| law and justice news |
Blow-out in Aboriginal imprisonment numbers rises to 83pc |
Police transport of juveniles dangerous |
| Govts Failing Indigenous Declaration, U.N. Expert Says 19 October 2009 - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A top U.N. expert on human rights law called Monday for governments to match their words with deeds and make good on promises to respect indigenous communities' right to live as they wish. "The indigenous peoples are suffering everywhere," James Anaya, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights of indigenous peoples, told a news conference after submitting a comprehensive report to the General Assembly's Third Committee. |
Uproar over new prison contract |
UN investigates Australia rights |
| Debunker of myths 11 July 2009 - PETER Sutton has been immersed in grief. Recently he returned to his adopted Aurukun community on Cape York to attend a "housing opening" ceremony for a "sweet woman" allegedly slain by her boyfriend. |
| United we stand - Support for United Nations Indigenous Rights Declaration a watershed moment for Australia 3 April 2009 - AHRC - This morning’s formal support from the Australian Government for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is likely to go down in history as a watershed moment in Australia’s relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today. |
| QC to help WA man in Dubai jail 7 February 2009 - Prominent Perth QC Mark Trowell has taken on the case of a Geraldton man held without being charged in a Dubai maximum-security prison since October. |
Kirby's last dissent: my fellow judges racially biased |
Heatstroke van death may lead to charges |
Statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples |
| Now locals can paddle their own canoe 8 September 2008 - FOR five years, the Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer has been drawn back to the stories of a remote Arnhem Land community. |
The resurrection of a language long lost |
| Anyone can be governor general in Australia - unless you're an Aborigine 6 September 2008 - The country may now have its first female head of state, but attitudes to its indigenous peoples are as ignorant as ever. |
| HREOC will now be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission 4 September 2008 - AHRC Media Release - From today, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will be known as the Australian Human Rights Commission. |
| Bay of Plenty 7 August 2008 - Last week, the High Court of Australia ruled that the Northern Territory government could not grant commercial fishing operators licenses to work in areas that fall within the boundaries of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. |
| Palm riot lawyer seeks law change 19 July 2008 - LAWYERS for the alleged ringleader of the 2004 riots on Palm Island, which were sparked by an Aboriginal death in custody, have launched an extraordinary campaign to change the laws and reduce the maximum sentences for those involved. |
| No compo for wrongfully convicted woman 3 June 2008 - A PILBARA Aboriginal woman who spent more than two years in prison for murder before being acquitted of the crime will not receive any compensation for her wrongful conviction and incarceration. |
| Palm death cop Chris Hurley got $100,000 payout 28 May 2008 - CHRIS Hurley - the policeman acquitted of manslaughter over a Palm Island death in custody, only to face a civil claim from the victim's family - received a confidential $100,000 payment from the Queensland Government after the incident. |
| Home truths hit hard for Bentleigh ABC broadcaster 21 May 08 - WHEN ABC journalist Jeff Waters was told to cover the riots on Palm Island in 2004 he had not expected to be confronted with the same attitudes he had seen as a young man growing up in Queensland. |
| Gone for a Song -
Death in Custody on Palm Island 12 May 2008 - Media Release - A new book, written by a journalist who closely followed the story of the death in custody of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004, is calling for the full release of compelling evidence which is still being kept secret. |
| Founding document used in land rights push 9 May 2008 - A 172-year-old document that is claimed to guarantee Aboriginal rights will be used in a new land rights campaign in the far west of South Australia. |
| Brumby's budget for social justice 5 May 2008 - A $1 BILLION social justice package targeting disabled people and "at risk" groups such as Aborigines and new migrants will be a centrepiece of tomorrow's state budget. |
| No progress without wide support 26 April 2008 - WRITING in The Sydney Morning Herald this week, academics Megan Davis and Sarah Maddison criticised my alleged opposition to what they said was the main outcome of the indigenous stream in the 2020 Summit: the "unfinished business" of constitutional reform recognising indigenous people and laying out a clear relationship with the state. |
