91��̳ - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Open letter to Labor: Increase the allowance to refugees stranded in Indonesia

Kerry Smith — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 17:00:00 +1000

Refugee Action Collectives have launched an open letter asking the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil to help refugees stranded in Indonesia.

Vale Stewart West: A rare Labor man of principle

Emily McGrath — Wed, 17 May 2023 16:00:00 +1000

Tributes to Stewart West were powerfully worded, but hearing Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton honour him for the kinds of things they mostly do not do made me angry. Emily McGrath looks at the legacy of her late grandfather.

Breaching human rights: Australia, climate change and the Torres Strait Islands

Binoy Kampmark — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 10:30:00 +1000

The UNHCR said Australia has violated Torres Strait islanders' rights by ignoring their concerns about rising seas caused by climate change. Binoy Kampmark reports.

Tamils call for genocide investigation

Chris Slee — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 09:30:00 +1100

Chris Slee reports on a protest calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for committing genocide against the Tamil people.

UN slams Hungary gov't over cruel and racist policies

Stuart Munckton — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 16:30:00 +1000

Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto accused United Nations officials on September 19 of “spreading lies” with their criticism of Budapest’s anti-migration policies.

The comments came just days after new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and UN rights experts harshly criticised Hungary’s immigration policies.

Szijjarto told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that “it was obvious” the UN officials were “biased pro-migration officials”.

Climate justice and refugees

Zebedee Parkes — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 16:00:00 +1000

The climate crisis is the greatest crisis the Earth faces. It threatens the entire ecosystem that all life depends upon.

The refugee crisis is arguably the greatest challenge humanity faces. It affects hundreds of millions of people and is the dominant force shaping politics across the Earth.

Strong arguments can be made for both these statements.

The interlinking nature of the two crises, both practically and politically, is the key to finding real solutions and raises the question: why do the movements seem so separate?

Australia’s refugee policy is creating a second class in Indonesia

Zebedee Parkes — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 11:45:00 +1100

Hundreds of refugee families defied a protest ban in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sulawesi on February 21.

They marched from their refugee accommodation to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with banners and placards that read “No one is illegal” “Is there any UNHCR?”. A young girl held up a placard, almost as tall as her, that read “We are forgotten”.

An attack on Afrin is an attack on refugees

Zebedee Parkes — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 13:45:00 +1100

The Turkish government’s attacks on the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria’s (DFNS) Afrin Canton in northern Syria are an attack on refugees.

Manus Island crisis becomes an emergency

Zebedee Parkes — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 16:15:00 +1100

Four hundred men are still protesting in the Manus Island detention centre. They are calling for nothing less than their freedom and will not move to another centre on the Island. They have held out since the Australian government shut down the centre and removed services on October 31.

November 15 was the 107^th consecutive day of protest on Manus Island since the Australian government announced it would close the centre.

US refugee deal is inhumane politicking

Zebedee Parkes — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 11:00:00 +1100

The offshore detention hellholes of Nauru and Manus Island are becoming increasingly unviable as more damning reports are published, court cases in Papua New Guinea continue, private service providers under the pressure of boycott campaigns decline to reapply for contracts and protests grow in Australia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s latest plan — third country resettlement in the United States — is a reaction to this pressure, while also maintaining the policy of boat turnbacks, border security rhetoric and denying asylum seekers the right to be resettled in Australia.

Turnbull champions government's harsh refugee policy

Zebedee Parkes — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 10:00:00 +1000

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, has used speeches to the UN General Assembly and US President Barack Obama’s leaders’ summit on refugees to push Australia’s “compassionate humanitarian” solutions to the worldwide refugee crisis.

Yes, the country strongly criticised in numerous UNHCR and Amnesty International reports is using the UN General Assembly to proclaim itself a leader in “compassionate” refugee solutions.

Turnbull is using this “solution” as the cornerstone of a bid for Australia to sit on the UN Human Rights Council.

Refugee crisis, activism and alternatives

Zebedee Parkes — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:00:00 +1000

In May 1939 the St Louis, carried 935 Jews seeking asylum from Nazi Germany. Many countries refused to let them in, including the US, which used coast guard ships to stop the St Louis from docking. Eventually they were forced to return to Europe, and most of the passengers died in the Holocaust they were fleeing.

Appeal to Europe for help to free Syrian asylum seekers on Manus Island

Kerry Smith — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:00:00 +1000

More than 100 asylum seekers in detention on Manus Island have signed an appeal to Europeans for help. They say that just like the asylum seekers in Europe, they have fled war and persecution and like them they need safety and resettlement. They request European countries “to urge the Australia government to cease the illegal detention of us…” Almost 1000 refugees and asylum seekers are indefinitely detained on Manus Island and a similar number, including families with children, are on Nauru.

Manus, Omid and the campaign against offshore detention and resettlement

Zebedee Parkes — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 10:00:00 +1000

After three years of murders, hunger strikes, mass protests and forcing people to live in some of the worst conditions imaginable, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled on April 26 that detaining asylum seekers in the Manus Island Detention Centre is a breach of the country’s constitution. In the same week, Omid, an Iranian refugee who had been forcibly resettled on Nauru, self-immolated in front of UNHCR inspectors because he could not “take it anymore”.

The new world records no one is cheering

Peter Boyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 10:00:00 +1000

When the Olympic Games begin, the news headlines will be swamped with stories of new world records in this or that sporting field. We will be whipped into a frenzy about it. There will be discussions all around the world about how the record was broken, about the ferocious competition to produce record-breaking athletes, about performance-inducing drugs. Meanwhile, much more significant world records will barely rate a mention in the media.

Good news — for a change

Pip Hinman — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:00:00 +1000

Senate rejects bid to make unemployed wait for welfare An attack on young people has been defeated. A measure to force jobseekers under the age of 25 to wait an additional four weeks before accessing unemployment benefits has been defeated in the Senate, 30 votes to 35. Labor and the Greens opposed the bill, announced in the May federal budget, meaning six of the eight crossbenchers had to vote with the government for the bill to pass.

UN slams US for human rights abuses

Stuart Munckton — Sun, 17 May 2015 10:00:00 +1000

The United States was criticised for its human rights standards on May 12 after the country's compliance with international human rights standards were assessed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR). The UN criticised the US for police violence, racial discrimination, torture, use of the death penalty, and Guantanamo Bay prison, among other issues.

91������̳ - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)