Category Archives: Human rights
Towards justice, dialogue and reconciliation
Melbourne PEN presents: Towards justice, dialogue and reconciliation An open conversation with Fethiye Çetin Sunday, September 12, 6.30—8.30 pm Auditorium, The Wheeler Centre 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne Fethiye Çetin discovered that her Turkish Muslim grandmother was born an Armenian Christian and was a child survivor of the Armenian genocide in 1915. She had been [...]
Saving America from bigotry
By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby We’re mostly disgusted with Terry Jones, pastor of the 50-member Dove World Church Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. But a small part of each of us thinks we ought to thank him for the announcement of his International Burn a Quran Day. He has given us a face and [...]
Soldiers ‘set out to kill civilians’
Simon Mann, Washington FIVE US soldiers deliberately killed Afghan civilians with grenades before photographing the corpses and keeping body parts as trophies, say Pentagon investigators. A 25-year-old sergeant, Calvin Gibbs, was the alleged ringleader, reportedly joking about how easy it would be to ”toss a grenade at someone and kill them”, US Army charge sheets [...]
Gov’t Hems and Haws Over ‘Honour Killings’
By Sujoy Dhar NEW DELHI, Sep 9, 2010 (IPS) – Instances of ‘honour killings’ in Indian communities still steeped in traditional beliefs continue unabated. Yet the government has not enacted tougher laws that will deal a decisive blow against this societal scourge. For bringing dishonour to the family, couples defying time-honoured traditions in many orthodox [...]
No defence for bigotry
Jill Singer From: Herald Sun WHEN I was first told that independent MP Rob Oakeshott (one of the so-called Three Amigos who decided the election outcome) is married to a woman of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, I unthinkingly expressed surprise. Why? Because I’ve always viewed Oakeshott as an extreme political conservative.
Searching randomly
Recently the Parliament of Victoria gave police powers to search randomly for knives. Public policy in relation to the prevention of crime should be evidence-based. There is no evidence that the incidence of knife crime is increasing – in the two years before the legislation was introduced, the incidence of offences in which a knife [...]
Serbian immigrants seek answers about the horror
Class-action suit: U.S. mercenaries were behind Croatian offensive in Balkan War By Ron Grossman, Tribune reporter Zivka Mijic, 46, talks about her family’s narrow escape from Croatia in the Balkan War. She and her family now live in Stickney. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune ) Zivka Mijic doesn’t burden people with her troubles — which would [...]
Eight children, one cooking pot, no food
Rania Abouzeid, Pakistan IT WAS an image that conveyed the human cost of the Pakistan floods – and the failure to deliver aid to those affected – more powerfully than any statistic: four young children lying on a filthy patchwork quilt, one of them sucking on an empty yellow bottle, covered by flies. Pakistani children [...]
The last Orthodox patriarch in Turkey?
By Bill Wunner, CNNIstanbul, Turkey (CNN) — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is the living embodiment of an ancient tradition. From his historic base in Istanbul, Turkey, the 270th Patriarch of Constantinople claims to be the direct successor of the Apostle Andrew. World’s Untold Stories Today he’s considered “first among equals” in the leadership of the Greek [...]
My Grandmother Heranus
During the 1915 Armenian deportation, Mrs. Heranus was forcibly taken away from her mother by soldiers. Her name was changed to Seher, she was brought up as a Muslim girl, married, had children. Her grandchild Cetin wrote a book ttled My grandmother. by Yahya KOÇOĞLU Fethiye Cetin, who was the former spokeswoman of the Minorities [...]
Asia-Pacific: Brief to UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
On 3 September 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, together with the International Service for Human Rights and the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team, provided a Brief on the Pacific Region to Ms Margaret Sekaggya, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, in advance of her visit to Fiji scheduled for [...]
Erma Vassiliou: The colour of a poet’s ink
by Dina Gerolymou The crimes against humanity and their impact on a nation’s memory is the theme of Erma Vassiliou’s new book When memory has a right. The book was launched in Melbourne, Australia as part of the commemorations of the Pontian Genocide. Dr Erma Vassiliou is a Cypriot-Australian linguist and writer. Her latest [...]
Locked out: The 12 million people without a country, and the need to become a citizen
By Stephanie Hanes, Correspondent The victims of shifting borders, politics, or the happenstance of birthplace, the world’s 12 million stateless people and their need to become citizens are rising on the international human rights agenda. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - -A Palestinian in Beirut, Lebanon, holding a symbolic key during a commemoration of the dispersal of [...]
Sitting with asylum seekers on the side of the Stuart Highway
Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, writes: ASYLUM SEEKERS, BORDER PROTECTION, CHRISTMAS ISLAND, CURTIN DETENTION CENTRE, IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT On Wednesday morning a large group of asylum seekers walked out of the Darwin detention centre and stood quietly by the Stuart Highway holding up bed sheets so that passing cars could [...]
Poverty Games
India is preparing to welcome the world to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, but behind the show of wealth, at what’s being dubbed the most expensive games in history, Dateline’s Yalda Hakim discovers a different story. Thousands of slums have been demolished and the residents moved to outside the city, while the poor earn a [...]