| A country for all of us 26 April 2008 - In the offices of Parliament House and among the leaders of indigenous Australia, a conversation that has troubled the nation has resumed. |
| Forget a treaty, say Pearson, Yunupingu 25 April 2008 - TWO of the nation's most powerful Aborigines have dismissed the treaty movement as a political "dead horse" and have urged their fellow indigenous leaders to embrace the mainstream push towards constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people. |
| The gains must not be squandered 24 April 2008 - Aboriginal children "can't eat the constitution," Professor Marcia Langton said at the 2020 Summit. She is one of various high-profile indigenous commentators who have criticised the indigenous stream's emphasis on constitutional reform since the weekend. She is right, of course. Constitutional reform alone will not fix the problems facing indigenous children and their families in Australia. |
| The battle for Aboriginal rights 15 April 2008 - New Statesman UK - An apology from Kevin Rudd to Australia's aboriginals and a pledge about closing the life expectancy gap are steps in the right direction |
| Landmark housing project for NT Indigenous communities 12 April 2008 - A landmark joint housing program between the Australian and Northern Territory Governments will deliver vital construction, refurbishment and infrastructure developments, as well as jobs in 73 Northern Territory Indigenous communities and some urban areas. |
| Pressure for Rudd on legal aid 4 April 2008 - MORE funding for the struggling Aboriginal Legal Aid services could be a key to economic development in remote indigenous communities, says a criminologist, Chris Cunneen.The comments by Professor Cunneen, the New South Global Professor in Criminology at the University of NSW, add to pressure on the Federal Government to increase the budget for indigenous legal services. |
| Indigenous mining share deal 1 April 2008 - More than 2500 of the country's most disadvantaged Aborigines will become shareholders in an Australian Securities Exchange-listed mining company under an innovative native title agreement. |
| Aborigines 'locked out of real economy' 1 April 2008 - Aboriginal people are condemned to poverty and treated as "museum pieces" by governments whose education policies have locked a generation out of the real economy. |
| Mourners farewell Aboriginal elder 29 February 2008 - More than 1500 people attended the funeral today of a Warburton community elder who died after a routine prisoner transport journey from Laverton to Kalgoorlie last month. |
| Guides to help do the right thing with Indigenous culture 28 February 2008 - Media Release - The Australia Council for the Arts has released a fully revised second edition of its protocol guides to help Australians better understand the use of Indigenous cultural material. |
| Elder's funeral comes as a relief 28 February 2008 - The relatives of Aboriginal elder Ian Ward who collapsed in the back of a security van while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie are relieved he will finally be laid to rest, but are awaiting a forensic pathology report which will determine how the tragedy occurred. |
Legal group raises more questions over prison van death |
| Financial services sector unites around reconciliation agenda 26 February 2008 - media release - In an industry where competition rules, Australia’s four big banks along with credit unions and building societies are working side by side to make their own unique contribution to reconciliation. |
WA unveils prisoner transport changes |
| Torture claims over Aboriginal custody death 14 February 2008 - In Western Australia, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee has accused police of putting the leader of an Indigenous community in conditions akin to torture. The former Warburton elder, Ian Ward, collapsed and died in the back of a prisoner transport van last month, while the temperature outside was 43 degrees. The Government had been warned that its prisoner transport vans were below standard, with frequent breakdowns in the air conditioning systems. At a meeting in Perth last night, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee vowed to campaign for an immediate end to the use of the vehicles. |
| Too many in jail for drive crime: Bowler 11 February 2008 - The death of Aboriginal elder Ian Ward in the back of a prison transport van highlights the unacceptable number of Aboriginal people imprisoned for driving offences, says Murchison-Eyre MLA John Bowler. |
| Another death in custody: protest called 8 February 2008 - The Western Australian Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (DCWC) has called an urgent public meeting for February 13 to plan a campaign to demand justice for an Aboriginal elder who died on January 27 in the custody of Global Solutions Ltd (GSL), which is contracted by the state government to transport prisoners. |
