Bartlett's Blog

It was 20 years ago today. On 20 November 1989, the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC) was formally adopted.  According http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/18/us-ratify-children-s-treaty?tr=y&auid=5614841 to Human Rights Watch, the Convention became “the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history.  Twenty years on, only two countries have failed to ratify the Convention – Somalia and the USA. In the USA, Presidential action to ratify an international treaty ...

Peter Mares is a long time follower of refugee issues and critic of the problems inherent in the former government’s approach to asylum seekers in boats.  He wrote a piece in The Age which emphasised a point about the Howard’s government asylum policies which does not get highlighted enough. former treasurer Peter Costello wrote in these pages that the only way to prevent asylum seekers coming to Australia by ...

Wednesday night politics in Brisbane Two forums are being held in Brisbane tomorrow night which may be of interest to some. One is a forum to debate Integrity & Accountability in Queensland. It is being held at the Irish Club, 175 Elizabeth St  from  6pm.  Speakers include former state Attorney-General, Linda Lavarch, journalist Tony Koch, Brian Stewart from the Urban Development Institute. The other forum is examining some of the current issues ...

There is more evidence that, however unjust and dysfunctional the administration of Australia's immigration laws was in our recent past, it is being outstripped by what has been happening in the USA. There are more and more examples coming to light in the USA that have echoes of the Cornelia Rau and Vivienne Alvarez debacles of the Howard era in Australia.  The reasons these things are happening are similar ...

Last night I attended the public forum I wrote about here, featuring Pacific Island peoples speaknig about the impacts of climate change on their homelands, health and cultures. It was very well attended and the speakers were engaging and enlightening. I've published a piece about it over at Crikey at this link. If for some reaon you want to see my efforts at live-Tweeting the forum, ...

The political responses to asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat is starting to focus more and more on other countries in our region.  Until recently this has mostly involved Indonesia, but Malaysia is now being mentioned more frequently.  I recently wrote a piece for Crikey and also had a letter published in The Australian detailing some of the serious human rights abuses inflicted on asylum seekers and ...

There is less than a week to go for people to put in personal submissions for the national human rights consultations, with the general cut off date this coming Monday, 15 June.  If you were planning on having your say on how best to protect and promote human rights and responsibilities, now is the time to do it.   The efforts at consultation, carried out by an independent committee ...

As the speech itself acknowledges, a single speech can't resolve things.  But it is impossible to overstate how significant it would be if the vision President Obama expresses and aspires to in this speech is successful.  The text of the speech is here, or here for translations into 14 other languages.  It is worth taking the time to listen to and watch as well.

I first wrote on this blog about Afghan women’s rights activist, Malalai Joya, at the end of 2005.  In 2007 I got the chance to hear her speak in Brisbane.  I am pleasantly surprised that she has still managed to avoid being assassinated, and also pleased she will soon be visiting Australia again to speak of her story, detailed in a book she has written called “Raising My ...

A post by Nayano at a Possie in Aussie drew my attention to a story in The Agedetailing a visit by a Federal Government's security adviser “to Malaysia and Sri Lanka to negotiate ways to stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia.”  Many asylum seekers go via Malaysia to Indonesia where they try to apply with the UNHCR for recognition as a refugee and/or try to get on a ...

There are a couple of interesting events being held next week in Brisbane. On Tuesday night at the Uni of Qld, two films about children: The first is called “Child in Charge” on the lives of child-headed families - children who have raised their siblings in post-genocide Rwanda.  Director Kym Rolle will also be there to speak about the film. The second film is called “Invisible Children: The Rescue” This film is about ...

The focus on Barack Obama as the person of the moment, and the politician that grabbed the globes imagination throughout 2008 caused me to reflect in this post on other politicians who overcame even higher odds at greater personal costs in 2008.  But it also important to continually remember that there are many other people around the world who show even greater perseverance and courage. Many of them ...

Once again this Club Troppo and Online Opinion have joined to reproduce a collection of  some of the best blog posts of 2008.  They are featuring regularly at Online Opinion throughout January. I’ve had some of my pieces published in the collection in previous years. I didn’t expect to have a piece featured this year, as my blogging in 2008 was less frequent and more fractured than previously. However, one of ...

I recently questioned whether Australia might be capable of having a mature and honest debate about how best to ensure decent human rights and responsibilities are available to all of us. These two pieces might suggest not, but we now have a chance to rise above those who try to deliberately mislead the public, and instead have a proper examination of whether a Bill or Charter of Rights is ...

The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being marked with a range of functions all around the country.  Brisbane has a function at the State LIbrary during the day, plus a public forum followed by a supper in the evening. Details below.

I’m speaking in Canberra on Wednesday night at the last in a series of three free seminars to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The seminar is hosted by the local branch of Amnesty International.  I will be providing a human rights perspective on the issues of migration and refugee policies. The seminar goes from 6 to 7pm in the ACT Legislative Assembly ...

Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall will be the site for a gathering of hundreds of men on Wednesday of next week as part of the build up to White Ribbon Day. Former star of the (sadly now defunct) Brisbane Bullets basketball team, Leroy Loggins, will MC the event, which goes from 12.30 to 1.30.  Men from a range of backgrounds will speak about violence against women from their perspective as a ...

On Wednesday I attended a rally outside the Brisbane District Court, held to show support for Palm Island man, Lex Wotton, whose trial had been going for two weeks. The jury started deliberating on the Thursday. When I saw news that they were still going on the Friday afternoon, I decided to go to the court to bear witness with Lex and his family and supporters as they ...

I wrote back in April about Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, jailed by the Chinese authorities, with his wife and baby daughter kept under house arrest.  He has just been awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Europe’s most prestigious human rights prize, by the European Parliament.

Following up on my previous pieces here on the controversies in Queensland surrounding Dennis Ferguson,  Jeremy Gans at Charterblog writes about the possible impact of a new piece of legislation that allows for a judge-only trial in cases where pre-trial publicity may effect jury deliberations.