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Ratification of the OPCAT – what will it mean for Australia?
Yesterday at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s annual NGO Forum, the Foreign Minister and Attorney-General announced that Australia would ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). What is it all about? The OPCAT is a treaty which…
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The 2015 Human Rights Report – Torture and Refoulement: the Shame of Liberal Democracies
By Sarah Joseph This piece is featured in the 2015 Castan Centre Human Rights Report. We will be featuring the articles on the blog throughout the month of May. Gross human rights abuses happen all over the world. They are not confined to the barbaric acts of groups such as Islamic State. Indeed, even liberal democracies, such…
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Hicks conviction overturned – is he owed an apology or assistance?
By Adam Fletcher A United States Military Court’s decision to overturn David Hicks’ conviction for the crime of “material support for terrorism” represents a welcome return to the international rule of law – at least in the US. I have written previously that material support for terrorism was effectively a “non-crime” at the time of…
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Four reasons why the CIA torture program should never have happened
By Marius Smith When the US Senate Intelligence Committee released its report into the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program this week, the response was appropriate. People called it “shocking”, “harrowing” and “deeply disturbing”. But most of all, the Committee’s report into the horrendous affair reveals that the whole thing was normal. Normal, that is, for state-sanctioned torture. There…
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Prisons, overcrowding and human rights
Radical changes to the parole regime in Victoria in 2013 led to a 96.2% increase in refusals of parole in one year.
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Open letter to the Attorney-General regarding the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
The following is an open letter to the Commonwealth Attorney-General, The Hon. George Brandis QC, signed by 64 organisations including the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. The letter is dated 15 September 2014. Dear Attorney, Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment We, the undersigned…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 
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