| Silence on cause of elder's death in custody van 1 February 2008 - Police yesterday refused to reveal the results of a post-mortem examination on the body of an Aboriginal elder who died after he collapsed in custody while being taken to Kalgoorlie in the back of a van. |
| Death of Indigenous man while in custody is a tragedy 31 January 2008 - Media Release - Amnesty International is shocked at the death of an Indigenous man over the weekend whilst allegedly in the custody of contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, which is a tragedy for his family and his community. |
| Death in custody guard told of 'bloody hot' van 31 January 2008 - A GUARD sobbed as she told a hospital doctor it was "bloody hot" in the back of the van in which Aboriginal leader Ian Ward was locked for up to 4½ hours before he collapsed, vomited and died on the weekend. |
Death may have been preventable: Watch Committee |
| Crosses greet Broome inquest 12 November 2007 - Hundreds of small white crosses symbolising the high number of Aboriginal deaths in the Kimberley will today confront State Coroner Alastair Hope as he arrives at the Broome court to resume his inquest into indigenous deaths. |
| Intervention may force Indigenous jail rates to new highs 1 November 2007 - Aboriginal people now make up almost 90 per cent of the Territory's prison population. |
| Dion Calls on Harper Government to Sign UN Rights Declaration 8 July 2007 - OTTAWA - Liberal Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion today sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling on his government to uphold Canada's reputation as a promoter and protector of human rights by ceasing its efforts to block passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. |
| Why I support the aboriginal National Day of Action - Ottawa is wrong to oppose UN declaration on aboriginal rights 29 June 2007 - by Kenneth Deer - The Harper government has warned aboriginals not to engage in blockades today on the National Day of Action. Yet a Canadian envoy will speak on the floor of the UN General Assembly today to oppose the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as adopted last June by the UN Human Rights Council. |
| “Lost year” for the rights of Indigenous peoples worldwide: Canada must stop stalling on vital United Nations declaration 28 June 2007 - Indigenous peoples, social justice organizations and independent experts today urged the government of Canada to stop obstructing an important instrument adopted one year ago by the UN Human Rights Council. |
| Aboriginal
death sparks inquiry call 7 October 2006 - THE Australian Medical Association has called for a royal commission on the state of Aboriginal health care in the Northern Territory because of the death of a man left alone at a remote airstrip. |
| Mansell
Sees Anti Terror Laws Being Used to Quell Aboriginal Protests 8 November 2005 - Aboriginal lawyer and activist Michael Mansell believes Aboriginal protestors will be targeted by the new anti terror laws as a new way to discredit Aboriginal leaders. |
| Aboriginal
boy locked up for taking ice-cream 8 June 2005 - The Independent (UK) - A 15-year-old Aboriginal boy was held in custody for 12 days and flown nearly 1,000 miles to face court for trying to steal an ice-cream. |
| Aboriginal
outcry over noose case 18 May 2005 - The Journal of Turkish Weekly (Turkey) - Australian indigenous leaders have reacted angrily after two white men found guilty of assaulting an Aboriginal boy were fined A$800 ($605). |
| New
autopsy casts doubt over death 7 April 2005 - A grieving Aboriginal widow buried her husband for the second time in 20 years yesterday, after a new autopsy threw doubt on his cause of death. |
| International
award winners to visit Redfern 26 March 2005 - International guest speakers at the Globalise Justice Asia-Pacific conference in Sydney this weekend will be visiting the Redfern Block at the invitation of the family of 17-year-old T J Hickey, whose controversial death during an alleged police pursuit sparked riots in Redfern on February 14, 2004. |
| Impaled
Redfern teen 'rammed' 24 September 2004 - A Redfern police Aboriginal liaison officer today accused police of covering up the cause of a wild riot and said officers had rammed teenager "TJ" Hickey before his impaling death. |
| Killer Faces
Tribal Justice 3 September 2004 - Daily Record (UK) - An Aboriginal woman convicted of stabbing her cheating lover to death has walked free because she faces severe punishment by her tribe. • Woman sentenced to tribal justice, not jail |
