Paula Gerber

Education About Human Rights: Strengths and Weaknesses of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training

Human Rights Education (‘HRE’) has been a focal point of the UN’s work ever since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948. However, after 60-plus years of the UN mandating and promoting HRE, there is evidence that HRE is still not widespread, especially within schools. The UN therefore decided to increase its efforts to promote HRE, by adopting the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. The Declaration on HRE has its flaws, but we are better off having this flawed instrument than no instrument at all.

Human rights in Papua New Guinea: is this where we should be settling refugees?

Australia has had a long, and at times tumultuous, relationship with our nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea. This relationship took a twist in late 2012, with the re-opening of the off-shore processing centre on Manus Island, and again in February 2014, when Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati was murdered by locals during a violent disturbance at the centre. The latest test of the strength and endurance of the relationship between PNG and Australia came in April 2016, when the PNG Supreme Court ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island breached the right to personal liberty in the PNG constitution. This article provides much-needed insight into the human rights situation in PNG, and makes recommendations regarding the prospect of resettling refugees in that country.

Does the Right to Birth Registration Include a Right to a Birth Certificate

International human rights law has long recognised the right of every child to have their birth registered. However, what is less clear is what this right encompasses. For example, does the normative content of the right to birth registration include a right to a birth certificate? This is a question that has become very relevant to Indigenous Australians many of whom are experiencing difficulties acquiring a birth certificate. This article argues that the right to birth registration, as set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, implicitly includes the right to a birth certificate. This conclusion is reached following an analysis of the work of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Making Indigenous Australians ‘Disappear’ Problems Arising from Our Birth Registration Systems

In February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to Indigenous Australians saying that:The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.For most Australians saying ‘sorry’ was a proud and historic moment. However, such an apology is meaningless if we continue to inflict suffering on Indigenous Australians. Australia’s laws and policies are still disadvantaging Indigenous Australians, with the lack of birth certificates, a real and substantive barrier to their enjoyment of the rights and privileges of Australian citizenship. It is time for all Australian governments to explore ways of changing the practices of their registry offices, so that they cease to be in breach of international, and potentially, domestic, human rights laws, pertaining to birth registration.

Community, identity, orientation: sexuality, gender and rights in ASEAN

ABSTRACT The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) escalated its community building project significantly over the last decade, culminating in the launch of a reformed and substantially integrated ASEAN Community at the end of 2015. This article considers what might follow from this newly reformed and rhetorically people-focused version of ASEAN for matters of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE). In claiming to be people-oriented and people-centred, and by developing a regional rights regime, ASEAN opens itself to standards by which it can be measured and held to account. We critically review ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, and consider civil societys response, focusing on the critique offered by the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, the peak civil society organisation for ASEAN SOGIE matters. We focus on three themes: identity, visibility politics, and rights. We argue that while ASEAN falls short of its own rhetorical standards, these same standards support a politics which keeps rights in contestation, enabling civil society to push for accountability to international standards, and a more democratic politics.

Good practice in human rights education in schools

Ever since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948, the United Nations has been encouraging states to provide human rights education (HRE). Initiatives to promote HRE include the World Programme for Human Rights Education (2005—ongoing) and the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (2011). Despite the United Nation’s concerted efforts to promote human rights education, there is still uncertainty as to exactly what ‘human rights education’ means and how it should be implemented within schools. This chapter presents findings from empirical research and an evaluation of HRE programs in different countries, in order to identify six key elements of effective school-based human rights education.

The need for reform of Australia’s birth registration systems

1 Professor, Law School, University of Queensland. 2 Joan Rydon, ‘The Electorate’ in John Wilkes (ed), Forces in Australian Politics (Angus & Robertson, 1963) 184. 3 Holmdahl v AEC (No 2) [2012] SASFC 110. See Anne Twomey, ‘Compulsory Voting in a Representative Democracy: Choice, Compulsion and the Maximisation of Participation in Australian Elections’ (2014) 13 Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 283. 4 Josh Butler, ‘David Leyonhjelm Proposes Abolishing Compulsory Voting’, Huffington Post, 2 March 2016 (Leyonhjelm is a libertarian senator). Voluntary Voting for Referendums in Australia: Old Wine, New BottleProof exists that Law Reform Commissions can still discharge a distinct and effective role in the reform of law and legal policy. In February 2017, some months after the essays that make up this important book were presented at an Australian National University Conference, the Attorney General issued terms of reference for an inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Judge Matthew Myers was appointed part time Commissioner, an expert advisory panel of academics and practitioners was installed, discussion paper drawing together the findings of previous inquiries was issued in July, 149 consultations were undertaken in the community, 121 submissions were received and by December an incisive and plainly written report analysing the causes and including 35 recommendations for reducing the rate of incarceration was delivered.Anyone looking at the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) would be justified in thinking that company law in Australia was both wholly statutory and an instrument of public regulation. Although Anglo-Australian company law may have originally grown out of the law of partnership and been built, largely by the courts, from the material of the private law, the growth over the last 30 years in the complexity, range of matters covered and sheer volume of the Corporations Act would seem to confirm the intuition that Australia’s company law is now both statutory and public. However, while there is no denying the shift in the source of company law, the particular form corporate regulation now takes is actually making Australian company law more, rather than less, private.1 Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University. 2 R v Birmingham & Gloucester Railway Co (1842) 3 QB 223. 3 US Department of Justice, ‘Siemens AG and Three Subsidiaries Plead Guilty to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations and Agree to Pay

Last word: Life imitating art?: Gay and lesbian families on and off the silver screen

450 Million in Combined Criminal Fines’ (Press Release, 15 December 2008). Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Criminal Liability: Old Challenges in a Transnational World1 Lecturer, Business School, Charles Darwin University; PhD candidate, School of Politics and International Relations, ANU. This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. 2 Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Inequality in Australia 2015: A Nation Divided (Sydney, 2015) 8, www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Inequality_in_Australia_ FINAL.pdf (viewed 24 April 2016). 3 Factor income is the income arising from the factors of production – land, labour and capital. For the changes in shares over time, see Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), ‘Income at Current Prices, December Quarter 2015’ in ABS, 5206.0 – Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Dec 2015, www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/ abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/ 5206.0Main%20 Features 4Dec%2

Burqa: human right or human wrong?

It is a sign of how far we have come with respecting the rights of lesbian and gay people that there are currently several movies where the main themes revolve around the lived experience of gays and lesbians and their families. It is a sign of how far we still have to go, that the New South Wales government banned the screening of one of these movies in schools.

Should Gay Men Still Be Labelled Criminals

Muslim women are often the subject of intense media attention surrounding the wearing of the hijab, burqa and niqab. This is particularly true when there is an increased spotlight on the Islamic community because of perceived threats of terrorist attacks. A lot of the opinions expressed about women wearing these religious garments are based on misconceptions about the requirements of Shari’a law, or international human rights law, or both. This article examines how these different bodies of law view the wearing of all-covering body veils by women and whether dictating that women should, or should not, wear such garments is a breach of Islamic law and/or human rights laws.