Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Author: Marius Smith

  • Closing the Gap, very slowly

    By Marius Smith Today was Close the Gap day in Australia as not one but two key reports were released. The first is the Commonwealth Government’s official Closing the Gap report and the second is the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Close the Gap – Progress and priorities report. The Commission’s document is effectively a “shadow report” put together…

  • Four reasons why the CIA torture program should never have happened

    By Marius Smith When the US Senate Intelligence Committee released its report into the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program this week, the response was appropriate. People called it “shocking”, “harrowing” and “deeply disturbing”. But most of all, the Committee’s report into the horrendous affair reveals that the whole thing was normal. Normal, that is, for state-sanctioned torture. There…

  • Is there a human right to voluntary euthanasia?

    Today, we are releasing episode 4 of our new video series, “Have You Got That Right?”, a collection of videos designed to explain important human rights laws quickly and clearly. Episode 4 – Voluntary Euthanasia ​Today’s episode asks whether there is a human right to voluntary euthanasia​. The argument has been made in a series…

  • Queensland’s voter ID laws likely to disenfranchise Indigenous Australians

    By Marius Smith Proposed new “voter ID” laws in Queensland are likely to prevent some Indigenous Australians from exercising their right to vote, according to a new submission to Queensland’s Parliament by our Deputy Director Paula Gerber. The new law – which will require all voters to produce proof of identity at polling booths –…

  • Southern Somalia: Don’t let the Kenyan military run the show

    By Marius Smith When a cavalcade of international diplomatic stars, including Hillary Clinton and Ban Ki Moon, sit down in London on Thursday with Somali officials, politicians and business people to discuss the country’s future, a very large elephant will be in the room.  The main issues up for discussion include a new government, piracy,…

  • Rwanda – free speech for some

    by Marius Smith Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, took to Twitter this week to talk to his 28,000 followers in a barely comprehensible blizzard of abbreviations, acronyms and exclamation marks.  Over a period of six hours, he derided his critics in the press, discussed the News of the World phone hacking scandal and lampooned calls for…