Oxfam Urgent Action: Refugees - Temporary Protection Visas

Dame Anita Roddick: “I am deeply, deeply honoured. But I am not done.”

Awesome!

Also, check out her article on recent events in Angola prison.

Saw this on the Democrats RSS feed today (see - it works…).

“In the wake of yesterday’s historic Family Court decision ruling locking up children indefinitely in immigration detention centres was illegal, Mr Ruddock today confirmed he would seek a legal orders preventing the children’s release while the Government was considering an appeal.”

Anybody that’s read up on the Tampa incident will recognise the lengths that the current government is willing to go to demonise and attack the fundamental human rights of asylum seekers and refugees. Our government’s refugee and asylum seeker policy is in breach of numerous international conventions, including the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Status of Refugees, and still the hits keep on coming.

Minister Ruddock is also responsible as guardian of children who are in detention. As part of this charter he is meant to make decisions with the best interests of the child as his first priority. This is a major conflict of interest, and the role of guardian must be transferred to another body such as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). He is clearly ignoring this mandate in his decision to attempt to keep children in detention.

Please consider writing to the minister and/or the newspapers and register your disgust at the minister’s actions. Address letters to:

The Hon Philip Ruddock MP
Minister for Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 4144
Salutation: Dear Minister

Strong yet courteous letters will have the most impact (no abuse please).

If you would like to work with others to fight for the human rights of children in detention, and those of refugees and asylum seekers in general, you may be interested in one of the following organisations:

• Chilout
• Amnesty International
• Refugee Council of Australia

On the weekend I got hold of Dark Victory by David Marr and Marian Wilkinson.

I am halfway through, can’t put it down. It outlines the disgusting lengths the government has gone through to keep asylum seekers, 90% of whom the government expected to be bona-fide refugees, out of the country. And how, in the process they have managed to change the law, lie, deceive and inappropriately engage the miltary on the way.

IMHO this is an absolute must read for anyone interested in politics and/or refugee rights issues.

CS Monitor report on the New calls for reform of UN rights commission.

Joey, the main focus of the doco I mentioned, has a blog. Check out Seeing Is Believing too.

And the chat is archived (bravo SBS).

Saw Handicams, Human Rights and the News on SBS last night (after it being recommended in our uni class).

I was both inspired and shocked by the show. Inspired to see technology, the industry I work in, actually assisting those without a voice. Shocked by what they had to say. The images graphically illustrated the violence that is carried out in the name of capitalism and international trade by corrupt ex-government officials with the apparent complicity of the police. And a little piece of “home entertainment” technology served to bring it to national, and international, attention.

I just wish I had have known about the chat session after the show - it wasn’t advertised on TV at the start or end of the show. It should have been.

AP (via GoUpstate.com) reports that U.K. forces believe they have killed Ali Hassan al-Majid in a bombing raid. More info on Ali Hassan al-Majid from Human Rights Watch.