| Advocacy from a distance |
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| Tuesday, 18 November 2008 00:00 |
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Nicole Reardon
Unpack the issues...Despite our increasing ability to experience and understand our overseas neighbours, there remains a great distance between the cultural mores of Australia and those in other countries. The most recent public example of this sort of advocacy has been the execution of the Bali bombers. The execution of the three bombers, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, has again brought to light Australia’s opposition to the death penalty. Australia has had a long-standing opposition to capital punishment, with the death penalty being abolished in 1973. As a sign of its official stance on capital punishment, Australia has signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and voted for the UN General Assembly's resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty in 2007. Yet while the Australian Government has been involved in these processes, many civil organisations such as the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties have voiced their concern that the Australian Government has allowed its resolve to weaken. As the NSW Council of Civil Liberties says on its website: “Australia's position now seems to be that Australians should not be executed but other people can be." John Barr, executive secretary, Asia, with Uniting International Mission (UIM) has worked with partner churches in areas including Indonesia, East Timor and North Korea, to advocate for human rights. John was saddened that the Australian Government did not provide a firm statement advocating that Australia is against the use of capital punishment both in Australia and overseas. “This is a humanitarian issue. We are all a part of the human family and therefore the rights that we appreciate should be available to everyone,” says John. “Everyone deserves to have the same rights.” “I think the Australian Government missed a very important opportunity here. It needed to make a clear statement that we do not condone the death penalty. That we abhor capital punishment, wherever it is found in the world. We could have shown the Indonesian government that we are not just interested in protecting our own citizens but that, as a nation, we firmly oppose capital punishment.” John says he fears for the three Australians who are facing execution in Indonesia. “We needed to stay consistent in our stance on capital punishment and because we haven’t, Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and Scott Rush [three of the group known as the Bali 9] may soon face execution.” But while the media has publicised the issue of capital punishment of late, many human rights violations go untold. The rights of women to receive equal education, employment, pay, health benefits and government support and protection, are some of the most violated rights in the world. According to the United Nations website, the majority of the world’s 1.3 billion of the 'absolute poor' are women. The UN website also says that throughout the world women are victims of violence, with domestic violence and rape listed as two of the main causes of disability and death among women of reproductive age worldwide. Dire stories of human rights violations continuously come out of developing countries. Earlier this month, Amnesty International Australia reported how Rita Mahato, a female health counsellor working in the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre in Nepal, was threatened with rape and death because of her role in defending the rights of both women in the region and ‘dalits,’ a socially and economically marginalised caste in Nepal’s Sihara district. Amnesty International Australia is calling on Australians to aid Rita in her work by writing or emailing the Nepalese authorities urging them to ensure the safety of female human rights defenders. UIM has also been involved with human rights advocacy in West Papua, Indonesia. Tension in the Indonesian province of Papua has been building since the 1969 decision known as ‘The Act of Free Choice’, in which the region chose to remain part of Indonesia. The legitimacy of the vote is still questioned to this present day. In March 2006, protests against the Freeport Mine were held in Jayapura. Violence broke out after three Indonesians were killed by unknown forces. In response, Indonesian security forces reacted by harassing and intimidating local students. This escalated, leading to the wrongful imprisonment and death of many Papuans. “One of our major concerns,” says John, “was that the son of the moderator of our partner church was imprisoned on trumped up charges. Subsequently, a year later, he committed suicide.” “There are a lot of death threats and unexplained disappearances occurring in West Papua at the moment and we believe that it is a part of a military campaign to intimidate and harass Papuans.” While these human rights violations are occurring close to Australian shores, it is often difficult for the general population of Australia to make the cultural leap, and recognise the significance of international human rights issues. We often rely on the Australian government to decide what issues the nation should advocate for. The Rudd government has already taken steps to do this. During its term it has already ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities while the Attorney-General’s Department has undertaken a National Interest Analysis on the Optional Protocol on the Convention Against Torture. However, members of the public should recollect their right to express their concern and call on the government to take up human rights issues that they regard as important. Asked what Australians could do to advocate against human rights violations in other countries, John says, “Contact UIM or the Uniting Church’s rights and advocacy agency, UnitingJustice. Write letters to local and federal politicians… Get involved - everyone deserves to have the same rights.” Unpack the issues...
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  written by Phillip Smith, November 21, 2008
Congratulations first of all, on a brilliant and insightful website! Keep up the good work! More to the point, though, allthough, like all decent people,I deplore,even abhor the Bali bombing, I think the execution of the masterminds behind the tragedy, was, with the utmost respect to the victim's families,was,to say the least, pretty weak. To execute the bombers, in my opinion, anyway, was only giving the bombers what they wanted. Of course,the only reason they wanted to die,was not due to any remorse,of which there was none, but that they wanted to be martyrs for fundamentalist Islam. They would have been far better off spending life imprisonment.
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Australia is a lucky country. We have one of the world’s healthiest democracies and, while there is always room for improvement, Australian governments are committed to upholding our human rights. Yet, not all countries protect their citizens in this way, and so sometimes we feel compelled to bridge the cultural gap and advocate for human rights overseas.
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