Human Rights
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Chris Geraghty. Farewell to Pell
It was sad and painful, and no satisfaction, sitting at home in front of a computer, watching a senior prelate stagger around, wounded and bleeding. I sat glued to the screen, mesmerized, fiercely proud of our legal system, and watched a prince of the Church in humble street-clothes being tormented. George Pell, Cardinal Archbishop, sat Continue reading »
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Wayne Gibbons. The boats were not sabotaged.
“So we convince ourselves every cruelty we’ve inflicted – beginning with sabotaging boats along the Malaysia coast under Malcolm Fraser – isn’t a reflection on us. It’s tactical.” I was surprised and disturbed by this sweeping statement from David Marr in theguardian.com on 5 March. It unfairly casts a pall over the great success of Continue reading »
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Azita Bokan. The tragedy on Manus – an eye-witness account.
Azita Bokan was on Manus Island as an official Iranian interpreter during the recent violent clashes. What follows is an edited version of her interview by Richard Glover on ABC Radio Sydney on 21 February 2014. I came to Australia some 27 years ago and am a proud Australian. My father was a writer and Continue reading »
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Michael Sainsbury: Are Chinese leaders cleaning up or cracking down.
In April 2009 Dr Fan Yafeng was sacked from his job as a legal researcher at a prestigious think tank, China Academy of Social Sciences. It’s not that he was no good at his job – to help the country’s government formulate its constitutional and religious policy. Rather, it was that he was an openly proselytising Continue reading »
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Arja Keski-Nummi. Offshore Processing in Cambodia – Really?
The idea of Cambodia as a so-called offshore processing centre is not new. For a nanosecond I recalled the former government contemplated Cambodia as a likely candidate for an offshore processing centre. Thankfully saner heads prevailed, although to their discredit they did also contemplate East Timor. The scramble to avoid doing the decent thing and Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Manus and Nauru and Australia’s responsibility in regional processing.
An asylum seeker who comes to our shores must be protected. We cannot offload that responsibility onto another country. We continue to carry a responsibility for that asylum seeker whatever happens in Manus, Nauru or even Malaysia. I have not always held the view that those who come to Australia could be transferred and processed Continue reading »
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Michael Kelly SJ. Australians as the ‘white trash of Asia’ reaches new depth.
It is now over thirty years since the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew described Australians as the “white trash of Asia”. The barb stung and is still recalled with shame and hurt by Australian politicians as then Prime Minister Julia Gillard did in 2012. But the term has reached a new level Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. Sexual abuse in the Church – the failure of the Vatican and Popes
As with so many other things on the sex abuse issue, the Holy See’s response to the findings of the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child is conspicuous for its failure to acknowledge the central issue raised by that Committee: pontifical secrecy imposed on the Church’s investigations of child sexual abuse by Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell: The Inquisition of the Catholic Church at the United Nations.
The Vatican’s former Chief Prosecutor, Bishop Charles Scicluna, found himself before the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child in Geneva on 16 January 2014. He joked that in the past his predecessors may have been on the other side of the table as the “Grand Inquisitor”. The Church signed up to the Continue reading »
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Violence is on the decline. John Menadue
If you watch the tabloid television and the Murdoch press, you would certainly believe that violence is increasing. It seems counter-intuitive to suggest that we are moving away from violence. Over the holidays I have been reading ‘The Better Angels of our Nature – the Decline of Violence in History and its Causes’. It focuses Continue reading »
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Asylum seekers – Tony Abbott and I share a Jesuit education. John O’Mara
Like many Australians, I look on the way the Abbott government is handling the matter of asylum seekers with ever increasing dismay. Tony Abbott’s mantra “stop the boats”, is unprincipled, contrary to signed UN agreements and impractical. It is hard to erase the pre-election memory of the Western Sydney interviewee..”I’m going to vote for Abbott, Continue reading »
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Repost: Don’t tamper with the Refugee Convention. John Menadue
It would be dangerous to open up the pandora’s box of the Refugee Convention. It has served us well. Who would seriously suggest that persons facing persecution should not be protected. Given the world wide agitation against refugees and ‘outsiders’, a review of the Convention would be a great opportunity for extremists to run their Continue reading »
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A place of refuge: responses to international population movements. Arja Keski-Nummi
For over 60 years Australia has played a vital role in the development and strengthening of a system of international protection for refugees. It was one of the earliest signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. It has been an active member of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR and has held the Chair on several Continue reading »
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Is Pope Francis a Marxist?
On 16 December last year, Eureka Street carried an article by Neil Ormerod about Pope Francis and his economic, social and political message. That article can be found on the link below. John Menadue http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=38645#.Us8a9j0XBt8.email Continue reading »
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A 100 billion dollar tale of piracy in the Timor Sea. Michael Sainsbury
Although it sits on a vast undersea gas reserve, Timor-Leste remains deeply impoverished. Deep under the Timor Sea, there is a huge reserve of gas. Geologists now believe it is worth upwards of US$100 billion; a figure more than twice the amount estimated by Australia as recently as 2006. It is perhaps ironic that the Continue reading »
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Remarks by Sir William Deane AC on “Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Finding a Better Way”.
