In her opening remarks, Dr Caroline Norma explained with fervour that the framing of human trafficking in Australian discussion is all wrong. I was convinced – having come into the Young UN Women’s “Human Trafficking in Melbourne: Prevention, Protection and Prosecution” event held earlier in the year on 22 March – that human trafficking was […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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. This month’s theme – homelessness – is one that affects all communities. One of the most common causes of homelessness in Australia is domestic and […]
Each year a leader in the field of human rights presents a lecture jointly hosted by Monash University’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law and Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The speaker for 2011 was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially in women and children, Ms Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. Ms Ezeilo is in […]
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. The idea of “home” hosts many metaphors. Home is our “haven”, “sanctuary”, “nest”, “refuge” and “escape”. Home is our “domain”, “habitat”, “kingdom” and “abode”. […]
On Friday 22 July 2011, Monash University’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Annual Conference was held in Melbourne. Samina Yasmeen, Director of Centre for Muslim States and Societes at UWA addressed the topic “Islamophobia and Multicultural Australia”. Following the speech Right Now writer Hanne M Watkins spoke with Professor Yasmeen about Islamophobia, inclusion, women’s […]
Thanks to our friends at Voiceworks we’re pleased to present the following article by Bridget Chappell, a young Australian writer, on the criminalisation of sex work in Iraqi Kurdistan. As Chappell points out in her piece, one of the major arguments put forward to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was widespread human rights […]
DATE: 13 MAY 2011 Amnesty International has criticized Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous issues in its 2011 World Report, which has been released today. The chapter on Australia highlights the Federal government’s refugee policy and its impact on asylum seekers with mandatory, long term detention and poor conditions in detention facilities putting a large […]
DATE: 6 MAY 2011 Yesterday, the Victorian Government introduced amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 in parliament. These changes reduce the ability of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to “respond effectively to systematic discrimination.” The amendments maintain the Commission’s key functions on identifying and addressing discrimination including through education and dispute […]
In October last year, Queensland put a woman and her partner on trial for a crime that should not be on the statute books. Tegan Leach and Sergie Brennan were charged under sections 225 and 226 of the Queensland Criminal Code 1899 because Brennan asked his sister overseas to import misoprostol, a drug used for […]