In its rush to deny overseas fighters their Australian citizenship, the government must ensure it doesn’t end up endorsing the very thing it wants to repudiate.
A crew of people smugglers have alleged that an Australian official paid them to return a boatload of asylum seekers to Indonesia.
AAP/Customs
Saudi Arabia has upheld a blogger’s flogging sentence, in defiance of international pressure. How long will this go on?
President Barack Obama and his inner circle follow the assassination of Osama bin Laden, which made headlines worldwide but is seemingly unimportant four years on.
EPA/Pete Souza/White House handout
Memories of the killing of Osama bin Laden are fading, but the legacies of al-Qaeda and the war on terror’s many ‘own goals’ haunt us in the form of multiplying threats and lost civil liberties.
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.
A Rabbi contemplates the desecration of hundreds of Jewish graves in France, where one of the youths arrested denied anti-Semitism was their motive.
EPA/Patrick Seeger
Legal artifice is being constructed to make false distinctions between unpalatable anti-Semitism and kosher anti-Zionism.
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
Based on the Abbott government’s stance to date, there seems little chance of David Hicks receiving an effective remedy – at least not voluntarily
The captain of the Costa Concordia has been sentenced to 16 years’ jail after the ship ran aground off the coast of Italy two years ago.
EPA/Luca Zennaro
Late last week, an Italian court sentenced the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner, Francesco Schettino, to 16 years’ jail after finding him guilty of multiple charges of manslaughter. On January…
The internet and cloud computing transcend borders. Now it’s time for international law to catch up.
Data courtesy Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC and Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC. Image by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC.
Cloud computing, by its very nature, transcends location, geography and territorial boundaries. Data accessed in one country might be stored half way across the world, or even in servers in multiple countries…
The High Court decision on 157 asylum seekers detained at sea in 2014 – as well as recent legislative changes – raises concerns about the rights of asylum seekers.
AAP/Lukas Coch
On Wednesday, the High Court handed down an important judgment on the legality of the interception of asylum seeker vessels and the detention of those onboard on the high seas. It ruled, by a 4:3 majority…
At the Israeli separation barrier in Bethlehem, Palestinians watch a projection of Mahmoud Abbas speaking at the UN General Assembly before a November 2012 vote that paved the way for ICC membership.
EPA/Abed al Hashlamoun
2015 began with Palestinian leaders having submitted the paperwork to become signatories to the Rome Statute, the document that governs the International Criminal Court (ICC). Last week, United Nations…
Torture victims will soon be lining up to sue the US. What are their chances?
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
The US Senate’s report on the torture carried out by the CIA makes shocking reading. Questions will be asked about whether individual victims can sue for compensation for losses suffered, and where they…
No other minister has the same unchecked control over the lives of other people as the immigration minister has.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison now has unchecked power to decide the outcomes that will affect the lives of asylum seekers and refugees coming to Australia. Previous immigration ministers have had…
A ban on resettling asylum seekers from Indonesia calls into question the rationale of Australia’s resettlement program.
EPA/Hotli Simanijuntak
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has announced that asylum seekers residing in Indonesia while awaiting protection will no longer obtain resettlement in Australia. This move puts into serious question…
The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, criticised Australia in his opening address to the UN Human Rights Council.
EPA/Salvatore di Nolfi
The Australian government is being examined on Monday evening by the United Nations Committee against Torture. Before the independent committee of experts, an Australian government delegation has to answer…
Andrew Wilkie claims the Australian government is inflicting crimes against humanity upon asylum seekers and refugees.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Independent federal MP Andrew Wilkie has written to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the body investigate and prosecute the prime minister, Tony Abbott…
Riding high: Uhuru Kenyatta returns to Kenya from the ICC.
EPA/Daniel Irungu
Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has become the first-ever sitting president to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC). He faces charges of direct involvement in the violence that followed…
A carrier’s liability for damage, loss or delay of baggage is governed by a number of overarching international treaties.
Adam Fagen
If you get on a plane and your baggage ends up being delayed, damaged or lost, who’s responsible: you or the airline? And what rules apply when you’re flying between different countries – even if you don’t…