Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Category: Auslaw

  • Marriage is best for raising children … that’s why we need marriage equality

    By Paula Gerber The Sydney Morning Herald recently published an opinion piece by Patrick Parkinson titled About time we all cared more about marriage, in which he argued that allowing same-sex couples to marry will diminish the institution of marriage. Our government should be doing more to promote and support marriage, he asserted, because it…

  • A closer look at the Pussy Riot phenomenon

    by Sarah Joseph Last week, three members of the collective feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”, and sentenced to two years in a Russian penal colony. As described in an earlier post, the charges arose from an impromptu punk prayer in Russia’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour,…

  • The Human Rights Treaty Body System – Growing Pains or Terminal Decline?

    By Adam Fletcher On 22 June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, issued a report on the ‘treaty body’ system – that is, the system of committees whose task is to oversee implementation of the UN human rights treaties. This system is the closest thing we have to a world human rights…

  • Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers’ Report (2): Changes to Migration Act sideline human rights

    By Tania Penovic The Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2012 was rushed through Parliament this week following the release of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers’ report on Monday. The panel’s report recommended that the ‘Australian Parliament should agree, as a matter of urgency, to legislation that would allow for the…

  • Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers’ Report (1): The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

    By Adam Fletcher On Monday the Prime Minister’s Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers delivered its hotly‑anticipated report on ‘how best to prevent asylum seekers risking their lives by travelling to Australia by boat.’ Therefore, at the outset the mandate of the panel was to come up with a plan of deterrence. The issue of sinking…

  • Same sex marriage could become a constitutional battleground

    by Sarah Joseph On the weekend it was reported that Tasmania intends to legalise same sex marriage despite the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 defining “marriage” as being between a man and a woman. Given that apparent discrepancy, does Tasmania have the power under our Constitution to pass a same-sex marriage law? I will briefly answer…