Regarding Rights

Academic and activist perspectives on human rights

Monthly Archives: March 2013


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Centre for International Governance and Justice: News and Events

Jacqueline ParryCIGJ PhD Scholar Awarded American Society of International Law Grant

CIGJ PhD student, Jacqueline Parry, has been awarded a prestigious Arthur C. Helton Fellowship micro-grant by the American Society of International Law. The Fellowship is named in honour of the renowned refugee scholar, Arthur Helton, who died along with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello and 20 others when the UN compound was bombed in Baghdad in 2003.

Jacky was selected from among 50 applicants from all over the world and will use the fellowship to support her fieldwork on refugees and transitional justice in Liberia.

The Decline of Consent in International Law

Marie-Eve Loiselle, CIGJ Research Officer and Centre Co-Ordinator, recently contributed to the Lowy Institute for International Policy’s Interpreter blog. Marie-Eve’s piece, which examines national sovereignty and the consensual nature of treaty obligations, can be read here. Continue Reading →


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A human rights assessment of the proposed needle and syringe exchange program in Canberra’s prison

By Anita Mackay

Monash University

Original photo by Todd Huffman at flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99287245@N00/2344377068

Original photo by Todd Huffman at flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99287245@N00/2344377068

The ACT government has announced the introduction of a needle and syringe exchange program for the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) as a method for reducing the spread of blood-borne viruses.  This is a contentious proposal that faces a degree of opposition, including from prison officers and nurses.  If it goes ahead, the ACT would become the first jurisdiction in Australia to have such a program in a prison.  This post considers some of the arguments in favour of, and against, the proposal from a human rights perspective.  It concludes that a needle and syringe exchange program, if implemented in a manner that is informed by overseas experience, would be consistent with the human rights of both prisoners and prison officers. 

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Centre for International Governance and Justice: News and Events

Sally Engle Merry Visiting

Sally Engle Merry

Sally Merry, Adjunct Professor at RegNet and Professor of Anthropology in the Institute for Law and Society at New York University, returns to the CIGJ next week. On Tuesday she will present a seminar considering how the soft power of international human rights law is hardened through the use of quantitative performance measures.

A human rights assessment of the proposed needle and syringe exchange program in Canberra’s prison

Next week’s post, written by Anita Mackay – a recent visitor at the CIGJ – considers the human rights implications of the needle and syringe exchange program which the ACT government wants to introduce in Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie prison. The program aims to reduce the spread of blood-borne viruses in the prison, where up to 65% of inmates have Hepatitis C and there is evidence to suggest some prisoners contracted the virus while in prison.

 


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Counter-terrorism: After the 9/11 decade

By Cynthia Banham
Centre for International Governance and Justice

 

Regarding Rights is pleased to re-publish “Counter-terrorism: After the 9/11 decade”  by CIGJ PhD scholar Cynthia Banham, originally written for the Lowy Institute’s blog The Interpreter.

We thank the editors of The Interpreter for their permission to post Cynthia’s article here.

The Open Society Foundation’s recent report detailing the scale of the Bush Administration’s extraordinary rendition program and the extent of cooperation by 54 allies reveals yet again the excesses in the way liberal democracies responded to the al Qaeda terrorist threat in the decade after the 9/11 attacks.

Yet in many ways the actions of the governments that came after those of George W Bush, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown tell us more about the lengths to which modern liberal democracies will go in order to defend themselves against terrorist threats. These governments did not face imminent national security crises, yet their willingness to subvert the rule of law has been no less flagrant.

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Extraordinary Rendition and Human Rights: The Case of Khaled El-Masri

Mapping Extraordinary Rendition in Europe. Source: Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Mapping Extraordinary Rendition in Europe.
Source: Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

By Rumyana Grozdanova

Durham University Law School

In December 2012, Khaled El-Masri, a German national who was detained by Macedonian border security and then extraordinarily rendered by the CIA, finally received a measure of justice. In a case that has haunted many in the human rights community, Mr El-Masri was subjected to incommunicado detention, first at the hands of Macedonian authorities after being seized on 31 December 2003, and then by the CIA, who rendered him to the infamous “Salt Pit” secret prison in Kabul where he was detained without access to legal representation or diplomatic services and ill-treated for a further four months. Continue Reading →


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Zero Dark Thirty: Airbrushing Torture

By Cynthia Banham

Centre for International Governance and Justice

Regarding Rights is pleased to re-publish “Zero Dark Thirty: Airbrushing Torture” by CIGJ PhD scholar Cynthia Banham, originally written for the Lowy Institute’s blog The Interpreter. Zero Dark Thirty has generated considerable controversy for its portrayal of torture; readers may also be interested in this article from the New York Times, which locates the film within debates about whether Hollywood has an obligation of fidelity to ‘historical truth’.

We thank the editors of The Interpreter for their permission to post Cynthia’s article here. Continue Reading →


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Centre for International Governance and Justice – News and Events

Megan MitchellSource: NSW Commission for Children and Young People

Megan Mitchell
Source: NSW Commission for Children and Young People

Australia Appoints its First National Children’s Commissioner

Monday saw the appointment of Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner. Megan Mitchell, the current NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People, will assume the post on 25 March 2013, for a period of five years. Regarding Rights contributor Mhairi Cowden’s examination of the role of the Commissioner, published earlier this year, suggests that the new Commissioner will need to “engage in child centred approaches to representation” if the position is going to effectively protect and promote children’s rights in Australia. Continue Reading →