity
The Coalition governments self-image, values and attitudes towards powerless people, such as the Tamil Biloela family, are parcelled in a language and style that is far removed from ideals of a common humanity.
14 June 2021
Denial as policy, the Tamil Biloela family.
In a school playground, a little boy responds to being caught doing something wrong: It wasnt me sir, or It was those other boys, or even I would never do such a thing. His ducking for cover matches the denial of responsibility characterising the Morrison government, not only regarding their cruelty to the Tamil/Biloela family.
10 June 2021
The Tamil family: cruelty beggars belief
The continued detention of the Tamil Biloela family, let alone the threat to deport them, confirms the governments fascination with cruelty as policy. To demonstrate their bravery in defending Australias borders, Ministers think that to protect comfortable and fortunate Australians, they must show a wanton disregard of the interests of the powerless and vulnerable.
23 May 2021
Towards peace for Gaza by ending deceit
Following the ceasefire after the latest Gaza carnage, media commentary included claims that life in that besieged, bombarded strip could return to normal. This insulting observation is one more verbal absurdity in cowardly refusals to speak truths about the colonisation of Palestinians and cruelty towards them.
13 May 2021
Imagining an alternative world: Stories for justice*
In the 2019 Australian Federal election, Labor leader Bill Shorten offered diverse policies but never a narrative which could be remembered and shared. To speak about justice, a story could have been more effective than a recitation of policies.
29 April 2021
Killed and abandoned: the children of Afghanistan
US and Australian troops are preparing to leave Afghanistan with a debilitating legacy for millions of children. Simultaneous with news of troop withdrawals, Prime Minister Morrison has spoken of his taste for a laying on of hands as a means of healing. The children of Afghanistan would regard these events as at best confusing, and at worst, more betrayal and hypocrisy.
15 April 2021
Paranoia over China, government, media, AFP collusion
The High Court's current deliberations about the legality of warrants issued last year to the AFP to search the home of John Zhang, part-time assistant to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, are the tip of a massive iceberg of government abuses of power.
7 April 2021
Labor makes another flimsy commitment to Palestinians
While Israel and Palestine are geographically distant, theres no excuse for the Labor Partys out of touch support for a two-state solution, and for appearing unaware of critiques of the controversial Israeli supported definition of anti-Semitism.
1 April 2021
An American culture of violence: Implications for Australia?
Gun slaughter runs rampant crosses the United States, but belief in US exceptionalism accompanied by denial that a culture of violence exists discourages diagnosis of the pandemics root cause.
17 March 2021
Police compliance with cruelty: will Australia follow Moscow, Minsk and Myanmar?
In an ideal world, war is declared but no-one turns up. In the same utopia, police forces refuse orders to arrest, torture and kill, but in Myanmar, Minsk, Moscow and Hong Kong, men in police uniforms are complying with orders.
15 February 2021
Colonial-type genocide in West Papua: living in constant fear
West Papuans are Indigenous people, easily ignored, their natural resources exploited, their homes and cultures destroyed, hundreds tortured, hundreds of thousands killed. Our media reports endlessly about genocide in remote Xinjiang but not about genocide in neighbouring West Papua. Why?
26 January 2021
Australias 'exceptional' human rights record
Leaders who consider their country exceptional are less likely to acknowledge any shortcomings. In light of recent criticism of Australias human rights record, will our leaders feel so ashamed of being labelled exceptional that they will look to implement standards of common decency considered central to a fair-go culture?
21 January 2021
Cruelty as policy in Australia and elsewhere: a short list of 2020s' victims
Political cultures also foster sadism, justifying such behaviour by an alleged need to protect national security. And once specific population groups have been dehumanised, they become targets for cruelties.
17 January 2021
Conspiracy Theorists, Free Speech and Australian Politicians
No need to be a wowser to insist that respect for truth cements civil society and that personal relationships, conduct in organizations and the implementation of governments policies depend on claims based on proven facts.
11 January 2021
Trump thuggery exploited political fault lines
Fault lines beneath US politics explain the fragility of democracy and the invasion of the Capitol building. Like a thug armed with high explosives, President Trump exploited each weakness and lit the fuse to guarantee an explosion.
5 January 2021
Assange decision welcome but sullied by legal chicanery
The British judge's ruling that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the United States is welcome, but it comes after the charade called justice in which British authorities held an unconvicted person in a top security prison and made his defence as difficult as possible.
30 December 2020
Cancelling Brexit, the only remedy for a disastrous decision
No deal Brexit looms. Britain will be leaving the EU. Nationalist Prime Minister Boris Johnson promises the use of the Royal Navy to protect British fishing boats and to keep foreign vessels out, even though the EU emphasized inclusiveness. Theres no place for friendly sentiments among ethnocentric Tories.
