Contributors
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
YAHYA ABDELKARIM
Yahya Abdelkarim was born in Northern Darfur, Sudan. He fled from Darfur in 2005 and lived in a refugee camp in Ghana for 2 and a half years. The Australian Government granted him a humanitarian visa in 2007. He is the Secretary of Media for Darfur Community Association of Australia and a board member of Darfur Australia Network Organization. His humble slogan for life is, life, flame of hope always burns and tomorrow would be better than today.
BROOK ANDREW
Brook Andrew is an Australian artist known for looking directly at the role of history when creating artwork with historical concerns. With work featured in every major art collection in Australia, his most recent exhibition Paradise is no exception. The exhibition remarks upon the challenging affects that time and cultural perceptions can have on important global issues, in particular the evolution, or devolution, of indigenous cultures.
MATT BLACKWOOD
Matt Blackwood is a writer whose short fiction and screenplays have won awards and been published. His locative literature project, MyStory, gained a City of Melbourne Laneway Commission, showcasing his own work alongside that of Barry Dickins, Cate Kennedy and Tony Birch in digitally immersive forms. He has ghostwritten blogs for Olympians, written two-and-a-half almost readable novels, and project managed a mobile cinema providing free film screenings to the bushfire affected residents of St Andrews.
LIDIJA BUJANOVIC
Lidija Bujanovic is an RMIT International Studies graduate and after taking a year off to work on Aboriginal affairs policy she has returned to complete her Honours year focusing on human rights in the Australian context.
JULIAN BURNSIDE
Julian Burnside AO QC is an Australian Barrister and an advocate for human rights and fair treatment of refugees.
Lest We Forget: The Amnesia Preserving Australian Self-Image
VINCE CHADWICK
Vince Chadwick is an Arts / Law student at Melbourne University and freelance writer. His work has appeared in over a dozen publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Age, Crikey, and National Times. His fiction entry was highly commended in the ‘2010 John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers’.
Corporate Social Responsibility and the Right to Connect
STEFFI CHANG
Serco Faces Renewed Scrutiny Over Poor Refugee Care
BRIDGET CHAPPELL
Bridget Chappell is a human rights activist who grew up in Canberra but now splits her time between Europe and the Middle East.
Development’s Underbelly: Sex Work and Women’s Rights in Iraqi Kurdistan
MAREE CLARKE
Maree Clarke is a well-respected figure of the south-eastern Australian Aboriginal community for not only her inspirational work supporting Aboriginal artists but also for her own successful career as a visual artist. In her practise she works to revive elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost in the period of colonisation and use art as a tool to heal some of our country’s deepest wounds.
Maree Clarke – Ritual and Ceremony
GIDEON CORDOVER
Gideon Cordover is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After his father took his own life in 2009 after a long struggle with terminal motor neurone disease, Gideon began advocating for voluntary euthanasia policy reform. He works with Dying with Dignity NSW and The Australian Greens to lobby for change in euthanasia law.
ANDRE DAO
André Dao has been on the Right Now team since 2008. He became the Editor-in-Chief in 2009 and oversaw the publication of the final issue of Right Now Magazine. He is also the Project Officer at the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, and his fiction has been published in Harvest, Voiceworks and Above Water.
Occupy Melbourne – An Eyewitness Account with Photos
Interview with Kon Karapanagiotidis
YASK DESAI
Yask Desai is Melbournian artist who spent a long period of time in Bangladesh exploring the social and cultural landscape of Dhaka’s City Dockyard. His photographs were exhibited in Dhaka in April, 2010, in a show supported by the Australian High Commission. From October 14th onwards they will be on display in Collingwood’s Off the Kerb gallery space.
JAMES FARRELL
James Farrell is Manager/Principal Lawyer of the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic.
The Penalisation of People Living in Poverty
SCOTT FOYSTER
Scott Foyster is the co-creator and editor of Wai, a free quarterly human rights, social justice and environmental newspaper. It can be downloaded from waiquarterly.wordpress.com. He is currently living in Mpartnwe/ Alice Springs helping campaigns to rollback the Intervention and to stop the proposed Angela Pamela Uranium mine.
Work and the Basics Card in the Northern Territory
LEE GRANT
Lee Grant – Sudanese Portraits from Suburbia
WILLIAM KELLY
Kelly is well known internationally as a humanist artist with his art often being part of the dialogue in places in transition from war or oppression to newfound civil society including the Republic of Georgia, Northern Ireland, South Africa and the Basque Country (Spain). He is the only visual artist to be given the prestigious Courage of Conscience Award (Boston, USA) – other recipients include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali and John Lennon. In 1998 he was invited to create a work for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights International Print Portfolio, for which the forward was written by Kofi Anan. His landmark book Art and Humanist Ideals (Macmillan) outlines the contribution of contemporary artists to the dialogue on significant issues of our time.
William Kelly – Looking Toward a Better World
MICHAEL KIRBY
The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG is a Commissioner of the UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law. He served as a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009. He has also served as Foundation Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission.
AIDS and Religion: ‘The Wave of Hate Must Stop’ Part I
AIDS and Religion: ‘The Wave of Hate Must Stop’ Part II
TANJA KOVAC
Tanja Kovac is a writer and lawyer. She is also National Co-ordinator of the Human Rights are Aussie Rules Program.
