Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Tag: human rights

  • The High Court and the Freedom of Political Communication

    By Melissa Castan What do Australian charities’ tax exemptions, #Twitdef and Wikileaks all have in common? Give me a moment. Last week the High Court held that Aid/Watch is a charitable organisation for the purposes of tax assessment. This would be unremarkable, but Aid/Watch is an organisation that campaigns for effective foreign aid policies through…

  • Developments in Twitter Defamation case.

    By Sarah Joseph My blog on Sunday regarding this issue had an unprecedented number of hits for the Castan blog, indicating a great level of interest in this story. The hits may also reflect that relatively little attention has been paid to this issue in the mainstream media, hence more reliance on blogs and especially…

  • Introducing the Human Rights Online Project

    Over the past two years, the Castan Centre has been expanding its online presence, particularly in the burgeoning world of social media, and has now consolidated its operations into the Human Rights Online Project.  The project enables the Centre to comment on human rights issues, to facilitate other people’s interest in human rights and to…

  • Defamation, Twitter and Free Speech

    Sarah Joseph An extraordinary thing happened in Australia’s media community last week. Julie Posetti, a journalism lecturer and prolific tweeter, attended a journalism conference in Sydney. One of the speakers was Asa Wahlquist, who used to write climate change articles for the Australian.  The Australian has been under some fire recently for its perceived conservative bias (see,…

  • The UN, Executions, and GLBT rights.

    By Sarah Joseph On November 16, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of 79 to 70 (with 17 abstentions and 26 absentees), removed an explicit condemnation of killings on the basis of sexual orientation from a GA resolution. The reference to “sexual orientation” has been included in previous resolutions which condemn extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The…

  • Opening up Marriage to Same-sex Couples

    By Paula Gerber On 16th November 2010, I had a bit of a chat with Jon Faine on 774 ABC radio about why same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. While there are numerous justifications for ending the ban on same-sex marriage, I focused on the following arguments: 1. Same-sex marriage is in the best…