The Australian government must distinguish between horrific crime and a barbaric sentence.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Bali Nine
Displaying 1 - 20 of 49 articles
Most people who see Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise, opening today as part of the Sydney Festival, will already have a strong opinion on the artist and his death – but a few may have their minds changed.
Advocacy efforts are easier to dismiss when they are seen to reflect vested interests more than principled foundations.
In tackling the problem of drug abuse, Indonesia should change its criminalisation and punitive approach into a public health one.
Whether Indonesia’s unofficial ‘moratorium’ on the death penalty is genuine or temporary, this is an advocacy moment for Australia to seize.
Beyond general expressions of “opposition” to capital punishment, Australia did not emphasise specific human rights principles in its lobbying of Indonesia to spare Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Capital punishment is unfairly imposed, innocent people are regularly condemned and it is patently ineffective in deterring crime. So why to states retain the death penalty?
On balance, it seems that the Australia-Indonesia relationship is more or less back to its usual setting – where “usual setting” means “fragile”.
Indonesia’s war on drugs aims to protect the country’s young generation from an alleged “national drug emergency.” But the government’s coercive approach is harming the people it wishes to protect.
In returning Paul Grigson to Jakarta so swiftly, the Australian government proved that its choice to put its relationship with Indonesia at risk for short-term political opportunism was pointless.
In spite of vigorous appeals from Australia for Indonesia to spare the lives of Bali duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, most Indonesians were not persuaded. Chan and Sukumaran were executed last week…
There have been executions of Australians for drug offences before. In 1986 Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers were hung in Malaysia for trafficking heroin. Van Tuong Nguyen was hanged in Singapore in 2005…
Whatever you think of capital punishment, if your police force helps convict people of capital crimes, you are complicit to some degree.
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics.
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.
Since Tony Abbott became prime minister, three issues have strained relations with Indonesia. Before the fracture over the fate of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, there were difficulties from the Coalition’s tow-back policy and a major crisis after revelations of Australian spying.
The executions in Indonesia were a mistake. Eight people are dead, including Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, despite alleged violations in the judicial process.
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.
Australians are the ones who suffer when consular support is weakened overseas.
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.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Adjunct Professor, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University
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Associate Lecturer, School of Government, Universitas Jendral Achmad Yani
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Honorary Professorial Fellow, Melbourne CSHE, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University
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Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, The University of Melbourne
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Director, La Trobe Asia and Associate Professor, La Trobe University, La Trobe University
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Dean of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
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Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations, The University of Western Australia
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Associate Professor, Public Health, Monash University
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Professor of Journalism, Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology
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Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Human Rights Law, Griffith University
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
