Law and Policy – Page 51

Overcrowding in Western Australia’s Prisons

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 March 2012 it will be twenty-one years since the release of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The report found […]

Prison Realities and the Need for Change

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. After several years’ involvement with the juvenile justice system in Victoria, my first contact with the adult prison system was in 1976 as […]

Having a Say: Prisoners and Voting Rights

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. This weekend we took our children to the Boggo Road markets in inner-south Brisbane. Most of those looking for vegies and curios seemed […]

Black and white photo of Goulbourn Jail

Editorial: Prisoners’ Rights

In February we’ve been focusing on one of the great silences in the human rights conversation in Australia: Prisoners’ Rights. In his fantastic article, former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope wonders why “prisoners are perhaps the last discrete group of human beings who are, in a general way, publically vilified, dehumanised and demonised within Australia […]

Photo of barbed wire with stormy clouds in the background

The Other Side of the Fence

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. Our first piece for our February theme, Prisoners’ Rights, is a moving audio work which reminds us of the humanity of those we […]

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Discussion – Human Rights in Asia: Situations of Concern

In a time of rapid change, human rights continue to be a central concern in Asia. … the governments of Australia, America and Europe have lost “their moral authority on key issues like torture, unlawful imprisonment and the torment of refugees” … On 7 December, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, Elaine Pearson, […]

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Australia Needs a Rights-based Federal Homelessness Act

This article is part of our December theme, which focuses on one of the least appreciated but most fundamental aspects of well-being: housing. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. Background The Federal Government’s White Paper on Homelessness, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness (White Paper), proposed the introduction of new […]

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Book – Homelessness and the Law

This article is part of our December theme, which focuses on one of the least appreciated but most fundamental aspects of well-being: housing. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. Relative to international standards, Australia’s economic and political freedoms rank highly. Our standard of living is generally satisfactory. A nation of just 22 million […]

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Patrick’s Case

This article is part of our December theme, which focuses on one of the least appreciated but most fundamental aspects of well-being: housing. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. Patrick is a 58 year old man who has been an involuntary in-patient in a psychiatric hospital for over seven years. He has received […]

Birds on collage backgraound

Matching Children with Compassion

This article is part of our December theme, which focuses on one of the least appreciated but most fundamental aspects of well-being: housing. Read our Editorial for more on this theme. It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold […]