Commentary on Human Rights

How things can falter when good people go!

Sun, 20 May 2012 15:52:28 +1000

Well, in my last comment on this blog I asked the question "what will we do when John retires from the role of editing Connect?"....sadly, the answer is not a lot!

I am guilty of not even publishing John's last newsletter – Connect 37 from December 2011– on the web site until now, nor have I published the March/April 2012 Connect Edition 38 - our first edition without John's input as Editor. Oh dear! I can only plead leniency from you, our readers (if you are still there!) as I slowly come up to speed.

There is no doubt that we miss having you as our editor, John Howell, as well as the role your played by your dear wife and our ex-Chair, Helen Howells.

There is some good news however. We are about to publish Connect Edition 39, and it is a ripper. So stay tuned!

Two newsletters

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:36:39 +1100

Aaah - it is an embarrassment of riches - while I was travelling around Cambodia, John Howells has been busy organising two more newsletters containing interesting articles written by various members of the Mornington Peninsula Human Rights Group. What will we do when he retires from this role?

In the October edition (number 35), Hellen Cooke has written Part II of the role of women in human rights, media and the Australian Defence Forces and our editor, John Howells, reports on the results of the review of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities undertaken by the Victorian State Parliament's Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee (SARC). This Committee was chaired by Ed O'Donohue, who attended our October meeting and faced the questions of our members.

This meeting is fully reported on in the November edition (number 36).

If you would like to read our submission to the SARC, it is available here on our web site.

Edition number 36 also contains a thoughtful article by Margaret Grummet, one of our members, on mental illness and human rights. Most of us have been touched by mental illness in one way or another, and Margaret addresses the difficult question of protecting the human rights of those involved. It is a good read - many thanks, Margaret.

Both newsletters are available here.

Connect number 34

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:41:06 +1000

Connect No. 34 could be the last edition of the Newsletter under John Howell's guiding hand – as unbelievable as it sounds, he has threatened to resign. But I can't help thinking that it won't really happen until he has found another editor. So what's the bet? Will there be a Connect No. 35 under John's editorial control? I certainly hope so!

In the meantime, we have Connect No. 34 to enjoy. In this edition John talks about Australia's treatment of strangers to our shore - very interesting. Hellen Cooke has also provided an interesting article about women, human rights, media and the defence force. She provides a historical background to women's roles in these arenas, including some interesting extracts from the World Disarmament Conference in February 1932, where women submitted eight million signatures on petitions for disarmament.

Connect Number 33

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:29:56 +1000

Many of you will have already received the August newsletter Connect No. 33 via email and will have read about our program for the rest of 2011, but to those of you who aren't on our mailing list – my humble apologies for posting it so late in the month. I do have a good excuse – I've been visiting the grandchildren in Western Australia. As well as the 2011 program, this edition of Connect contains an interesting article by John Howells titled Human Trafficking – Modern Day Slavery, and an article I have written on Climate Change and Human Rights.

You can download the newsletter here.

If you'd like to sign up to the mailing list, you can do that by sending your details.

Read about the debate

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:40:12 +1000

Our latest newsletter, Connect no. 32 is ready for you to download, and it is full of news about the human rights debate we held on 9 June 2011. Once again, John Howells has surpassed expectations; this time by providing us with a summary of the debate. The newsletter also contains an interesting article by Hugh de Kretser, the Executive Officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria) Inc. in which he addresses the question of what difference the human rights charter has made for Victorians. Our submission to the Committee reviewing this charter is also included in the newsletter, so there is no doubt about the Mornington Peninsula Human Rights Group's views about its benefits. Interesting!

You can download Connect 32 here.

Connect number 31

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:05:40 +1000

The latest issue of Connect is out now. Read it to find out about the public debate being held on 9 June between Greg Hunt and Mark Dreyfus on Protecting Human Rights in Australia. We also tackle the difficult question of whether housing is a human right in Australia, and John Howells talks about the MPHRG's statement on cluster bombs, and the Australian government's dishonest sheninigans on this issue.

You can download Connect 31 here.

Human rights debate 9 June 2011

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:29:59 +1000

Get your diary out and put the debate on the 9th June in it right away. It would be a shame to miss such a brilliant line-up of people talking about the protection of human rights in Australia.

Helen Szoke, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, is chairing the debate between two politicians, one from the Labor Party and the other from the Liberal Party.

The Labor's Mark Dreyfus (Member for Isaacs, Cabinet Secretary and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) will debate the subject Protecting human rights in Australia with the Liberal Party's Greg Hunt, Member for Flinders, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage.

