Keywords: Geneva Convention
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INTERNATIONAL
- John Langmore
- 19 September 2013
8 Comments
This has been a turbulent two weeks. One's attitudes have oscillated through anger and despair to a glimpse of hope and ended with renewed confidence in Obama's values and intentions. What a time for Australia to be chairing the Security Council! My impression is that our diplomats are working with professional skill, commitment to the rule of law and to peaceful conflict resolution.
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AUSTRALIA
- Justin Glyn
- 30 August 2013
7 Comments
For the second time in a little over ten years, the US and its allies seem about to launch hostilities against an Arab country on the basis of the possession or use of chemical weapons. They have made clear that while they may seek a Security Council resolution, they do not consider themselves bound by it. This is worrying.
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AUSTRALIA
- Frank Brennan
- 13 August 2013
1 Comment
'Like many Australians, I had hoped that the dastardly plan announced on 19 July would stop the boats in the short term, as a stop-gap measure. It is dismaying to learn that appropriate consultations had not occurred with Indonesia with the result that the very people who were to receive the shock and awe message are yet to receive it. There’s only one thing worse than shock and awe; that’s shock and awe that doesn’t work because you haven’t done your homework.' 43rd Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture, Trinity College Theological School, 14 August 2013.
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AUSTRALIA
- Frank Brennan
- 27 June 2013
10 Comments
'I want to outline the contours for a better approach — better than forcibly turning around boats, better than transporting people to Nauru and Manus Island or to Malaysia to join an asylum queue of 100,000 or permitting people to reside in the Australian community but without work rights and with inadequate welfare provision.' Frank Brennan speaks at the Australian Catholic University National Asylum Summit 2013.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 11 February 2013
9 Comments
'I have been asked to provide a spiritual reflection for Fred who was not always given to spiritual conversation. I find the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah helpful. He came to bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, bring freedom to the oppressed and sight to the blind. Fred did all these things, sometimes brusquely.' Frank Brennan on the 20th anniversary of Fred Hollows' death.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lyn Bender
- 26 September 2012
8 Comments
In March 2002 I spent hours with Afghanis, Iranians, Palestinians and Iraqis on hunger strikes; desperate people who felt they had no power except to use their bodies to convey their message of despair. I am not the only health professional to predict that the resurrected Pacific Solution will create the same destructive circumstances.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 10 August 2012
9 Comments
Next week Parliament reconvenes; meanwhile the boats keep coming. Chris Bowen will be armed with a report from an expert panel that has been hearing from the community. We're still awaiting an answer on unaccompanied minors under the Malaysia solution. Until one is provided no one in good conscience can give it the tick.
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AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 06 August 2012
4 Comments
A long-standing principle of arms control is that some regimes deserve lethal weapons, and others do not. But who is or is not a desirable dealer is often an open question. Australia adds to the confusion: one Brisbane weapon-maker's claim to fame is the creation of an electronic gun capable of firing a million bullets a minute.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lyn Bender
- 30 January 2012
37 Comments
In his book They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayor writes of 'the slow lobster boil of erosion of freedom' in Nazi Germany. As a daughter of Jewish refugees I know what this entails. The same process confronts asylum seekers today if we do not begin from a presumption of rights and humanity.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Falzon
- 20 August 2010
20 Comments
Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Janet Phillips says that for Aboriginal Australians
there's no 'justice'; 'just us'.
How can we turn this election into a building block for a more equal society?
The answer involves weighing up the known
policies and track-record of both sides to assess their
impact on the growth of inequality.
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AUSTRALIA
- Philip Mendes
- 10 March 2008
13 Comments
Over the years, many simplistic arguments have been advanced in an attempt to justify the West Bank settlement project. None of these arguments had any substance in the 1980s, and they have even less validity now.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Vacy Vlazna
- 14 November 2007
4 Comments
In July 2002, Australia voted against a proposal to strengthen the 1984 UN Convention against Torture. John Howard's friendship with George W. Bush has compromised and tainted our once reputable record on human rights advocacy.
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