Human Rights
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Good Samaritans in Greece
We have been told in Australia that asylum-seekers are so inhuman, that they would even throw their children overboard; that they are all ‘illegals’ and akin to criminals; and that they bring disease and wads of cash. Fortunately, helpers in Greece have taken no notice of this characterisation of asylum seekers. See the link below Continue reading »
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Misha Coleman. Open Letter to Julie Bishop on Sri Lankan war crimes.
8 October 2015. Dear Ms Bishop Thank you for co-sponsoring the UN Human Rights Committee resolution negotiated by the Sri Lankan Government, which will hopefully provide some answers and finality to the mothers of 146,679 missing people, through the establishment of a domestic war crimes panel. You’ll know that these Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian Continue reading »
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Nauru and the Philippines
Three days ago, on 6 October, I posted a story ‘Nauru and the Philippines‘. That story carried an unconfirmed report that the Australian government was negotiating with the Philippines government for the transfer of 600 asylum seekers in Nauru to the Philippines. Since then there have been several reports confirming the thrust of this story, Continue reading »
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Sean Gorman. Goodes is gone but the confronting truth remains.
For many AFL fans, the last week in September is the time of the year where we reflect on a season that could have been and dream of next year. One thing we can be sure of is that we won’t see Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes on a football field again. This saddens me. Continue reading »
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Spencer Zifcak. Human rights inquiry and a Charter of Rights!
Tony Abbott and George Brandis always used strong rhetoric about the necessity to protect Australians’ traditional rights and freedoms. The reality under the Abbott government, however, was different. The rights of minority racial, religious, ethnic, refugee and environmental groups were relentlessly pared back. Those who stood up for human rights, like the President of the Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Border control gulags have had their time
What are the chances of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten agreeing by Christmas that it’s time to close the refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island? Turnbull and Shorten already agree that the boats coming from Indonesia should be stopped. The boats are now being stopped, if need be, with turnbacks, which neither side of Continue reading »
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Libby Lloyd. Coming to grips with our domestic war
For many reasons there is currently a much greater interest in the issue of domestic and family violence. This derives from increased media attention, the significant increase in intimate partner homicides (64 so far this year), the vastly improved police and legal response, constant revision and improvement of state and federal laws, as well as Continue reading »
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Saudi Arabia doesn’t ‘do’ refugees.
Saudi Arabia has shown that it is possible to accommodate three million people for the Haj. See link below. But it is unwilling to provide any sanctuary for refugees from Syria. Syrians must apply for a visa or work permit to enter Saudi Arabia. Under this visa/permit system many Syrians have entered Saudi Arabia, but Continue reading »
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Refugee Diary.
It is one thing to endure the terror of barrel-bombing by the Assad regime and the barbarism of ISIS in Syria. But this is only the beginning of a harrowing trek by Syrians in their journey to safety and freedom in Germany and elsewhere. Verica Jokic, an ABC journalist gave a compelling account on Radio National on Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Transfield, Manus and Nauru
Transfield and its subcontractors are profiteering from lucrative contracts to run detention centres on behalf of the Australian government on Manus and Nauru. All the indications are that there is widespread abuse and oppression particularly on Nauru. It is a disgrace. Present policies on Manus and Nauru are unsustainable yet Minister Dutton remains as Minister Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. The Royal Commission – Damning with faint understatement.
The reports issued by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse at times seem quietly understated. The Commission seems to invite readers to draw their own conclusions – damning or otherwise – from the facts the Commission has found. This is particularly true of its report into its Case Study No Continue reading »
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Peter McNamara. Are all Australians just ‘Bad Samaritans’, or is it just the media?
I always thought Australians were good Samaritans, welcoming people from all backgrounds, all races, all religions, to their rich and prosperous nation. It belies belief to see the media reporting that Australian Christians, including Catholic Archbishop Fisher, say that preference should be given to Christian refugees from war-torn Syria. The Australian does not ring true Continue reading »
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John Menadue. A one-off increase in the humanitarian program rather than a safe haven is now possible.
In this blog several of us have advocated a safe haven arrangement, as was the case for the Kosovars, to meet the present Syrian refugee crisis. It was then clear that the government was not going to do much at all. That has now changed. The government has been reluctantly dragged along by state premiers, Continue reading »
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Klaus Neumann. Stepping up to the plate.
Angela Merkel said last week ‘There will be no tolerance towards those who question the dignity of others.’ Prime minister Tony Abbott is in favour of increasing the number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees allowed to resettle permanently in Australia. But when he announced on Sunday that Australia would “step up to the plate,” he Continue reading »
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Culture and Religion, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
Michael Kelly SJ. The challenge of people movements.
Great as the gesture of Pope Francis is to mobilize parishes in Europe to accommodate the influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East (they call them migrants), the problem is more complex than offering immediate support to needy people. The Pope knows that. He’s said so many times. The Pope Continue reading »
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A Clash between Church and State in Australia?
