Archive for Rights and Responsibilities
07.15.10
Posted in Rights and Responsibilities at 7:08 pm by admin
World Refugee Day, which is June 20 each year, is promoted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a way of leading and coordinating international action to protect refugees worldwide. According to the UNHCR, there are 42 million people throughout the world who have been uprooted from their homelands.
The international theme for the 2010 World Refugee Day was ‘Home’, while the Australian theme for Refugee Week (June 20-26) in 2010 was ‘Freedom from Fear’.
The aims of Refugee Week in Australia include the following:
• To educate the Australian public about who refugees are and why they have come to Australia.
• To helping people understand the many challenges faced by refugees coming to Australia.
• To celebrate the contribution refugees make to our community.
• To focus on how the community can provide a safe and welcoming environment for refugees.
• For community groups and individuals to do something positive for refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people within Australia and around the world.
According to Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country …’.
An asylum seeker is a person who has left his or her country of origin, has sought refugee status in another country, but has not yet been granted refugee status and is awaiting a decision on his or her application.
For more information relating to the legal rights of refugees and the moral and legal responsibilities of countries, including Australia, to provide them with a new, safe homeland, click on the following links:
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (www.unhcr.org)
• Refugee Council of Australia (www.refugeecouncil.org.au)
• Amnesty International Australia (www.amnesty.org.au)
• Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org)
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Posted in Crime and Society, Rights and Responsibilities at 7:07 pm by admin
Brisbane’s Caxton Legal Centre Inc. has recently published a booklet, called ‘Police Powers: Your Rights’, which is a clear and logical practical guide to your rights when dealing with the police. Collaborating with the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, the Caxton Legal Centre has produced a resource that will, on a day-to-day basis, make the public aware of the powers conferred upon police officers and the limits of those powers.
Caxton Legal Centre may be contacted by telephone on 07 3254 1811 or fax on 07 3254 1356 or by email at caxton@caxton.org.au to request copies of the booklet. Alternatively, the booklet may be downloaded from the website at www.caxton.org.au
Contents of this new up-to-date resource include the following:
• Where do I look for information or legal advice?
• What if I’m under 17?
• Your first contact with police: questions and directions
• Getting arrested
• Police searches
• Going to the police station or watch-house
• Legal proceedings
• Offences and penalties
• Complaints and referrals
• Checklist: dealing with police – first contact, interviews, arrest and physical interactions with police, court process, referral points (including contact details for the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, Legal Aid Qld, Crime and Misconduct Commission and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service.
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08.17.09
Posted in Crime and Society, Rights and Responsibilities at 8:04 am by admin
In Letters to the Editor in The Australian (Monday August 17th) there was the following:
“So the law allows the hopelessly ill to die over several days through starvation whilst a quick and dignified exit with drugs is forbidden. How compassionate are we?”
Marshall Perron
Buderim Qld.
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08.15.09
Posted in Crime and Society, Rights and Responsibilities at 5:07 pm by admin
The Supreme Court of Western Australia has declared that spastic quadriplegic man has the right to refuse food and water (which he was having through an implanted tube). The court said his carers could comply with his request to stop feeding him even though it would mean he could starve to death. The carers would not be criminally responsible for his death if they followed his directions, as he was of sound mind and understood the consequences of this course of action.
The case was not about euthanasia, which remains unlawful under the Western Australian and Queensland Criminal Codes – section 296 as a form of hastening death (see Legal Studies for Queensland Vol 1: page 132 ) but considered whether his carers had a legal obligation to force feed him, against his will and wishes. Although he was not terminally ill the man felt he had lost quality of life
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07.29.09
Posted in Rights and Responsibilities, Uncategorized at 12:05 pm by admin
All the states of Australia have had laws preventing cruelty to animals. Many of us would have been sickened at times by reports of cases of cruelty and of neglect to animals and felt vindicated by reading that the perpetrators were convicted for such acts. However, activist groups including PETA and Voiceless have been highlighting some systematic and inhumane practices particularly in commercial use of animals and animal farming practices, including mulesing, treatment of exotic animals in circuses, battery hens, confining pigs and cattle in filthy conditions, kangaroo culling, live sheep trade .
Awareness that some animals need more humane treatment than they are currently receiving in Australia has led a legal reform movement demanding greater legal protection for all animals. Developments in this field include:
o President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Professor David Weisbrot foreshawdows in the Commission’s journal – Reform – that animal rights is our ‘next great social justice movement’.
o A new book ‘Animal Law of Australasia’ edited by Peter Sankoff and Steven White was launched by Michael Kirby, former judge of the High Court of Australia. The books highlights the existing laws and regulations together with current weaknesses in our existing animal welfare laws. http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862877191
o Arguments for a Universal Declaration of Animal Rights
o An animal law blog: http://animallawonline.blogspot.com
o Courses in animal law are being taught in nine Australian law schools.
o Legal developments in the US. Radio National reporter Damien Carrick looks at these developments which show animals may legally be more than the property of their owners. There are cases where American courts have appointed guardians for individuals animals and consider the best interests of the pet when determining pet custody in family law disputes. Listen to the report:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2009/2579647.htm
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