On 17 December, Sir William Deane, former Governor-General launched Australia21 – essays on refugees and asylum seekers. Sir William Deane’s remarks follow. Paul Barratt’s acknowledgement of the traditional custodians in which I respectfully join, serves to remind us that apart from indigenous Australians we are all migrants or descended from migrants and that many of Continue reading »
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Election aftermath – where to now on asylum seekers and refugees? John Menadue
Yesterday Sir William Deane launched a book ‘Refugees and asylum seekers – a better way’. A link to the book can be found at http://gallery.mailchimp.com/d2331cf87fedd353f6dada8de/files/Refugee_and_asylum_seeker_policy_Finding_a_better_way.pdf The book includes a chapter I wrote ‘Election aftermath – where to now on asylum seekers and refugees’. This chapter follows Election aftermath- where to now on asylum seekers and Continue reading »
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Sexual abuse – don’t mention Canon Law! Guest blogger: Kieran Tapsell
Submissions and speeches by the Australian Catholic Church about child sex abuse, remind me of Fawlty Towers, where Basil asks his non German guests not to mention the war. In the Church’s case, the unmentionable is canon law, the law of the Catholic Church. In his speech at Ballarat on 20 November 2013, Francis Sullivan, Continue reading »
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Australia’s Foreign Policy Trailing a Leaky Boat. Guest Blogger: Arja Keski-Nummi
Our foreign policy is more than boats or asylum seekers but that is what the Abbott government has reduced it to. We should all be concerned because what is at stake is much greater than stopping boats – it jeopardizes our ability to influence and be taken seriously on issues of greater importance to our Continue reading »
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Tony Abbott in Sri Lanka. John Menadue
Tony Abbott has continued his ‘stop the boats campaign” in Sri Lanka regardless of growing concerns about human rights abuses in that country. He offered two patrol boats as part of a ‘foreign aid package’. His justification for this is that it would help save the lives of people drowning at sea. Please spare us Continue reading »
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Mideast Road to Nowhere. Guest blogger Marcus Einfeld
This blog by Marcus Einfeld is in response to the blog by John Tulloh of 16 October on the above subject. John Tulloh’s 40 year career in international news gathering should have taught him that jumping into Israeli-Palestinian issues with instant judgements and simplistic solutions is unwise and simply assists to continue the conflict. The concept, Continue reading »
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Why Iranians join the refugee queue. Guest Iranian correspondent Nadia S Fosoul
In my country Iran, many dads take two jobs. They work hard so that their kids can check more items off their wish list. Moms like other moms in the world sacrifice their comforts for the sake of their children. Despite this, according to UNHCR data (immigrationinformation.org) the number of Iranian youth seeking asylum around Continue reading »
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The apathy and hostility of South Koreans to their Northern cousins. Guest bloggers: Markus Bell and Sarah Chee
In every way, Yu Woo-seong was a model defector. In his early 30s, he was smart, friendly, ambitious and well-liked. Despite the fact that he had been in South Korea for less than six years, Yu managed to work through his university studies while adapting remarkably well to his new environment, finishing his bachelor’s degree Continue reading »
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Even-handed Tony Abbott. John Menadue
In his toxic language over asylum seekers in the last three years, Tony Abbott has been not only derogatory about vulnerable people fleeing persecution, he has also gone out of his way to insult our neighbours in their handling of asylum seekers. He has shown no favouritism. He has insulted them all. Within the last Continue reading »
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Israel’s asylum-seeker dilemma. Guest blogger: John Tulloh.
Like Australia, Israel has a major problem of what to do with asylum-seekers. And, like Australia with our proposed Malaysia solution in 2011, Israeli legislation aimed at curbing the influx has been thrown out by the country’s highest court. Those seeking refuge in Israel did not come by boat. They came across the Sinai from Continue reading »
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Sri Lanka – the civil war may be over but peace has not returned.
The Australian government in cooperation with the Sri Lankan government and its security services has been returning asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. They are called ‘voluntary returnees’. Increasingly however, doubts are being expressed by many commentators about the continuing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the following article, published in Catholic News on September Continue reading »
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Frontier War and asylum seekers. John Menadue
Launch of the 2013-14 Catholic Social Justice Statement by John Menadue 11 September 2013 This statement follows the proud tradition of the Catholic Church in Australia since 1940 of calling Catholics and all Australians to act for social justice. The 65 statements issued over the years cover a great range of social justice issues – poverty, violence, Continue reading »
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Japanese amnesia and the contrast with Germany. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun
Our four Australian/Korean children were educated in Japanese primary schools. Every summer holiday we struggled through the prescribed homework text- Natsu no Tomo (Summer’s friend). In the early August segment, there were assignments regarding WWII. They stated, “talk to your parents about WWII and write a composition about the importance of peace”. So, we talked Continue reading »
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Hitting rock-bottom! John Menadue
Today Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have announced draconian measures that will inflict enormous punishment on over 30,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia over recent years by boat. These draconian policies will apply not just to future boat arrivals but will be applied retrospectively to over 30,000 asylum seekers who are already legally Continue reading »
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Regional Settlement Agreement with Papua New Guinea – a post-script. John Menadue
With the dust settling a little I thought it might be safe to return to this issue! I said in my blog of July 20 that I supported the general thrust of the RSA with PNG, although a lot remained to be sorted out and the implementation is already showing signs of problems. Without repeating Continue reading »
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