28 December 2020
Replacing Cruelty to Refugees with Aspirations from 1948
If politicians re-learn the principles which dignified the rule-based order, launched in 1948 with passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this should affect the chances that 2021 will not see a repeat of the cruelties of 2020.
9 December 2020
Reveille for Timor, apology from Australia: Courage or Cowardice in Public Life
In common with other countries, Australian rejuvenation after the Covid pandemic depends not only on a vaccine, but also on a language for humanity, as in advocating the return of human rights principles and displays of courage in public life.
30 November 2020
Morrison's selective attitude to human rights
Article 1 of the UN Charter declares objectives to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. But the Morrison government ignores the abuses of its friends, does not care about the without distinction principle, and thereby undermines claims to champion human rights.
16 November 2020
Apologising to Shaoquett Moselmane - a touch of courage needed
Courage to say sorry to anyone wrongly offended is an invaluable quality in personal relations and in the cement which builds a dignified civil society, but courage and dignity is still absent in the treatment of NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane.
2 November 2020
Slaughter in France, abusive power, the significance of satire
Slaughter in Paris and Nice by Islamist extremists raises the issue whether it is worth risking discussion of actions taken in the name of a religion, let alone re-asserting the value of satire.
25 October 2020
Shaoquett Moselmane, Dan Oakes and Julian Assange: what price justice? What about the media?
Under the guise of a phenomenon called security, currently interpreted as suspect any pro-China sentiment, or dont reveal murder by US forces, sinister theatrics play across Australia. These reveal Shaoquett Moselmane MP as one victim, ABC journalist Dan Oakes another, and in Londons Belmarsh security prison sits Julian Assange.
27 September 2020
Downer on Palestine: to the Manor Born
The powerful prey mercilessly on the vulnerable and the mainstream media let them get away with it.
21 September 2020
P&I ISSUES in Stuart Rees Cruelty or Humanity , Bristol: Policy Press 2020
Regarded by international jurist Richard Falk as A road map for humanity and by Noam Chomsky as a wonderful guide to the challenges we face, Stuart Rees' 'Cruelty or Humanity'identifies world-wide threats to freedom and democracy and displays the humanitarian alternatives.
15 September 2020
Overcoming Fatalism: Victoria, The Congo and Yemen
Scapegoating Victoria suggests indifference to global issues. A touch of internationalism could replace the hand wringing pity which has been compounded by partisan attacks on Premier Andrews.
6 September 2020
Police state governance and the civil liberties of an MP
In disdain for human rights and to display power, governments deploy police forces to harass or arrest citizens, and then justify their actions with claims about the influence of foreign forces.And it's happening right now in Australia.
26 August 2020
Border openings, vaccine illusions and a log jam of proposals
Even before a Covid-19 vaccine arrives Coalition politicians, limited by their assumption there is no alternative to capitalism, are recommending the resurrection of Reagan and Thatcher policies to treat everyone and everything as a commodity.
9 August 2020
Words matter - poets can change the World!
Responses to the mayhem caused by the destruction of Beirut will have much in common with the aftermath of Covid 19: long term recovery from devastation coupled to an opportunity to build societies so different from those which preceded the explosion and the virus.
12 July 2020
Make peace not war, the language of military strategists
Politicians, defence strategists and media enthusiasts for the armed forces will use words from the Defence Strategic Update proposal to spend $270 billion on weapons for the military. Via the language of non-violence, it is also valuable to convey other ways of thinking.
7 July 2020
United States and Australia, so little in common ?
Australia identifies with and supports US democracy, yet values and dominant modes of thought in America have produced a form of governance so dysfunctional that Australians should question their assumptions about the two countries similarities.
4 July 2020
Drop the xenophobia and Cold War tactics - respect Shaoquett Moselmane's rights
A healthy civil and democratic society depends on citizens' ability to weigh up diverse views, to re-frame issues and to consider the dangers when powerful people make claims without any obvious evidence.
21 June 2020
A Politics of Deceit: Israel/US Annexation of Palestinian Lands
In response to Israels intention to annex up to 30% of the West Bank, respect for truth by all the parties involved, Israeli, Palestinian, US, European and Australian, has been replaced by calculations about the benefits of deceit.
11 June 2020
Pathology of a Dictatorship: Lessons from the Philippines
Over six thousand kilometres to the north of Australia, a dangerous pandemic is spreading and needs to be contained. President Duterte of the Philippines is consolidating his dictatorship with an Anti-Terrorism Bill which defines terrorism so broadly that free speech can be prosecuted and any dissent punished.