Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Category: Auslaw

  • Guest Blog: smoking bans in Australian prisons

    By Anita Mackay States and Territories around Australia are rushing to ban smoking in prisons – the Northern Territory was the first in July 2013, and has recently been joined by Queensland (from 5 May 2014).  Most others have stated their intention to ban smoking during 2015. This blog post poses two questions: 1. What are smoking bans in…

  • Guest Blog: DFAT’s Iraq pullout a bitter pill for aid

    By Laura Jean McKay In February this year Michael Bates, country director of the Danish Refugee Council in the Kurdish region and greater Iraq, received an email. It was from DFAT, the donor that was supporting 70 per cent of their programs in south and central Iraq, regretting to say that they were pulling out.…

  • IDAHO Day Post: Why the Pacific islands are no gay paradise

    The world celebrates the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on 17 May.  To mark the day, Paula Gerber reflects on the ongoing criminalisation of homosexual conduct in the Pacific.  The United Nations recently invited people to imagine what it would be like if you were not free to be you. If the only…

  • 2014 Castan Human Rights Report: Indigenous rights – hastening too slowly

    By Melissa Castan and Stephen Gray In 2013 the then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, announced that if elected he would be the ‘Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs’, raising hopes that law reform and better human rights protection for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be central to the government’s agenda. To some extent, they…

  • 2014 Castan Human Rights Report: Gender-based violence – beyond the first 20 years

    By Heli Askola Despite many advances in preventing gender-based violence, one in three Australian women over the age of 15 has experienced physical or sexual violence and roughly one woman a week is killed by their partner or ex-partner. As some commentators have pointed out, these figures dwarf the incidence of ‘one-punch assaults’ or shark…

  • 2014 Castan Human Rights Report: Reproductive rights still under threat

    By Ronli Sifris Decades after the fight for reproductive rights began in Australia, the issue is in the spotlight again because of three significant developments. Report on Involuntary Sterilisation of People with Disabilities Australia, together with many other countries, has a history of sterilising people with disabilities and intersex people. During 2012-13, the Senate Community…