By Elizabeth Greenhalgh. This article is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The last decade has seen an unprecedented shift in policies and responses addressing the arrival of asylum seekers in Australia. Despite being a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, punitive government responses aiming to […]
By Benjamin Pynt. This article is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. Introduction Under the offshore processing regime, better known as the Pacific Solution Mark II (PSII), some asylum seekers are transferred to Nauru and Manus Island, where they face problems such as endemic antibody-resistant malaria, unsafe drinking water and inadequate […]
By Athena Rogers. Filing in to Federation Square’s riverside function room among hundreds of well-dressed professionals, it was clear that the expectations were high for this International Human Rights Day event. The speaker for the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission’s Annual Human Rights Oration was Ron Merkel QC, presenting a talk entitled “Human […]
By Tania Penovic. This article is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. The emergence of ‘no advantage’ as a guiding principle in Australian refugee policy is examined below with reference to recent developments in the management of asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat. On 28 June 2012, the […]
Throughout December 2012 and January 2013 Right Now will publish a number of articles around the theme of asylum seekers. This time around we’re taking a more creative turn – with the majority in December being short stories and poems. To get you ready, here’s a bit of a retrospective … Over the past year-and-a-half, Right […]
By Jess Kapuscinski Evans. I’ve been involved in the arts since I was a child, performing in teenage choirs and theatre groups just like many other kids my age. Unlike everyone else, I use a wheelchair full-time and need assistance with most tasks of so-called daily living. I have since gone on to have a […]
By James Petty. The question of human rights in relation to coercive treatment for substance use is, unsurprisingly, complicated. The concept of “addiction” exists within a complex web of legal categories, medical science, social values and cultural practices, all of which work to colour the way we view these issues. In 2010 the Victorian parliament […]
By Holly Kendall. Australia has just spent at least 24 million dollars to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Right Now investigates how Australia can use its seat to advance human rights in Australia. The Security Council was formed in 1945 under the United Nations Charter with the “primary responsibility for the […]
By Hsin-Yi Lo “Children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival […]
By Karen Akehurst. PART II The basis of criminal law is intent and this is where the law often betrays people with intellectual disability. It was our common experience to find that a person had either been deliberately set up to commit an offence by someone else, or to find that they were indeed guilty […]
By Karen Akehurst PART I Very few people develop greater insight into the machinations of the Australian criminal justice system than the invisible support worker. My experience as Co-ordinator for a specialist legal support service for people with intellectual disabilities in the NSW criminal justice system was like watching a real life game of snakes […]
When workers in industries other than mine are organising for rights, their ability to speak on what they need as workers is rarely questioned. However, when it comes to sex workers there is an assumption that we can’t even articulate what we want as workers, and that we can’t organise together. It is often argued […]