The recent appearance by retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson at the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has raised the possibility of a clash between Australia and the Vatican along similar lines to what occurred in Ireland in 2011 after the publication of the Murphy Commission’s Cloyne Report. Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The death of Aylan Kurdi may not have been in vain.
In the last week our media has been extensively covering the plight of Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing into Europe. Their reception has been mixed but the governments of Germany and Austria, and their people, have been extending help and kindness. I have posted three blogs in recent days on these issues: Mother Merkel and Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson at the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The royal commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues to fill us with dread that we have not yet adequately identified why the incidence of abuse reported in our institutions is higher than in other churches. The divisions amongst our bishops, previously unreported and unknown previously to many of the faithful, are disheartening. Continue reading »
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Sydney’s Holroyd High School and asylum seeker children.
Refugees and their children face many difficulties in settling in Australia. But the evidence shows that after this settling in period, refugees and their children outperform Australian-born people in many areas. We see the results for refugee children in university-entrance exams and in university performance. One remarkable example is the experience of refugee and asylum Continue reading »
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Irfan Ahmad. As Morsi faces the gallows, where are the defenders of democracy?
In mid-June, an Egyptian court upheld the death sentence against the country’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, whom the military deposed in July 2013. Death sentences against Morsi and 105 others were confirmed after Egypt’s grand mufti gave his approval. Many Islamic scholars (ulema) in the past spoke truth to power, for which they Continue reading »
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Peter Day. “Sally’s worth it.”
Harry Anslinger’s dream to rid the world of drugs was given legs in 1930 when he was appointed the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department‘s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He was a brilliant bureaucrat with a grand vision underpinned by prohibition; a man who single-handedly turned a marginalised, underfunded Bureau into an uncompromising and Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Four preconditions for supporting marriage equality.
A committed Catholic gay man, whose integrity I admire and whose hurt from ongoing homophobia I feel, recently asked me to sign a letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott urging that Coalition members be granted a conscience vote and that the Commonwealth Marriage Act be amended promptly to include same sex marriage. He assured me that Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Don’t tamper with citizenship.
The Australian Government has presented new legislation that would enable the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to revoke Australian citizenship for dual nationals who might have been involved in terrorism activities. There would be no judicial review. As a result of an apparent disagreement in Cabinet, the government has deferred a decision on how Continue reading »
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Andrew Pridham. Adam Goodes and Rosa Parks.
Before last weekend’s match between the Sydney Swans and the Adelaide Crows, the Chairman of the Sydney Swans, Andrew Pridham, gave a very challenging speech about Adam Goodes and racism in Australia. He said that recent events are a seminal moment in our history. He commented that Adam Goodes ‘has shaken the nation’s conscience‘. He Continue reading »
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Marcus Woolombi Waters. We all know and admire the Haka … so why not one of our own?
The first I heard of the Adam Goodes Bumala-y Yuurrama-y (war dance) I was in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I had been watching my son play rugby. It was a carnival (under 12s) and they had just lost the grand final. After leading for the entire game, players and parents alike watched helplessly as the opposing team Continue reading »
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Tim Soutphommasane. Adam Goodes has made some people feel uncomfortable.
Racism comes in many forms: overt and covert, crude and subtle. The harms of racism also come in many forms. We know from a large body of research that racism can lead to stress, negative emotions, psychological damage, even physiological effects. We don’t always focus, however, on racism’s impact on our civic health. What I Continue reading »
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Walter Hamilton. Magna Carta and universality.
Current Affairs. Eight hundred years ago, this month, King John reluctantly signed Magna Carta, a form of peace treaty forced on him by rebellious barons. It is considered to have marked the beginning of the end of the age of despotism. Some also see Magna Carta as the extension into politics of Christianity’s leveling theology: Continue reading »
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Nikki Marczak. History repeats for Christian Assyrians
Current Affairs As ISIL continues its brutal rampage across Iraq and Syria, a recent United Nations report found that ethnic and religious minorities are facing crimes against humanity, and even genocide. For Christian Assyrians, these atrocities evoke terrible memories of the genocide their ancestors endured under the Ottoman Government (‘the Young Turks’), known by the Continue reading »
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Robert Manne. Human Rights Commission and Gillian Triggs.
Current Affairs The Australian government and The Australian are at it again, attacking Gillian Triggs. I re-post below an article by Robert Manne from earlier this year. John Menadue Readers of John Menadue’s blog will be aware that a vile attack is at present being launched against both the Human Rights Commission and its President, Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. ‘Amplifying That Still Small Voice’. Book Launch.
‘Amplifying That Still Small Voice’ A collection of essays by Frank Brennan SJ Book Launch. Dates and times of the 2015 Book launches of Fr Frank Brennan’s latest book, ‘Amplifying That Still, Small Voice’: 1. Tuesday 2 June North Sydney Catholic Parish Hall, 7.30 pm. 2. Wednesday 3 June Hobart Town Hall, 6.15 pm. 3. Friday Continue reading »
