One of the disturbing aspects of the freedoms debate, however curiously silent, is the inconsistency in approach. Those who emphasise individual freedoms have remained curiously silent in the face of the mandatory detention currently of about 4,700 asylum seekers in remote detention centers in Australia and Christmas Island. To give you some human dimension to the effect of this policy, I would like to tell you about someone I met on Christmas Island during the course of the Inquiry I am holding into the detention of asylum-seeker children. An 11 year old girl – let us call her Roma – fled from serious conflict in her home country and had been on Christmas Island for about 8 months. She remained composed as she told me how her own brother had been killed in front of her. She remained composed as she recounted how scared she was during the boat journey to Australia of the big waves and of sharks in the water. She remained composed as she showed me the sores on her arms that won’t heal in the tropical heat, and her red eyes caused by phosphate dust on the island. It was only when Roma told me that during her eight months on Christmas Island, she’d spent just two weeks at the local school, and that was essentially just a playgroup, that she finally broke down in tears. She knows that to be deprived of an education while in detention is to take away not only her liberty but also her chances for a fulfilled life in the future. How has it come to pass that Australian law permits such detention, contrary to some of the most basic principles of human rights law? The answer is one that is exceptional to Australia. For relative to comparable legal systems we have very few constitutional or legislative protections for fundamental freedoms. We have no Commonwealth Bill of Rights or Charter of Rights unlike all other common law countries. full: humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/freedom-wars-and-future-human-rights-australia
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:09:05 +0000
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