The following article is in this week’s Green Left Weekly newspaper: During recent protests in Villawood Detention Centre that followed the September 20 suicide of detained Fijian exile Josefa Rauluni, detainees who tried to help rooftop protesters with water and blankets were stopped by security. One man was bashed. Hunger strikers were kept quiet in…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Meeting Alan Dershowitz in Sydney
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz is currently in Sydney for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and last night debated, in front of 2000 people at the Sydney Opera House, lawyer Geoffrey Robertson on The Sins of the Father; Should the Pope be Held to Account? over the massive number of child sex abuse cases. Robertson…
David Cameron’s love affair with a Sudanese butcher
We love war criminals for their nice cars and resources: The Government is courting the regime of the indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir by declaring that relations with Sudan have entered a “new epoch”. The announcement came as Britain welcomed a trade delegation from the country which has near pariah status, for the first time…
Afghans, your nation is paradise so please bugger off home
This is truly criminal. The Australian government is seriously claiming that Afghanistan is safe for its citizens but I’ll allow you to read their choice of words: Refugee groups fear a “flawed” government assessment of Afghanistan will unfairly taint asylum-seekers’ applications to stay in Australia. The assessment by the Australian embassy in Kabul, dated February…
Disaster capitalism envelops us all
My following article appears in the Sydney Morning Herald today: Last year’s cessation of hostilities between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers, after up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were murdered in the last months of the conflict, has heralded a Beijing-led invasion of the island. The authoritarian Rajapaksa regime was assisted by Chinese…
The modern slave trade for our culinary enjoyment
Do you know where your meal comes from? Shocking evidence of conditions akin to slavery on trawlers that provide fish for European dinner tables has been found in an investigation off the coast of west Africa. Forced labour and human rights abuses involving African crews have been uncovered on trawlers fishing illegally for the European…
Help APHEDA pick a worthy winner
One of Australia’s finest NGOs, APHEDA – Union Aid Abroad, last night hosted its annual fund-raising dinner and launched the following advertisement to 400 intrigued people. Give now, give generously:
Countless Iranian names whose lives are changed forever
A moving tribute to “Iran’s interrupted lives”, the countless young Iranians imprisoned, beaten, tortured and killed in the name of a perverse Islam.
ABC Radio Overnights on Middle East realities
As the sham Middle East “peace process” continues, I was invited last week for a long interview and listener questions on ABC Overnights. We covered settlements, the BDS movement, the one-state solution, Barack Obama’s blind spots and the Holocaust:
Opposition to Serco isn’t solely by refugees
An ongoing theme at this site is the privatisation of detention centres in Australia. Eminent Australians are increasingly vocal against the practice but it’s so much easier for neo-liberal governments to pay a foreign company to do their dirty work, isn’t it? Privatisation of detention centres and particularly the health services associated with the current…