| Man leapt to death after police chase 31 August 2004 - Another witness told the court Aboriginal children regularly felt harassed by security guards in the shopping centre, and the court was told the family of Mr Brown, an Aborigine, felt he had been singled out. |
| 'Apartheid' law under fire in NT 7 June 2001 - A new Northern Territory law under which people can be fined $2,000 or jailed for six months for "anti-social behaviour" has been branded stupid and an imitation of a law from South Africa's apartheid era. |
| Redfern
inquest findings a sham 25 August 2004 - Family and friends were angry and in tears on August 14 after hearing the NSW coroner’s findings on the death of the 17-year-old son of Gail Hickey. Coroner John Abernathy described the February 14 fatality in Redfern as a “freak accident”, and exonerated the police who were pursuing him at the time. • Police cleared in Hickey death • Redfern, rioting and police - EDITORIAL • Stopping the next riot before it starts - EDITORIAL • The Block's still seething • Wrong path leads to fiery requiem |
| Call to monitor Redfern violence 3 August 2004 - An inquiry into February's Redfern riot has recommended violence against police in the area be strictly recorded to help determine police numbers and a minimum experience requirement for officers stationed there. It also says a controversial needle and syringe van should be moved out of the Block, and calls for stronger government commitment to closer consultation with community leaders over the area's redevelopment. • Second Redfern Riot Possible |
| The root cause of TJ Hickey's death 17 July 2004 - Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald - The State Coroner, John Abernethy, has delayed his verdict on the Hickey death, sensibly acknowledging that "rushed justice is no justice". The evidence, however, has so far persuaded his counsel, Elizabeth Fullerton, SC, that police did not contribute directly or indirectly to TJ's death. Who or what, then, was responsible? |
| TJ's mother urges police charges 17 July 2004 - Two officers who "chased" Thomas "TJ" Hickey should be charged under the Police Service Act with giving untrue statements and wrongfully pursuing the boy, counsel for TJ's mother has urged the NSW State Coroner. • More police plan for Redfern • Don't let me die: TJ's desperate plea • No adviser for TJ's mother • Conflicting police reports emerge at Hickey inquest |
| Officer mistook TJ's body for clothing 6 July 2004 - One of the first police officers to see teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey impaled on a fence in Redfern said he originally thought the slumped body was hung clothing. Constable Alan Rimell told the inquest into the 17-year-old's death that when he first saw TJ's body slumped over the fence "like a rag doll", he thought it was a jacket and a backpack. • TJ not chased, followed, court told • Redfern rioters to elude charges |
| Police admit: we were following TJ 6 July 2004 - For five months police have insisted they had nothing to do with the horrific death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey. Yesterday they admitted officers in a caged truck had been "following him" moments before the 17-year-old lost control of his bicycle and became impaled on a fence on February 14. • Coroner's inquest into death of TJ Hickey • TJ truth surrounded by police |
| Letty Scott fights for the truth 4 June 2004 - On June 18, the Northern Territory Supreme Court will hear an appeal to re-open the coronial inquest into the death in custody of Douglas Bruce Scott. The case has been lodged by his widow Letty Scott, who has been fighting for nearly two decades for the truth about her husband's death. • Black death in custody - The real story |
| Police defend Redfern riot strategies 25 May 2004 - To police matters in NSW now, and in Sydney, the officer in charge of the inner city suburb of Redfern has defended his handling of the nine hour riot there in February. At a Parliamentary inquiry today, Superintendent Dennis Smith, said that his officers had no intelligence to indicate the riot would take place, and that when it did take hold they tried several strategies to end it, including negotiation. |
| Vanstone is dismantling the right to a fair
trial for Aboriginal people 20 May 2004 - For an increasing number of Australians, legal aid is a precondition to their ability to use the justice system. This is a fact compounded for Aboriginal Australians by the recent decision of the federal government to outsource Aboriginal Legal Aid for competitive tender. Having worked as a criminal lawyer for both Australian Legal Aid and Aboriginal Legal Aid, I feel the need to comment on the planned tender and the encroachment that it entails upon Indigenous rights in this country. • Indigenous legal service tender lacks support |
