Immigration minister Scott Morrison’s proposed changes to the Migration Act are designed to reduce adherence to Australia’s international legal obligations.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Earlier this week, immigration minister Scott Morrison introduced the Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill in response to a High Court decision that ruled invalid his move to cap the…
What would you pull out of the water if you knew you were watched?
Dirk.heldmaier
The ocean, seen from a beach or from a plane, seems vast, ancient and invulnerable. It’s hard to imagine that 90% of life on earth lives below the waves, across 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of water and…
The judicial and political options in Egypt for appealing Peter Greste’s jail sentence do not appear to give much hope to his supporters.
EPA/Khaled Elfiqi
The guilty verdict and jail sentence handed to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed by an Egyptian court for conspiring with the Muslim…
The Senate inquiry into the violence at the Manus Island detention centre in February has heard that a key contributing factor to the riots was the delay in processing asylum seekers’ claims.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
It’s been a busy Refugee Week so far. The High Court dismissed a constitutional challenge to offshore processing of asylum seekers, while the federal Labor caucus rejected an internal motion calling for…
Detainees protest in the Woomera centre in 2002: ‘Animals in Australia have more rights than we have!’ one wrote.
AAP/Tom Miletic
Several years ago an asylum seeker wrote a letter about his experiences at the now-decommissioned Woomera Detention Centre. This is an extract: I have been in this cage for 13 months … Why should all these…
Multilateralism, so much hot air.
Sebastian Kahnert
As delegates gather once again for climate talks in Bonn, the question has to be asked: after decades of conferences, committees, procedures and protocols, is the multilateral approach to tackling climate…
The transfer of asylum seekers to detention centres in Papua New Guinea is a clear violation of Australia’s international law obligations.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
This week’s Four Corners investigation on the circumstances surrounding the death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati at the Manus Island detention centre in February was uncomfortable viewing. The ABC…
Japan has been ordered to quit its scientific whaling program in the Southern Ocean.
Josh/Flickr
Japan’s Southern Ocean “scientific” whaling program is contrary to international law, the International Court of Justice found last night after a four week trial between Australia and Japan in June last…
Crimean schoolchildren dress in Russian naval uniform in Sevastopol.
EPA/Sergei Ilinitsky
In a historic speech to both houses of the Russian parliament on 18 March in support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin drew a bold comparison between the Crimean crisis and the recognition…
When asylum seekers are handed over to PNG’s Manus Island, Australia cannot ‘contract out’ its international legal responsibilities with them.
AAP/Department of Immigration
The Australian government cannot duck and weave and imply that events on Manus Island involving asylum seekers were lawless acts over which it had no control. A policy aimed at “stopping the boats” does…
The decision to investigate the Australian navy’s actions in towing back asylum boats could have been an opportunity for greater transparency.
AAP/Scott Fisher
The release on Wednesday of the review into the circumstances of how and why the Australian navy repeatedly entered Indonesian waters might have been expected finally to reveal information about Australia’s…
Foreign minister Julie Bishop, pictured with her Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Liberman, in Jerusalem where she confirmed a change in Australia’s position on Jewish settlements.
Twitter/AusAmbIsrael
There was once consensus that the earth is flat. Similarly, the international legal situation of Israeli settlements is flatly said to be criminal. The truth is different and more complex. Ben Saul’s recent…
Brutal interrogations of Palestinian children by Israeli forces have the apparent aim of obtaining a confession that the child engaged in stone-throwing.
EPA/Mohammar Awad
Anyone who watched the ABC Four Corners episode Stone Cold Justice last night could not help but be moved by its vivid portrayal of the plight of many Palestinian boys at the hands of the Israeli army…
The government should have focused on a proper investigation into allegations that asylum seekers’ hands were deliberately burned by the Navy.
ABC
The Abbott government has reacted indignantly to allegations by Sudanese asylum seeker Yousif Ibrahim Fasher that asylum seekers were mistreated and had their hands deliberately burnt by Australian Navy…
Foreign minister Julie Bishop made news in Israel by declaring Australia would like to see which international law made settlements in occupied Palestinian territories illegal.
Times of Israel
The Australian government has become an apologist for Israeli war crimes and a wrecker of sacred international humanitarian law principles. Last week, Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop asked to…
Australia has a duty to ensure asylum seekers who are facing trial after being sent to Nauru are not denied their rights to proper legal process.
AAP
Australia should respond to the extraordinary actions of the government of Nauru in deporting and terminating the employment of its only magistrate, Peter Law, and denying its Chief Justice, Geoffrey Eames…
The navy is permitted to intercept vessels in Australian waters, but the high seas or Indonesian waters are a different matter, as are tow-backs to another country.
AAP/Scott Fisher
Australia has been engaging in “tow-backs” of asylum-seeker boats. This has involved intercepting boats carrying asylum seekers at sea, before they reach Australia, and forcing them to return to Indonesia…
Where is this building? It really doesn’t matter.
brionv
The question of accountability under national law for the wrongs committed by international companies has been debated and litigated for many years in many different courts and across many different countries…
Timor Leste claims that a treaty with Australia on regulating the exploitation of petroleum and similar resources in the Timor Sea is now invalid.
EPA/Antonio Dasiparu
Several issues of international law arise from Timor Leste’s dispute with Australia over the negotiations of a 2006 treaty regulating the exploitation of petroleum and similar resources in the Timor Sea…
Wanted: al-Liby is wanted in connection with 1998 US embassy bombings.
US Department of State
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, or Abu Anas al-Liby, as he is more commonly known, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to kill and maim Americans abroad and to attack US national defence facilities…