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Occupy Melbourne – One Observer’s Account of the Eviction
By Andre Dao I received a text message on Friday morning from a friend at the Occupy Melbourne protest at City Square, saying that the protesters were about to be forcibly evicted. I had previously been down to City Square the previous Saturday as the protesters were setting up, and my impression of the movement…
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In Praise of Independent Oversight
By Adam Fletcher Anyone who watched the ABC’s 7.30 Report story this week on the death of a 52 year-old father who had been convicted of traffic offences in Grafton prison would have been horrified. For those who did not see it, this man was dying of a brain haemorrhage for hours while guards treated…
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Undermining the Migration Act’s Protections
By Adam Fletcher Later today the Australian Government plans to put the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011 to a vote in the House of Representatives. So, what does this controversial Bill actually say? The Bill undermines several protections built into the Migration Act 1958, which, with Australia’s unique policies of…
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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…
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Andrew Bolt, Free Speech, and Racial Intolerance
by Sarah Joseph In Eatock v Bolt, decided on September 28, the (in)famous conservative columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt was found to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (the “RDA”) in writing two particular articles published in 2009, “It’s so hip to be black” and “White fellas in the black”. In the articles,…
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Troy Davis, the death penalty, and international human rights law
by Sarah Joseph Troy Davis died late on Wednesday 21 September, executed by lethal injection in Jackson, Georgia for the murder in 1991 of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. His execution provoked worldwide outrage, given that clear doubts over his guilt existed. Seven of nine witnesses had recanted from their testimony at his trial,…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 