Negotiations on the UN’s 15-year development strategy, which involve all 193 member states, have at last produced a set of ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. These focus on social justice, poverty…
Should primates such as chimpanzees be given rights normally reserved for humans?
phil/Flickr
Australia’s human rights record isn’t perfect, but it still good. if Australians aren’t able to take some pride in that and be inspired to do even better, over-the-top criticism could backfire.
Indonesians are sensitive about issues of respect for their nation and its sovereignty, as protests at Tony Abbott’s linking of aid with calls for clemency showed.
EPA/Bagus Indahono
Indonesians have long felt that Australia lacks respect for their nation’s sovereignty, but Indonesia’s status as a rising power adds to the urgency of recalibrating our approach to the relationship.
Bali Nine member Scott Rush’s father alerted the AFP to his son’s plans in the hope they would stop him from travelling to Indonesia.
AAP/Made Nagi
The AFP revised the guidelines on international co-operation since alerting Indonesia to the Bali Nine but there is arguably still an imbalance between security and human rights considerations.
Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott are firm advocates of human rights when Australians are executed but not when asylum seekers are involved.
AAP/Lukas Coch
In condemning Indonesia’s execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Australia has relied on the same human rights obligations that it rejects when applied to asylum seekers.
French soldiers patrolling the streets of Paoua, Central African Republic.
EMA/EPA
Another leaked report details heinous heinous sexual crimes by UN peacekeepers – this time in the Central African Republic.
A refugee displays an image of one of his three children who drowned when the boat on which the family fled the war in Syria sank in the Mediterranean.
EPA/Pete Muller
Political leaders have a ready culprit in people smugglers for drownings at sea. The problem is that this ignores responsibility for eliminating all other options for these people to avoid harm.
Given Australia’s involvement in Iraq, Tony Abbott cannot dismiss human rights abuses by Iraqi security forces fighting Islamic State militants.
AAP/PMO
Australia has a clear obligation under international law to take action to stop abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law by the ISF and Shi’a militia.
The United Nations building in New York.
United Nations Photo
The UN has been mulling how to keep our biggest corporations in check for about 40 years. The fear is that the latest move by countries down the supply chain will fail to make any headway.
UN bodies have consistently found that Australia does not abide by its international human rights obligations, particularly in its treatment of asylum seekers.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
Many asylum seekers, including children, have experienced conflict, family separation and significant human rights violations. So how does immigration detention affect their mental health?
Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s blanket rejection of clemency requests from drug convicts violates principles of human rights law.
EPA/Dennis M. Sabangan
In Indonesia, the fate of death row convicts lies largely in the hands of the country’s president, who can decide to spare their lives after examining their clemency requests. Indonesian President Joko…
A drawing by a six-year-old child detained at the Christmas Island detention centre.
AAP/AHRC
The federal government has tabled the long-awaited Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report into children held in immigration detention. The report, which recommends a royal commission be held…
Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs has come under attack from sections of the media and government.
AAP/Quentin Jones
Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs has been the subject of unusually fierce criticism by sections of the media and government, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Senior Australian…
Detained asylum seekers on Manus Island are searching for ways to communicate and be heard beyond the faceless inhumane bureaucracy.
AAP/Refugee Action Collective
Reports continue to emanate of escalating hunger strikes among asylum seekers at the Manus Island detention centre in protest at the length of their detention and their conditions. The Australian government…
Burkina Faso and Ghana will aim to repeat their performance in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nic Bothma/EPA
Even before the whistle blasts to kick off the opening match of the African Cup of Nations on January 17, this tournament is already being remembered for its comebacks. As concerns swirled over the Ebola…
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger and the founder of an online liberal debating forum has become the most recent victim of the unjust Saudi justice system and the contradictions, one might say hypocrisy, of…