Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Category: Auslaw

  • Thoughts on Nelson Mandela

    by Sarah Joseph  (speech at the Monash University memorial service to Nelson Mandela at the Monash Religious Centre, 13 December 2013, 1pm) I am very honoured to be speaking today at this memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela, Madiba, was a true human rights inspiration, for his fight against apartheid, but even more so…

  • Sending People Back to Face Torture or even Death

    By Adam Fletcher On the 4th of this month the new Coalition Government introduced a Bill entitled the Migration Amendment (Regaining Control over Australia’s Protection Obligations) Bill 2013. In a way, the title is apt because the Bill would return control over Australia’s refoulement obligations to the Minister, where it used to lie under the…

  • Tasmania Decriminalises Abortion

    By Ronli Sifris A country that respects the rights of women should not be satisfied with abortion remaining a crime. Tasmania has taken a huge step forward, writes Ronli Sifris. The right to terminate a pregnancy has been categorised as falling within a number of existing human rights norms, such as the right to health…

  • What can Australia learn from other countries about Birth Registration?

    By Paula Gerber and Amalia Fawcett Birth registration and birth certificates are very topical at the moment, with the Victorian Law Reform Commission releasing its community report on this issue. The report, which contains 26 recommendations, is intended to make it easier for people to register the births of their children and reduce the cost…

  • Spies know more about us … but we know more about them

    By Sarah Joseph EPA/Ole Spata The revelations that Australia intercepted the communications of the President of Indonesia, his wife, and other prominent Indonesian politicians in 2009, have caused major ructions in the Australia/Indonesia relationship. But do these revelations not simply reveal that spies do their job? After all, it isn’t surprising that spies spy. And…

  • Is the criminalisation of homosexuality in the Commonwealth a relic of the British Empire?

    By Associate Professor Paula Gerber Last week The Conversation published an article by Timothy Jones entitled ‘Colonialism, Homophobia and the legality of gay sex in the Commonwealth’. Jones was highly critical of a recent report published by the Kaleidoscope Trust, entitled Speaking Out: the rights of LGBTI citizens from across the Commonwealth. He states that…