Human Rights
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
Peter Day. It’s hard being a Catholic today.
The gut-wrenching accounts coming out of Ballarat this past couple of weeks are enough to bring a man to his knees: stories of young people crippled by sexual abuse; stories of utter betrayal; stories we would rather not hear – stories we must hear. It is hard being a Catholic today. It is hard being Continue reading »
-
James Hogan. An Unspeakable Wrongness
And so, it has come to pass. With a dreadful inevitability, Indonesian Law has taken its course, and the sentences passed so long ago on Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been carried into execution. Some will wonder at our capacity to mourn these men and their fellows when we struggle to find compassion for Continue reading »
-
Judith Crispin. Anzac day, the Armenian Genocide and destruction of cultural heritage in the Caucasus.
“Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating Continue reading »
-
Frank Brennan SJ. Still seeking a way of stopping the boats decently
This is part of the Gasson Lecture which I delivered at Boston College today: I return to Australia accepting that my political leaders will always maintain a commitment to stopping the boats, no matter what political party they represent; but I return insisting that there is a need for international co-operation to determine how decently Continue reading »
-
John Tulloh. An inconvenient centenary Turkey prefers to ignore.
The Gallipoli battle aside, you can be sure that Turkey will not be commemorating the centenary of another major event in its history this month. A few hours before Australian, New Zealand and other allied forces landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, what has become widely known as the Armenian genocide got Continue reading »
-
Frank Brennan. Cunneen v ICAC
Margaret Cunneen is a high profile public prosecutor. The NSW Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) wanted to investigate her for corrupt behaviour, but not in relation to anything she did as a prosecutor. They wanted to investigate her behaviour as a private citizen, she being the mother of a boy whose girlfriend was involved in Continue reading »
-
Fiona McGaughey, Mary Anne Kenny. Lashing out at the UN is not the act of a good international citizen.
The United Nations has again criticised Australia’s human rights record in relation to its treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. A report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, has raised a number of concerns. These include: Australia’s policy in relation to the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island breaches Articles 1 Continue reading »
-
Vicken Babkenian. Gallipoli’s inconvenient ‘other side’.
Leading up to the Gallipoli centenary, a growing trend emerged in Australia of presenting the ‘other side’ of the story. From popular books, official histories, films and academic conferences, the ‘Turkish’ perspective of Gallipoli became widely told.[1] According to this perspective, as illustrated in a recent article by Dr Jennifer Lawless, the allied landing at Continue reading »
-
Peter Day. Mum and Dad, or Mum and Mum, or Dad and Dad?
Human sexuality is a complex and fragile thing – far greyer than black or white. It is best tended to by gentle, wise, and humble hands. Alas, there hasn’t been much gentleness or wisdom surrounding the same sex marriage debate, let alone same sex attraction in general. Witness the recent furore over an alleged homophobic Continue reading »
-
Defence and Security, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Indigenous affairs, Politics, Tributes, World Affairs
Tributes to Malcolm Fraser.
See below, tributes from Fred Chaney and Robert Manne on Malcolm Fraser’s achievements in public life. John Mendue. Fred Chaney in The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/20/malcolm-fraser-a-leader-who-believed-there-is-a-moral-compass-in-our-nations-life Robert Manne in The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/20/frasers-great-conservative-achievement-cementing-whitlams-progress-on-race Continue reading »
-
Laurie Patton. The ‘metadata’ Bill.
The House of Representatives has passed, with amendments, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014. The Bill requires telcos and Internet Service Providers to store certain information (called “metadata”) for a period of two years. Metadata is essentially the information that reveals the parties to phone and email communications and other things Continue reading »
-
Amanda Tattersall. Community organising aims to win back civil society’s rightful place.
In the wake of the Second World War, Karl Polanyi wrote that the public arena is made up of three interconnected sectors: the market, government and civil society. He argued that democracy thrives when these three are in balance. If only that were the case today. Since the late 1980s, the global influence of the Continue reading »
-
Michael Gracey. Risks of Closing Remote Aboriginal Communities.
Forced dislocation from traditional homelands in the late 1960s and early 1970s made many Aboriginal families and groups move, for the first time, to small towns in the north and north-west of WA. This drift to strange environments with access to alcohol and living close to people from different backgrounds, languages and alien beliefs and Continue reading »
-
Spencer Zifcak. The Martin Place Siege
I first came across Man Haron Monis, the Sydney siege gunman, in early 2013. The High Court of Australia had just handed down an important new decision on the breadth of the protection the Australian Constitution provides for freedom of expression. The facts of the case centred upon offensive letters sent to the parents of Continue reading »
-
Spencer Zifcak. Proportionality Lost: Australia’s New Counter-Terrorism Laws. Part 2
The Foreign Fighters Bill The second tranche of counter-terrorism legislation introduced by the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, late last year was contained in the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill. This Bill (now passed into law) amended several Commonwealth Acts, most notably the Commonwealth Criminal Code. The primary purpose of these new laws is to enable Continue reading »
-
Spencer Zifcak. Proportionality Lost in Australia’s new Counter-Terrorism Laws. Part 1
The Attorney-General, George Brandis, crashed two major tranches of counter-terrorism law through federal parliament recently. As always there are two problems with such an approach: overkill and error. Both tranches demonstrate these deficits in abundance. It’s important to say that in Australia the threat of terrorist attacks is real. So is the danger posed by Continue reading »
-
Brian Johnstone. The execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The deaths of these two men now appear to be inevitable. The key argument of President Joko Widodo is that this lethal means (death by firing squad) is justified for the purpose of saving his people from the addiction and death caused by drugs. The Indonesian government claims that, in that country, approximately 50 victims Continue reading »
-
Safdar Ahmed. A moving inside story about detainees in the Villawood Detention Centre.
Safdar Ahmed has sent to me a very moving and powerful online comic book about life in the Villawood detention centre. The press release which he issued, follows. John Menadue A new graphic novel depicts life inside the Villawood Detention Centre A documentary web-comic by Safdar Ahmed depicts the stories of asylum seekers and refugees Continue reading »
-
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 »
-
Graham Freudenberg. Gough Whitlam Commemorative Oration.
You will see below what I think is a remarkable speech by Graham Freudenberg about Gough Whitlam’s contemporary relevance. This oration is much longer than I normally post on this blog, but it is an outstanding oration which I am sure you will enjoy. The Whitlam Institute will also be publicising this oration. John Menadue Continue reading »
-
Michael Breen. Home Sour Home
Fourteen women have died this year as a result of domestic violence. Australians killed by terrorists in the same period, zero. The ABC Q&A programme February 23rd on Domestic Violence had an enormous response from the viewer and studio audiences. Many thanked the ABC for broaching the matter. Many tragic first hand experiences were aired. Continue reading »
-
We should expect more.
In this article in The Guardian, Richard Flanagan, the Booker Prize winner, refers to the increasing ugliness in Australian public life. He says ‘Writing my novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” I came to conclude that great crimes like the Death Railway did not begin with the first beating or murder on that Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Mother Merkel and 800,000 refugees
In September last year I posted an article about the Heroism of Angela Merkel in her generous response to asylum seekers arriving in Germany. She is holding to her course but the difficulties are increasing. The attacks on women in Cologne by men who were reported to be of Arab or North African decent on Continue reading »
