Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

by Sarah Joseph So this is a “storify”, basically a collated bunch of tweets from the night of 21/12 (not the end of the world as we know it) upon watching those war-loving men, elves, hobbits, orcs, wizards, goblins, trolls and dwarves in The Return of the King. Following is a discussion of the applicability […]

Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AO QC is one of the world’s leading experts on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. We were fortunate enough to host him at our annual conference on 20 July this year and have posted two videos below. In this 7 minute Q&A video, Professor Evans discusses R2P and explains […]

Sarah Joseph On Wednesday we learnt that the report of the UK’s Chilcot inquiry into Britain’s role in the Iraq war will not be delivered until the second half of 2013, over two years after its initial scheduled date of May 2011. The latest delay is caused by a stoush with Whitehall (the British public service) over the […]

You’ve got to hand it to Julian Assange. He knows how to capture the imagination. In a surprise escape bid, he is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seeking political asylum. He now faces arrest for breach of bail conditions, though he can’t be touched by UK authorities while he remains on embassy premises. […]

By Adam Fletcher Last Friday (the 13th, appropriately enough given the bleak news), the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that the Women (aka Mothers) of Srebrenica could not sue the United Nations (UN) for failing to protect their families during the well-documented 1995 massacre. There are at least two ways to look at this. […]

 By Adam Fletcher Last Wednesday, in the aftermath of the infamous Labor leadership showdown and when all eyes were on the Carr for Canberra drama, federal Parliament passed the Extradition and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Amendment Bill 2011. Unless I missed it, the passage of this Bill into law garnered not a single […]

By Adam Fletcher 2012, it occurred to me today, marks a full decade since I began studying, writing about and (after graduation) giving legal advice on Australia’s international obligations in respect of asylum-seekers and refugees. The more things change in this area, the more they stay the same. The war in Afghanistan is still not […]

by Sarah Joseph The much-discussed plain packaging legislation for cigarettes will come into force until December 2012.  Tobacco companies plan to wage a sustained campaign of “lawfare” against it, including a likely constitutional challenge and arbitral proceedings under a Hong Kong/Australia bilateral agreement. There is also the possibility of proceedings against Australia in the World […]

by Sarah Joseph This morning, Melbourne time, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973/2011, which authorises the taking of “all necessary measures” including a no fly zone but short of occupation, to protect civilians and “civilian populated areas” from Colonel Gaddafi’s government. The UN has essentially authorised “humanitarian intervention” against Gaddafi’s regime. “Humanitarian intervention” refers […]

By Sarah Joseph Saturday November 13 was a great day for human rights, with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi after seven years of house arrest in Burma. Her bravery in refusing to accept conditions on her arrest, and willingness to become immediately politically engaged upon release, is truly inspiring. She knows that her activism […]