2005 Events
- 15 December: Forum, Anti-Terrorism and the Police State
- 1 December: Roundtable Discussion, Reconceptualising Remedies - The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- 17 November: Forum, Laws for Insecurity?
- 15 November: Forum, Perspectives on Turkey and the EU - Islam, Democracy and the Contemporary State
- 6 October: Seminar, Terror in the Name of Human Rights
- 8 September: Seminar, Writing Human Rights Reports
- 21-22 July: Workshop, The Cultures of Human Rights
15 December: Forum, Anti-Terrorism and the Police State
This free evening public forum will provide an opportunity for the audience and guest speakers to discuss recently passed anti-terrorism laws. The forum is the first in an interdisciplinary series of events jointly hosted by the Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, Ashworth Centre for Social Theory (all of Melbourne University) as well as the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies (Deakin University), and the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. Building on other forums like ‘Laws for Insecurity’, this seminar combines the perspectives of guest speakers with public discussion to offer information about the new laws, contextual analysis of legislating against terrorism, the potential for the new laws to limit critical debate, and a consideration of the laws’ relationship with a ‘police state’.
After opening comments by the invited panel of guest speakers, general discussion will be facilitated by Peter Rush and Juliet Rogers, both of Melbourne University Law School.
Speakers include:
- Ian Duncanson, Institute of Postcolonial Studies; Griffith University
- Geoff Boucher, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, Deakin University; Community Activist
- Joo-Cheong Tham, Law School, Melbourne University
- Marika Dias, Federation of Community Legal Centres
1 December: Roundtable Discussion, Reconceptualising Remedies - The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The focus of the roundtable will be on the provision of remedies for violations of ICESCR because it is one of the main points of contention in the present process, though not by any means the only one. The view, which needs to be countered, is that remedies will necessarily involve judicial or quasi-judicial 'interference' in domestic political discussions about resource allocation. The roundtable aims to identify the remedies, both legal and policy-based, that might be available in the event of a breach of the ICESCR, and to think through how these remedies might be usefully applied in the domestic context. It will develop illustrative examples showing how a complaints procedure would provide States Parties with a constructive and useful framework for understanding and fulfilling their progressive implementation obligations under ICESCR.
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17 November: Forum, Laws for Insecurity?
This forum explores the critical issue of the proposed measures to strengthen Australia's anti-terrorism laws. The laws presently before federal Parliament will give police unprecedented detention and search powers. These laws will also expand the government's power to ban organisations and prosecute Australians who politically dissent.
The seminar explores the following questions: will the proposed laws promote the safety of Australians? Will they, on the other hand, inflict insecurity on Australians by increasing the risk of racial and religious profiling? What will they mean for the health of Australia's democracy and multiculturalism?
Speakers include:
- Petro Georgiou, MP
- Vicky Sentas, Federation of Community Legal Centres
- Amir Butler, Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network
- Professor George Williams, Victorian Human Rights Consultation Committee
- Brian Walters SC, Liberty Victoria (Chair).
15 November: Forum, Perspectives on Turkey and the EU - Islam, Democracy and the Contemporary State
Presented by the Contemporary Europe Research Centre in co-operation with IILAH, this forum will bring together Turkish guests H. E. Ambassador Murat Bilhan & Prof Dr Mustafa Aydin along with a selection of Melbourne University academics including:
- Dr Carolyn Evans (Deputy Director, Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies)
- Professor Anne Orford (Director, Institute for International Law and the Humanities)
- Associate Professor Philomena Murray (Director, CERC)
- Dr Richard Pennell (Department of History)
- Mr Ian Coller (Department of History)
Professor Mustafa Aydin has a doctorate from the University of Lancaster and is based in the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey. He is a specialist in international relations and security policy as well as factors in Turkish foreign policy-making, and member of the Editorial Board of "Perceptions", the English quartlery publication of SAM. His recent publications include: Turkish Foreign Policy During the Gulf War (1998), New Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus: Causes of Instability and Predicaments (2000); Ten Years After: Turkey's Gulf Enlargement (2004); Turkish Foreign Policy: Framework and Analysis (2005); and he was the editor of: Greek-Turkish Relations in the 21st Century: Escaping from the Security Dilemma in the Aegean (with K. Ifantis, 2003); Turkey's Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: A Changing Role in World Politics (with T. Y. Ismael, 2003); and Turkish-American Relations: 200 Years of Divergence and Covergence (with C. Erhan, 2004).
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This seminar, presented by Tarik Kochi, will introduce an approach to looking at what can be termed 'war's moral problem' by focusing upon one contemporary form of war, a war in the name of human rights. It will examine some of the difficulties involved in the moral and legal judgment of contemporary acts of terror carried out by political Islamicists. Attention will be given to how the demand for a not-yet-right and justice upsets forms of moral and juridical ordering and opens onto modern partisan wars over the content of human dignity.
Tarik Kochi is a Research Associate with the Socio-Legal Research Centre, Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Brisbane. He received a PhD in Law from Griffith Law School in 2005. In 2004 he was a DAAD Scholar, Philosophy Seminar, Eberhard Karls Universitat, Tubingen, Germany. His research interests are in the areas of Legal and Political Philosophy, International Law and International Relations. He is currently working on a book entitled "The Ethics of Another's War".
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Professor Philip Alston from New York University will provide a presentation on writing human rights reports, drawing on his experience as UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. The presentation will be followed by a discussion of questions raised by Professor Alston.
Philip Alston is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University. He is currently UN Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, and for 2005-06 is Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee for all of the UN Human Rights Special Procedures (of which there are now almost 50). He is also Special Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals and was Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights for eight years until 1998. Throughout the 1990s he was an Independent Expert appointed by the UN Secretary-General to propose major reforms to the UN human rights treaty-body system. He has also been Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law since 1996.