Racial and Religious Code Works like Majak
EMMA JANE MCNICOL
Interview with Justin Peach, Director of Lonely Pack
MORGAN MACDONALD
Morgan Macdonald is a graduate from the Australian National University’s Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development and an independent researcher who has worked with Melbourne based NGOs and academics from La Trobe University. He is passionate about refugee issues and development strategies that work towards the realisation of human rights.
AusAID Link to Human Rights Abuse in Vietnamese Labour Camps
E. MARICH
E. Marich is a freelance journalist. She has just returned to Melbourne after spending two years reporting in the Northern Territory.
Grog in the Northern Territory: A Story in Black and White
PETER NORDEN AO
Peter Norden AO is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University. He previously worked for many years as a Chaplain in the Victorian prison and detention systems, and as executive director of Jesuit Social Services. In 2007 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for assisting marginalised young people and offenders, among other services to the community.
Prison Realities and the Need for Change
GRAEME ORR
Graeme Orr teaches at the University of Queensland Law School, is a member of the editorial board of the Election Law Journal, and most recently authored The Law of Politics (2010, Federation Press) and Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects (2011, Melbourne University Press).
Having a Say: Prisoners and Voting Rights
ELIZABETH O’SHEA
Elizabeth O’Shea is a lawyer in Melbourne working on public interest litigation. She has worked at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, and has also worked in Louisiana, USA with a capital defence office working with indigent prisoners on death row. All views are her own and do not necessarily represent those of her employer.
Making Law and Making Social Change
JACQUI PAVEY
As a French Honours student, Jacqui Pavey has recently completed a thesis investigating the French political discourse surrounding immigration, identity and the burqa. She is interested in the rights of Australian immigrants, working with Sudanese immigrants and with international students in Melbourne.
The burqa or the ban: which is worse?
TYLER PAYNE
Tyler Payne is a photographer/writer that lives in Melbourne. Her work focuses on issues relating to sexuality, gender and body image. She is currently completing her Honours in Photography, exploring the relationship between visual art and Bipolar Mood Disorder. My Name is Rochelle has also been re-written as a short play.
CHLOE POTVIN
Chloe Potvin is a Journalism and International Studies student at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Rock the boat – Become a pen-pal with an asylum seeker
ROSELINA PRESS
Australia’s Cluster Bomb Ban: Are We Setting the Right Example?
MARY QUINN
Mary Quinn is a sixth year student at the University of Melbourne studying a combined Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) degree. She was the Secretary of Right Now Inc in 2009–10. Mary is a former Editor of the Melbourne Journal of International Law and a current editorial member of the Melbourne University Law Review and an editorial assistant at the Australian Journal of Labour Law. She is undertaking an internship at Victoria Legal Aid and works as a Research Assistant at Melbourne Law School.
Mental Health and Human Rights in Victoria
SEN RAJ
Senthorun (Sen) Raj works as the Senior Policy Advisor for the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, an organisation that advocates on behalf of gay men, lesbians and their families. In a voluntary capacity, Sen is NSW Vice-President of Amnesty International Australia and a Director of ACON Health. Sen writes regularly for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Punch and New Matilda on matters relating to sexuality and politics. His thesis on sexuality and refugee law was awarded the University of Sydney Medal.
“Separate but equal” insufficient for marriage equality
OLIVER RAMSAY
Rights at the Round Table – Youth Forum on Human Rights
SUSAN RYAN AO
Susan Ryan AO is the Chair of the Australian Human Rights Group. From 1975-1988 she was Senator for the ACT and became the first woman to hold a cabinet post in a federal Labour Government. In 2010 she was appointed Women’s Ambassador for ActionAid Australia. More information about the Australian Human Rights Group can be found at www.humanrightsact.com.au
Parliamentary Scrutiny of Human Rights – A Bridge too Far?
ELLENA SAVAGE
Ellena Savage recently finished a BA in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University. She now writes a column for Eureka Street, and is writing a book on policing in Melbourne. She is a former editor of Farrago, the Melbourne University student magazine. She is blogging about the 100 books she plans on reading this year here.
Interview with Colm McNaughton
LUCY SWINNEN
The Death in Custody of Mark Holcroft: The Coroner’s report doesn’t go far enough
SHAUN TAN
Shaun Tan – a Small Collection
HANNE MELGAARD WATKINS
Hanne Melgaard Watkins is currently undertaking a combined Masters of Clinical Psychology/PhD program. She is interested in social cognition and moral psychology, and will be researching moral judgements in the context of war. Her interest in human rights was sparked by Geoffrey Robertson’s Crimes Against Humanity.
Interview with Professor Yasmeen
Interview with Professor William Schabas
ANNIE WU
HENRIETTA ZEFFERT
Henrietta Zeffert founded Right Now in 2005 and Right Now Radio in 2008. Henrietta graduated with a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Melbourne in 2007. She was admitted as an Australian lawyer in 2009. From 2009 to 2010 Henrietta read the Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, focusing on comparative human rights, socio-economic rights, and substantive equality, and graduated with distinction.Henrietta is currently research assistant to Professor Hilary Charlesworth at The Australian National University. From 2011 until 2012, Henrietta will be an associate to a judge of the High Court of Australia.
Australia’s Involvement in the Libyan Crisis and Security Council Resolution 1973