Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Category: Auslaw

  • Joint Statement of Support for Adam Goodes

    Today, a coalition of organisations has endorsed a statement in support of Sydney Swans player and former Australian of the Year Adam Goodes. The statement was prepared by the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, the Australian Human Rights Commission and ANTaR. The Castan Centre is proud to be one of the endorsing organisations. The full text…

  • Operation Sovereign Borders and the “Drownings Argument”

    Operation Sovereign Borders, offshore detention and the ‘drownings argument’ Sarah Joseph, Monash University This article is based on Sarah Joseph’s presentation to the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law’s 2015 conference, delivered on July 24. On the day of the release of the Human Rights Commission’s report into children in detention, Prime Minister Tony Abbott…

  • Out of the frying pan and into the fire: the plight of LGBTI refugees

    By Paula Gerber and Jasmine Dawson Countries such as the US, Ireland, Finland and Scotland have recently joined the growing list of nations legalising same-sex marriage. But in many parts of the world the situation for LGBTI people is getting worse – rather than better. There are 77 countries that still criminalise homosexuality. The majority of these…

  • New video explains the human right to vote

    Today, the Castan Centre is launching a new video that uses humour interspersed with academic expertise to explain the human right to vote. For those who have been following along, this new video is the final episode of series two of “Have You Got That Right?”. The concept of the series is to answer important…

  • No Andrew, it is not the responsibility of the LGBT community to help you hang on to your 1950s ideal of marriage

    By Paula Gerber As a long time supporter of marriage equality and the rights of LGBT people, I generally find my views are diametrically opposed to those of conservative commentator Andrew Bolt. Imagine my surprise then to find Bolt citing my work to support his argument that the gay community must now adopt a conservative…

  • The 2015 Human Rights Report – The latest refugee laws weaken protection for the vulnerable

    By Maria O’Sullivan This piece is featured in the 2015 Castan Centre Human Rights Report. We will be featuring the articles on the blog throughout the month of May.  Refugee law in Australia is the subject of political controversy and rapid change. This was illustrated in the last hours of the final sitting of the Senate on…