by Gemma Evans
Writer, Editor and SAHM
Members of the legal academia have called for the re-examination of the Juvenile Justice Bill 2014, passed into Law by the Lok Sabha. The law allows those aged between 16 and 18 to be tried and sentenced according to the Indian Penal Code as though they were adults.
Read more: Legal Academia Calls for Re-Examination of Juvenile Justice Bill in India
Dear family, friends and colleagues,
As many of you know I recently spent a week on Christmas Island and a week on Nauru as a psychiatrist employed by IHMS to see asylum seekers in detention. I found the experience on Nauru particularly disturbing, prompting me to write the attached letter to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
See: Letter to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
Friday 31st July 2015
I am conscious of the brilliant eulogy to Michele delivered by Jeff McMullen at the service to commemorate her life in Sydney and the touching contribution of Pia Pagotto from ‘concerned Australians’ at this event and will not attempt to emulate them here.
I thought today I would just say a few words about my relationship with Michele and her wonderful ‘concerned Australians.
I start with a confession that I was something of a latecomer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues before my appointment as Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia. Because of the significance of children to the work of the Family Court and my concern that it was not reaching out to the Indigenous people of Australia I took a number of steps to try to correct that situation.
This is not the place to discuss those measures but that involvement did teach me much about the remarkable qualities of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and also to form a better appreciation as to how they have been shamefully neglected and mistreated.
To me that neglect and mistreatment culminated in the Howard Government’s 2007 intervention, which was an entirely spurious exercise based upon false premises, which effectively shattered the morale and lifestyle of the Aboriginal people of the NT.
The election of the Rudd government seemed to me and many others to usher in a new dawn, particularly having regard to PM Rudd’s well-crafted and significant apology delivered at Parliament House.
Unfortunately those expectations were soon dispelled, for me by Michele. I was approached by Michele in 2009 to assist her as a result of a suggestion to her from my old friend and colleague, Judge John Hassett. She wanted me to examine so-called consultations carried out in the NT between June and August 2009 at the instance of the Rudd Government and in particular the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Jenny Macklin. The purpose of them was to gain Aboriginal support for the continuation of a number of quite objectionable features of the Intervention. This they failed to do. I quickly became horrified by the shamefully inadequate and insulting nature of those consultations. I then worked further with Michele and others on the issue and that in turn led to the production of the Report, Will they be heard? Co-authored by Professor Larissa Behrendt, Alison Vivian, Nicole Watson, Michele and me. That report was launched by the late Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia, in November 2009 and provided a withering condemnation of what the Government had done.
Read more: Michele Harris: Reflections by the Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC
Thursday 23 June, 2016
All Australians should be concerned about the current 'unacceptable situation' of the individual rights of young people in addressing bullying, according to the Chair of the National Centre Against Bullying, the Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFC QC.
Click here for the full text of the media please
You're invited to NCAB's seventh biennial conference, "Towards Bullying Solutions - Theory and Practice". The conference will focus on the work we are doing to address bullying, enhance wellbeing, create safe and supportive environments and ensure our work is always informed by research and experience.
The conference will bring together academics, policymakers, practitioners, educators, principals, leadership teams and young people from around the world, to explore how bullying affects people of all ages, and to share the latest research on strategies and solutions to help reduce the prevalence and impact of bullying and cyberbullying.
Where: Crown Conference Centre Melbourne
When: 28th and 29th of July 2016
Cost: Early Bird - $515.00 + GST (valid until Monday 29 February 2016)
Organisations representing millions of compassionate Australians have come together for the first time, to coordinate their expertise, experience and efforts to address the harmful impacts of immigration detention on children and their families.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014. Leading children's, international development, human rights and refugee organisations from Australia, across the Asia-Pacific and internationally are calling on Australia's leadership to release all children and their families from immigration detention.
Read More .... New Alliance Commits to Immediate Release of all Children in Immigration Detention
Friday, 18 August 2016
Descendants of the Gurindji stockmen and their families who walked off Wave Hill Station in 1966 have used the 50th anniversary to highlight continuing injustices against Aboriginal Australians.
The group is angry at NT and Federal government responses to the recent ABC TV Four Corners program on Don Dale Detention Centre that showed the use of tear gas, beatings and chair restraints on youth detainees.
“We are people with Gurindji cultural affiliations who wish to express our total lack of faith in the justice system in relation to the ever-increasing incarceration of our people in detention centres, gaols and similar institutions around the country,” a statement released today said.
“We cannot sit by and be silent while our children – our future generations - are being irreparably damaged.”
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Radio National Breakfast, Friday 10 June 2016 8:06AM
Presenter: Fran Kelly
Guest: Hon. Alastair Nicholson
To mark 25 years since Australia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Australian Child Rights Taskforce has released a report tracking what progress has been made for Australia's children in that time.
The report has found that despite two decades of economic growth, one in six children still lives below the poverty line. And while considerable progress has been made in protecting child rights in Australia, there are a number of entrenched challenges that still need to be addressed.
Click here for Fran Kelly's interview with Hon. Alastair Nicholson
In his welcome to readers of CRI's website its Chairman, Alastair Nicholson, acknowledged the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as being the most widely ratified treaty in human history, while also noting that the basic rights of children and youth are still not universally recognised and that they suffer violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination in increasing numbers every day.
As CRI's mission is to promote, protect and advance the human rights of children, primarily in developing countries, and to promote understanding of, adherence to and effective implementation of the CRC it is important that the organization takes a stand on the increasing evidence showing Australia's failure to protect the rights, physical and mental welfare and safety of young asylum seekers, particularly those who have been transferred to offshore detention centres.
Unfortunately, despite Australia being one of the earliest countries to ratify the CRC, its treatment of children and young people has too often failed to comply with the Convention's principles and requirements. Most recently this has been highlighted by the manner in which young asylum seekers, (whether accompanied by family members or unaccompanied), are treated, both in Australia and in the offshore detention centres to which such children have been sent.
See:
Presentation - Professor Louise Newman AM, Monash University, Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psycology
On Palm Sunday (April 13th 2014), CRI joined approximately 10,000 other people at the March for Refugees in Melbourne. Board Members Chas Alexander, Frank Meredith and Garry Warne were joined by a number of CRI members. As powerfully articulated by key speakers, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young of the Australian Greens and the Reverend Alistair McRae of the Uniting Church, the policy that CRI strongly supports is that all Australian refugee detention camps should be closed immediately and the detainees released, with support, into the Australian community while their applications for asylum are being processed.
The passing of the Border Protection Act by the Australian Parliament was vigorously opposed by all of Australia’s key medical groups. Doctors and other health workers have taken to the streets to protest about being threatened with 2 years imprisonment if they report abuse affecting patients in their care in any of Australia’s offshore asylum seeker detention facilities.
CRI draws the attention of readers to a significant and clinically startling document, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Position Statement, May 2015. The RACP represents all consultant physicians and paediatricians in Australia and New Zealand.
See Full PDF version of the Statement Document: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health Position Statement, May 2015