As if that wasn't enough, after the presentations two panellists will question the parliamentarians. The panellists are Emily Howie, Director Advocacy and Strategic Litigation, Human Rights Law Centre, and Dr Russell Solomon, a Director of Amnesty International Australia and Senior Lecturer at RMIT University.

The debate, which is being supported by the Mornington Peninsula Shire, is being held on 9 June 2011, at the Peninsula Community Theatre on the Corner of Wilson's Road and Nepean Highway in Mornington (Melway 145 E2).

So get your skates on, and get organised! Ring or email Erin or Emma at the Shire Council to make sure you have a seat. The phone number is 9809 4828. To send an email, click here.

Connect number 30

Wed, 04 May 2011 11:26:30 +1000

Once again we are grateful to John Howells who has prepared the 30th edition of the MPHRG newsletter, Connect. In this month's edition John tells readers about the upcoming public debate on human rights, about our petition expressing concern for the plight of asylum seekers, and about Victoria's Koori Courts. Thanks to John, who has created another interesting and educational newseltter.

You can download the journal here.

Sign our petition on asylum seekers

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:54:49 +1000

Many people are concerned about the plight of children and families being detained as asylum seekers but don't know what to do about it, so we have organised a petition to express this concern to the House of Representatives in the Commonwealth Parliament.

Petitions provide an effective way of allowing ordinary people to express their views to government, giving us a say in the political processes.

Our petition asks the House of Representatives to change the present detention system so that children and families are held in detention centres only as a last resort and for no longer than six months. The petition also seeks an increase in the number of refugees accepted in Australia each year on humanitarian grounds.

If you share our sentiments and would like to add your name to the petition, you can download a copy of it here.

If you then print the petition, you can sign it. You might like to see if your friends would also like to sign it.

Regardless of how many signatures you collect, make sure you send it back to us at:

Mornington Peninsula Human Rights Group, P.O. Box 64, Hastings, Victoria, 3918.

We will then present the full Petition to the House of Representatives.

The tech-heads amongst you are probably wondering why on earth we are doing our petition this way....? It does seem a bit convoluted. Why not just do it online?

Well, it turns out that the House of Representatives for the Commonwealth Parliament does not accept online petitions.

Surprised? We were too. But we will follow their rules, because this is such an important issue.

By the way, if you have signed our petition, many thanks for your support.

Our thanks to Glenys Watts

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:43:45 +1000

Our thanks to Glenys Watts, the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s Aboriginal Support and Development Team Leader, who took the time to talk to the Mornington Peninsula Human Rights Group at our April meeting. Glenys outlined the programs offered by the Aboriginal Support and Development Team and the recent acquisition of a Gathering Place in the Hasting area.

The programs are supported by the Shire Council and include film nights, workshops and talks, early years intervention program for 0-8 year olds, Koori night market, Sisters Day Out, dinner dance, flag-raising ceremony, art display and sales, celebrations for Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC.

Two matters which personally involve Glenys are:

As a great-granddaughter of Lucy and Percy Pepper she features in a touring exhibition called Footprints, which will visit Mornington Library in June-July. It reveals something of the struggle to survive experienced by Aboriginal people in the early years of the twentieth century.
As a Gunai-Kurnai woman, she was involved in the successful achievement of land rights for her people in east Gippsland - the first to be obtained under the new program introduced by the former state government. It was a two-year process and means that her people now jointly manage ten parks and reserves with the interest from an investment of $10 million.

We all enjoyed hearing from Glenys, and having the opportunity to learn more about the indigenous people on the Peninsula. Thanks again Glenys.

Connect number 29

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:06:47 +1100

Lucky you! Another newsletter is out already. Normally our newsletters aren't published quite so often, but as there is a lot happening this year the MPHRG newsletter editor, John Howells, has been hard at work reporting on events for your information. In the 29th edition of Connect, amongst other interesting articles you can read about an upcoming debate between Mark Dreyfus and Greg Hunt on the protection of human rights and about the human rights of people with disabilities. Thanks also go to Deirdre Greig, who has provided the final edited extract of the Hon Alastair Nicholson's paper on Human Rights and the Northern Territory Intervention, which makes very interesting reading.

Connect number 28

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:34:12 +1100

This month's newsletter contains more interesting information about human rights, including Yaroslav Mamchak's report of a recent international review of Australia's human rights record by a group of UN member countries – the Universal Periodic Review. John Howells also tells how Vulture Funds operate, and why Australia needs to legislate to prevent these funds subverting our humanitarian aid to poor countries.

Welcome to our relaunched website

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:56:48 +1100

First, warm greetings to all who are concerned for the protection of human rights in Australia. May 2011 be for us together a year of significant achievements.