Is Australia breaching international law? Yes. Firstly, we’re breaching the UN Refugee Convention: •By locking up asylum seekers in detention centres and refusing to process their asylum claims (no boat people asylum claims have been processed since August 2013), we’re restricting their movements unnecessarily and penalizing them. •By pushing/towing asylum seeker boats back to Indonesian waters from Australian waters, we’re doing the same. •By changing workplace safety laws to exempt Navy sailors from their obligation to take ‘reasonable care’ to ensure the safety of asylum-seekers, we’re penalising asylum seekers. Note that the UN warned Australia about this breach in early January, 2014: “ UNHCR would be concerned by any policy or practice that involved pushing asylum-seeker boats back at sea without a proper consideration of individual needs for protection… Any such approach would raise significant issues and potentially place Australia in breach of its obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and other international law obligations.” We’re also breaching the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS convention): •The convention states: “Where assistance has been provided to persons in distress in a state’s SRR, that state has primary responsibility to ensure that coordination and cooperation occurs between governments, so that survivors are disembarked from the assisting ship and delivered to a place of safety. “ •But Australian defence personnel are not helping asylum seekers disembark or otherwise reach safety. Instead, they’re leaving them to fend for themselves, hours offshore of Indonesia. We’re also breaching other international laws. According to Julian Burnside QC, by “using arbitrary detention for asylum seekers, and subjecting people (including children) to conditions which put their physical and mental health at risk in order to persuade them to return to their homelands, and deter further people from seeking asylum in Australia”, we’re breaching the following international conventions: •The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (and the UN agrees – they reported the breach in 2013, and at the date of writing, the Australian government still hasn’t responded nor rectified the breach – p.293); •The Convention on the Rights of the Child; and •The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Plus Burnside suggests we may be committing “a crime against humanity contrary to section 268.12 of the Criminal Code (Commonwealth)”. Burnside says: “Article 9 of the Covenant prohibits arbitrary detention, yet people sent to Nauru and Manus Island, by Australia at Australia’s expense, are being arbitrarily detained in disturbing conditions. The refugees without ASIO security clearances are also being arbitrarily detained. This then constitutes a crime against humanity, according to the Criminal Code in section 268.12.” Australia was also strongly criticised by independent organisation, Human Rights Watch, in its 2014 World Report (p.292): “ Successive governments have prioritized domestic politics over Australia’s international legal obligations to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, many of who have escaped from appalling situations in places like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Too often, the government has attempted to demonize those trying to reach Australia by boat and has insisted that officials refer to all asylum seekers who do so as illegal maritime arrivals.”
Posted on: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 13:11:35 +0000
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