By Asher Hirsch This article is part of our April and May focus on Art and Human Rights Sometimes, when I have the courage and my camera with me, I ask people on the train if I can take their photo. Usually this doesn’t turn out to be so interesting, and often I never use […]
This article is part of our April and May focus on Arts and Human Rights. By Les Thomas One of the problems that music and human rights share is that they’re too often seen as optional extras, rather than necessities; especially in a rich country like Australia, where their roles in keeping body and soul […]
There has been some progress towards achieving due process for Australia’s “legal black hole” refugees.
By Alana Lazdins. In his exhibition, My Dad the People Smuggler, Australian artist Phuong Ngo recounts through film, interview and photography the story of the Vietnamese diaspora caused by the military victory of the Vietnam People’s Army in Saigon, and the subsequent rise of communism in 1975. Ngo’s father helped refugees to flee communist Vietnam, […]
By Sonia Nair. “People smugglers are engaged in the world’s most evil trade and they should all rot in jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth. People smugglers are the vilest form of human life. They trade on the tragedy of others and that’s why they should rot in jail and in […]
By André Dao As we head to the September election, we can be sure that the political rhetoric surrounding asylum seekers will only get worse. Just yesterday, the Liberal Party posted an ad on social media that casually linked boat arrivals with street crime in Western Sydney – despite the fact that of 12,100 asylum seekers released […]
By Sienna Merope Australia’s current mandatory detention policy not only breaches our legal and ethical obligations, it is also a colossal waste of money. Mandatory detention of what the Federal Government likes to call “Irregular Maritime Arrivals” was first introduced in 1989. Under the policy, all asylum seekers who arrive by boat are put in […]
By Jessica Szwarcbord In our second review of human rights in the media we look at Victoria’s new trial plan on how to deal with “aggressive beggars”, asylum seekers arriving in numbers more than double this time last year, and rock art at risk in the face of uranium mining. A new trial by the […]
By Lily King. This piece is part of our March 2013 focus on Sport and Human Rights. Richmond 15:3 from Lily King on Vimeo. I filmed this story last year as part of my Journalism course at RMIT University. We were given the assignment of making a two-minute news report on the broad subject of Asylum […]
By B.S.Clifford. They were lined up along the dock, I couldn’t tell if they were enemies or friends. Bobbing up and down, Up and down, Gracefully and silently In the cold and inky black water. They were tied up, In pairs or by themselves. They were waiting their turn. Waiting And aging. They […]
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day? We who watch the television and not a war so much, do not understand how, there, outside our lounge rooms, people unwillingly must leave their homes, unsure – chancing their families to criminals to provide safe passage in […]
By Meleesha Bardolia. This piece is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers. People are sitting on the edge of Victoria Street, hunching over, legs angling apart. Saving their threads from psychedelic splatters of tandoori and dollops of tzatziki, Melbournians perch outside the Queen Victoria Night Market and feast. Entering the corridor […]