| Redfern, 90 days after the eruption 16 May 2004 - On a hot Sunday night three months ago, the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern erupted in fury for nine long hours. It wasn't the first time and it probably won't be the last. But the raw intensity of the February 15 riot, its graphic portrayal in the media and its synonymity with the death of 17-year-old Thomas "TJ" Hickey guaranteed it would not be swept under the carpet. • Carr blamed for failing Redfern youth on drugs • Police ill-equipped to handle Redfern riot • Police get riot blame • More riots in Redfern, inquiry told • Police defend Redfern riot strategies |
| A healing from the past, for the future 10 May 2004 - Tom Murray and Allan Collins have a remarkable story, and they'd prefer to let someone else tell it. It's about a blackfella called Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda from north-east Arnhem Land. In 1933 this Yolngu tribal leader came across a policeman who had broken Aboriginal law by trespassing on Yolngu land. He had also chained up Dhakiyarr's wife. In accordance with black law, Dhakiyarr speared the policeman, Constable Albert McColl, through the leg. McColl died. |
| Child caged for 500km drive to jail 4 May 2004 - An 11-year old Aboriginal boy was arrested, held in custody and transported 500km in a police utility cage. His crime? The boy and several of his friends had constantly clashed with police in Normanton for petrol sniffing and stealing. Aboriginal leaders and legal representatives are outraged at his treatment and allege police ignored all recommendations of the Black Deaths in Custody Royal Commission. • Mother told son’s 500km ride in cage ‘comfortable’ |
| Aborigines to demand royal commission
into youth policing 24 March 2004 - Aboriginal groups will march on NSW Parliament House today to call for a national royal commission into the policing of indigenous youth. They also want a NSW royal commission into the death of 17-year-old Thomas Hickey, who died last month after falling off his bike and becoming impaled on a metal fence. • TJ's mother makes plea for justice • Police hold Redfern in 'state of siege', Pilger tells rally • Demonstrators go out, demolishers go in • Tell the World • Notice to the Australian Government and the People of Australia |
| Redfern meeting denounces racist police
violence 10 March 2004 - “The views of the Aboriginal community in general, and residents of the Redfern Block in particular, have fallen on deaf ears since the death of TJ [Thomas Hickey]", Redfern Aboriginal leader Lyall Munro told a meeting of 100 people at the South Sydney Leagues Club, organised by the Socialist Alliance, on March 4. • Redfern Block community defiant |
| Chased or not, TJ had reasons to run 17 February 2004 - Within a few days of his arrival, say his mother, aunt Virginia and uncle Michael West, he was beaten up in a mistaken identity arrest by a group of police in the Block, a claim police would not comment on yesterday. |
| 'Apartheid' law under fire in NT 7 June, 2001 - A new Northern Territory law under which people can be fined $2,000 or jailed for six months for "anti-social behaviour" has been branded stupid and an imitation of a law from South Africa's apartheid era. |
| Cherie Booth tells UN of `cruel and inhuman punishment. 20 July 2000 - The complaint by Ms Cherie Booth, QC, alleges "cruel and inhuman punishment". It says mandatory sentencing laws in the Northern Territory and police practices associated with them discriminate against Aborigines in comparison with their effect on other people. |
| A Treaty Between Our Nations? 11 July 2000 - Inaugural professorial lecture by Professor Marcia Langton, Inaugural Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies, University of Melbourne - At the end of the Twentieth Century, the public culture of Australia remains, as it has for the previous two centuries, riven by disputes as to the status of indigenous people in Australian civil society. I argue here that it remains the case that the Australia polity is devoid of a clear and just status for indigenous people within its ambit. Further, this continuing dispute is a loose hanging thread in the web of our civil society. |
| We ignore UN rights report at our peril 29 December 2000 - Australia must recognise the increasing links between international trade and human rights, writes Angela Ward (Associate Professor in International Law at Essex University, and junior counsel to Cherie Booth, QC) |
| NT Government site on mandatory sentencing |
| UN report on mandatory sentencing |
| Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) .. I believe if you want a policeman to make any admissions you've got to be fully armed with everything you can get. And bear in mind they had a solicitor there sitting on their shoulder while you were talking to them and if you think that you are going to get anything out of these officers, you are entirely wrong. |
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