Done By Law

Special DBL Podcast Series: Imprisoned People and Social Justice Forum

On Thursday the 10th of September 09, the Imprisoned People and Social Justice Forum was held at the Koori Heritage Trust down on King Street.

The forum was organised by the Decarceration Working Group, with support and collaboration from Flat Out, Sisters Inside, the Centre for the Human Rights of Imprisoned People and the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Legal Service.

The day aimed to facilitate discussions on systemic issues in imprisonment, strategies for decarceration and social justice for imprisoned men and women in Victoria, with input from national and international speakers including formerly imprisoned people.

This is a special Done by Law podcast series, where you can download and listen to some of the highlights recorded on the day.

To see the rest of the Audio from the day and a ISJF program flyer, click on the Podcasts Tab at the top of the page and see ‘Imprisoned People and Social Justice Forum # 2′

DBL: Centre for Human Rights of Imprisoned People: 13 Jan 2009

Last Tuesday 6 January 2009, more than 200 people were evacuated from Melbourne Magistrates’ Court during a security scare.  But prisoners held at the Melbourne Custody centre, below the court, were not evacuated. The event highlights the very real potential for the violation of the human rights of imprisoned people.

Activists, community lawyers and prisoner advocacy groups have long been campaigning for the rights of imprisoned people.  Recently this campaign focussed on the need for a specialist legal centre exclusively for  imprisoned people.  The Centre for the Human Rights of Imprisoned People (CHRIP) is a project promoting access to justice and human rights for Victorian prisoners through a number of mechanisms and services.

Tonight on Done by Law, we are speaking to Phoebe Barton, project worker for the Centre for the Rights of Imprisoned people, about the Centre, some of the work the Centre is currently involved in, and  the issues faced by women prisoners in particular in Victoria.

FEATURE: Should the Victorian Police be using tasers?

Done By Law speaks to Emma Ryan, a PHD student who specialises in the use of “tasers” around the world and by the Victorian Police. We examine exactly how a taser works, and its consequences for people incapacitated by the weapon. We find out which Police are using tasers around the country. We look at instances where tasers have amounted to lethal force and consider how tasers may impact on policing more generally.

Feature: Gender and The Law

Trans Melbourne Gender Project (TMGP) is a coalition of people of all genders engaged in activism and support around gender. Their mission is to create a society where people are able to freely embody the gender they feel they are, whether that be transgendered, transsexual, intersex, gender-queer, MTF, FTM, queer, or none of the above.

In July 2008 Done By Law took a look at how the law sees gender. Does the Equal Opportunity Act translate into meaningful freedom for people in terms of gender? What do people mean when they say “human rights” and how useful is a rights based approach in terms of gender identity and gender variance? Is using the law the best way to guarantee gender freedom?

Marian Prickett from Done By Law catches up with Aren Aizura from the TMGP collective ….

Feature: Fusion, Arts Law Week ‘07

Done By Law chats to Justice Marcia Neave and Judge Felicity Hampel about hip-hop, human rights and the language of law at the launch of Arts Law Week 2007. We catch the two legal eagles just after TZU and 2XL had transformed material they’d provided into a track and they are clearly impressed with the result.