The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has again had to pull out of a planned inspection after NSW and Queensland refused it access to facilities. Paul Gregoire reports.
United Nations
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet's visit to China last month was seized on by the United States to ramp up its anti-Chinese rhetoric, writes William Briggs.
The United Nations has designated Australia as having done the least out of 193 countries to combat climate change. Patrick McDonald reports.
The federal government insists that the Murugappan family do not meet the refugee criteria and can be safely returned to Sri Lanka. Janet Parker takes a look at the adverse security situation for Tamils.
Unions, peace and aid groups are condemning Israel's air strikes and calling on the Australian government to demand Israel cease fire. Isaac Nellist reports.
It may seem a surprise to learn that Australia’s sustainable development is currently ranked very low compared to other OECD countries, writes Patrick McDonald.
The Australian Tamil Congress has expressed its “disappointment” with a March 21 United Nations Human Rights Council resolution because “very little justice has reached victims and survivors” it said.
When Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga used his United Nations address on September 27 to warn that, for the Pacific, “climate change is a weapon of mass destruction”, most of the seats were vacant.
A United Nations report has called for an investigation of human rights violations in the divided South Asian territory of Kashmir.
United Nations human rights official Andrew Gilmour said on March 7 that it was impossible to safely send Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh back to their homes in Myanmar as documents released under freedom of information laws show that the Australian defence department plans to spend almost $400,000 on training members of the Myanma military in 2017-18.
Israel’s fight against the global boycott, divestments and sanctions campaign (BDS) has taken another turn with its attempt to prevent the publication of a database of companies operating in its illegal West Bank settlements.
Another United Nations climate conference (COP23) is over — though many people would have barely noticed, given the lack of media coverage. The Paris Climate Agreement is locked in and, contrary to the Coalition’s inetrpretation, Australia needs to ratchet up its emissions reduction.
This is a useful time to reflect on where Australia sits globally on climate action and what areas are of concern.
The following statement from the Australia Burma Rohingya Organisation was read by Habib to a solidarity protest in Melbourne on September 7.
* * *
Today we raise our voices on behalf of the oppressed Rohingya and Kaman people, who are facing ongoing genocide in the Rakhine [Arakan] state of western Myanmar [Burma].
We are also protesting the continuous wars being waged against minorities in the Shan and Kachin states.
There are countless reports from NGOs, scientists and government agencies on climate refugees.
For example, last year more than 2 million people had to gather their possessions and flee as floods hit the Yangtze River in China. But, despite this becoming one of the world’s greatest issues there is very little activism around climate refugees in the developed world.
The United Nations adopted a historic resolution on December 24 to launch negotiations this year on a treaty to render nuclear weapons illegal.
Australia opposed the resolution. The government said US nuclear weapons are essential for security and their use could be justified in certain circumstances. This position was opposed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand which supported the resolution. The General Assembly vote was 113 nations in favour and 35 against, with 13 abstentions.
The United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report of its investigation into human rights violations in Sri Lanka found “reasonable grounds to believe that gross violations of international human rights law … were committed.”
The investigation deals with the period between February 2002 and November 2011. It thus includes the final years of the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka and was defeated in May 2009.
Pages
