Done By Law

GetUp for your right to vote!

Today on Done By Law we talk to Ben Schokman, the Director of International Human Rights advocacy at the Human Rights Law Resource Center located in Melbourne about the recent litigation the Center launched together with GetUp! about the right to vote of unregistered voters.This is the second public interest case the Center has been involved in concerning the right to vote, the other being the Vickie Roach case that changed the law around voting rights of prisoners.

Everyday People, Everyday Rights

The term human rights is talked about a lot these days, but do you know how human rights are relevant to you on a practical day to day basis? On todays show we will be talking with Jessie Lees from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission about a human rights project that she is coordinating called Everyday People, Everyday Rights. It is a joint program between the VEOHRC and the Neighbourhood Justice Centre that brings together City of Yarra residents, business owners and local agencies to plan 10 human rights focused meetings with the local community.

Fatal mistake? VicPolice taser trials: 27 March 2010

In February this year Victoria Police announced a trial of taser stun guns in Bendigo and Morwell. The trial will start in July 2010 and run for a year. Currently, only two specialist police units, the Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Teams, part of the Force Response Unit are authorised to use tasers. Previously both former Police Commissioner Nixon and current Commissioner Overland had ruled out the expansion of tasers to general duty police. Therefore this trial represents a signifcant shift in the manner in which police can deploy force.

In 2009 an Office of Police Integrity report which investigated Victoria Police’s use of force recommended that officers not be given taser stun guns. There are substantial dangers that tasers can kill or harm if used on vulnerable groups, such a young people, people with heart conditions, people experiecing mental illness, or if the taser is used in particular ways. The data suggests around 73% of taser use in Victoria was against people in mental health crises and that 85% of subjects were affected by prescription or illegal drugs. Evidence from overseas and increasingly from Australia suggests that tasers are prone to misuse. 

Done By Law discusses these trials with Emma Ryan, a Monash University lecturer and PhD researcher.

DBL: Political violence and the law in the Philippines: 12 January 2009

On 23 November 2009, 57 people were massacred near the town of Ampatutan in the province of Maguindanao in the Philippines. A convoy of vehicles was carrying civilians, journalists and lawyers, who were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for Esmael Mangudadatu. Mangudadatu was challenging mayor in the forthcoming Maguindanao election. The convoy was stopped, the people abducted and later murdered. It was reported that witnesses and people in the cars on either side of the convoy were also massacred.

Andal Ampatuan, Jr and a number of others have been arrested for the massacre.  His father and several other clan members have been charged with rebellion. On 5 January 2010, Andal Ampatuan, Jr pleaded not guilty. The Ampatuan clan are known for being loyal supporters of President Gloria Arroyo. Since the election of President Gloria Arroyo in 2001, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have reported on the rise of serious human rights abuses in the Philippines. President Arroyo is charged with having created a culture of impunity for those committing politically motivated violence – which includes hundreds of extra-judicial killings and thousands of individual documented human rights violations.

Tonight we are joined by Neri Colmenares, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers – who lost colleagues in the massacre.  He will be discussing political violence and the law in the Philippines -  including an interesting proposition as to how Australian lawyers can actively help human rights in the Philippines.

DBL: Drug Trafficking and Human Rights Charter: 11 August 2009

The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities establishes a ‘dialogue model’ of human rights protection which seeks to ensure that human rights are taken into account when developing, interpreting and applying Victorian law and policy without displacing current constitutional arrangements.  But does the  Charter really have any practical meaning for individuals before the Courts in Victoria?

Tonight on Done by Law we speak to barrister Michael Croucher about a case in which the Charter has been considered in detail by the Court of Appeal in Victoria for the first time.

Our human rights report card: ‘Could do better’: April 7, 2009

The UN Human Rights Committee has now released its report card (or ‘Concluding Observations’) on Australia, the first since 2000 and an important test for the Rudd Government in light of its Security Council bid and its stated commitment to ‘human rights leadership’.

Muriel Bamblett talks human rights

One year after the Human Rights Charter was introduced in Victoria Done By Law talks to Muriel Bamblett, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency about the relationship between Indigenous people and the human rights agenda in Victoria.  We take a look at the extent to which a human rights framework is useful in pursuing aboriginal health and wellbeing, and what the limitations are.

Are we spoiling Human Rights? 3 March 2009

Done By Law talks Carroll Bogert the Associate Director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading human rights organisations.  She oversees the organisation’s external relations and works on strategic advocacy, communications and fundraising. Human Rights Watch has recently released its World Report 2009, an annual review and summary of human rights issues around the globe.  The Report calls on states like Australia and the USA to put human rights at the heart of foreign, domestic, and security policy. We also discuss the possibility of a Human Rights Watch office right here in Australia.

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.