Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Tag: Sarah Joseph

  • Sinking boats: a reason to reconsider compassion?

    by Sarah Joseph The issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia has been massively politicised for over ten years.  The arguments in this debate are well set. On one side is the rhetoric of hoards of queue-jumping illegal immigrants breaching our border security.  On the other is the view that these are people […]

  • A silly season blog: Tintin and Human Rights

    by Sarah Joseph So the new Tintin movie, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, opens in Australia on Boxing Day. As a die-hard fan of Tintin, the creation of Georges Remi known as Hergé (1907-1983), I will have to see it, though I have serious doubts that the movie can remotely match […]

  • Time’s Person of the Year: The Protester

    by Sarah Joseph* Time Magazine has just announced its Person of the Year.  Appropriately, it is “The Protester”. The signature characteristic of 2011 has been the extraordinary outbreak of protests, demonstrations, riots, and even overthrows of government. Most obviously, there has been the “Arab Spring”. Two long-standing dictators, Ben-Ali and Mubarak, were, remarkably, overthrown in […]

  • The Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) legislation: an important but “second best” development

    By Sarah Joseph New human rights legislation has finally been approved by the Federal Parliament. The Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill 2010 will require Ministers, when introducing legislation, to table a Statement of Compatibility outlining the extent to which the legislation complies with Australia’s international human rights obligations.  It will also create a Parliamentary Joint […]

  • Plain packaging legislation and international investor rights: a challenge to Australia’s regulatory sovereignty

    by Sarah Joseph The much-discussed plain packaging legislation for cigarettes will come into force until December 2012.  Tobacco companies plan to wage a sustained campaign of “lawfare” against it, including a likely constitutional challenge and arbitral proceedings under a Hong Kong/Australia bilateral agreement. There is also the possibility of proceedings against Australia in the World […]

  • The Occupy movement and the Importance of Civil Protest

    Sarah Joseph The “Occupy” movement has swept the world in the last five weeks, as seems appropriate in this year of demonstrations by people tired of a clapped-out status quo.  Of course, the Occupy movement is quite different to those that overran Tahrir Square or who now bravely withstand the bullets of the Syrian State.  […]