This article is part of our March theme, which focuses on an ongoing challenge to Australian society: Race & Discrimination. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. The 1960s and 70s was a time of heightened awareness and action in the Western world about the harms of racial inequality and segregation. In the United […]
On 17 February 2012, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered the 2012 Peter Brett Memorial Lecture at Melbourne Law School. The talk focused on two upcoming milestones. Mrs Bensouda will assume the role of Chief Prosecutor from the middle of the year, having been deputy prosecutor since 2004. She […]
Between 4–16 February, Amnesty International, headed by Amnesty’s Refugee Spokesperson, Dr Graham Thom, visited Curtin, Perth, Christmas Island, Northern and Wickham Point detention facilities. Alex Pagliaro was a member of the delegation who spoke directly with asylum seekers, immigration officials and detention centre staff during the visits. RN: Hello, thanks for giving us the opportunity to […]
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons – Dostoevsky, The House of the Dead Prisons run by private companies are now part of many justice systems around the world. Archaic signs reading ‘Her Majesty’s Prison’ are far from the emerging reality of modern, for-profit facilities. State and Federal […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. There was scarring covering her arms, her legs and some on her face. Her lips were swollen. Burns to her arms, possibly from […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), to which Australia is a signatory, came into effect in 2008. Its […]
Right Now’s Adelaide Rief spoke with Georgia Davis, Amy Sinclair and Stefanie Schweiger, students at ANU College of Law who have been a part of the Prison Issues Project, an initiative of the College’s Law Reform and Social Justice program. Right Now: It would be great if you could start by explaining a little bit […]
Anniversary is a strange word to apply to Guantanamo Bay. Once used to mark the death of saints, we now use it to celebrate the birth of nations, people and (usually) cheerful relationships and events. There is nothing remotely celebratory, however, about the anniversary of Guantanamo Bay; and its having remained open now for 10 […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. In 2004 the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly enacted the Human Rights Act, the first Bill of Rights to be passed into […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. To ask “What do prisons do?” seems at first an absurd question with an obvious answer. However, prisons and their specific functions are […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. Flat Out is a Victorian state wide support and advocacy service founded in 1988 for women who have had contact with the criminal […]
This article is part of our February theme, which focuses on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. “I’ve been in and out of here since I was 10.” These are the words of a 17-year-old Indigenous boy locked in a juvenile detention […]
