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Professor Ben Kiernan is the multi-award-winning author of Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur, recipient of a 2008 Gold Medal for the Best Book in…
Melbourne has evolved into a city of great diversity and at its best it is a model for other new world cities. Arnold Zable will explore the evolution of cosmopolitan and multicultural Melbourne…
Apathy towards rights protections. An underdeveloped rights culture. Opposition to the equal sharing of rights. All these things undermine Australia’s (otherwise good) record on human rights…
Apathy towards rights protections. An underdeveloped rights culture. Opposition to the equal sharing of rights. All these things undermine Australia’s (otherwise good) record on human rights…
The passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948 was the last act of World War II – and the first act of the post-war human rights movement. In the first in a three-part…
Presented with the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash UniversityThe passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948 was the last act of World War II – and the f…
A co-presentation with Melbourne Conversations.(M)an has not grown less cruel with the passage of that illusory thing called time;though in many parts of the world he has become a far greater…
One of the biggest untold tragedies in our world is the simple fact that 2.5 billion people still lack safe sanitation; somewhere to go to the toilet, wash their hands and get clean water. We all…
Sarah Marland is a human rights campaigner, researcher and author. Since 2006, she has worked as Amnesty International’s Campaign Coordinator and Researcher on Indigenous Rights.Using participatory m…
2013 is an election year and we know that domestic issues will dominate the campaign and decide our next prime minister. But, at a time when the world is confronting major changes, our foreign…
The courtroom: the ultimate arena for dramatising issues of justice and morality, and a stage where the most admirable and most despicable elements of human nature are performed in equal measure…
The Oz obscenity trial. Defending Julian Assange and Salman Rushdie. Establishing journalists’ right to protect sources. Defining ‘terrorism’ for the first time. Calling for the Vatican to be…
As the Communist Party of China’s 18th National Congress oversees the biggest leadership transition in decades, join host Sally Warhaft and China watcher and correspondent, John Garnaut, as they…
As the Communist Party of China’s 18th National Congress oversees the biggest leadership transition in decades, Sally Warhaft catches up with China watcher and correspondent John Garnaut to examine t…
Death is the most personal of matters, but it’s also a political hot potato.Most of us don’t choose (or even expect) the way in which we die, but for the terminally ill, death is a looming certainty …
Death is the most personal of matters, but it’s also a political hot potato.Most of us don’t choose (or even expect) the way in which we die, but for the terminally ill, death is a looming certainty …
What is ‘forced people movement’, or ‘mixed flow migration’ – and where do refugees fit? We use many terms for those people who feel compelled to leave their home country and relocate.Forced…
What is ‘forced people movement’, or ‘mixed flow migration’ – and where do refugees fit? We use many terms for those people who feel compelled to leave their home country and relocate.Forced…
In the fight against the Japanese during World War II, the most disturbing events endured by the Australian soldiers occurred at Sandakan, in North Borneo.Join Sydney-based historian Paul Ham, as he …
In the fight against the Japanese during World War II, the most disturbing events endured by the Australian soldiers occurred at Sandakan, in North Borneo.Join Sydney-based historian Paul Ham, as he …
Dr Nouria Salehi OAM is executive director of the Afghan Australian Development Organisation. A voluntary, non-profit, non-government, member organisation, its primary purpose is to implement…
When Michael Kirby retired from the High Court in 2009, he was Australia’s longest-serving judge. But it’s not his time on the bench that makes him so beloved; rather it’s his long record of human…
When Michael Kirby retired from the High Court in 2009, he was Australia’s longest-serving judge. But it’s not his time on the bench that makes him so beloved; rather it’s his long record of human…
The Wheeler Centre and St James Ethics Centre combine once again in 2012 to bring you another series of Intelligence Squared debates.Established in 2002, IQ2 has spread from across the globe…
From child soldiers in Sudan to gang violence in Papua New Guinea; tsunamis in the Pacific to earthquakes in New Zealand, we’re confronted with communities in need every day. Who should we help? How …
While it may be true that nature is red in tooth and claw, it seems that for animals subject to human law – rather than the law of nature – life is much more like a lottery. In this presentation…
When should the international community intervene in civil conflict? What made last year’s Libyan conflict suitable for intervention, while Syrians continued to struggle against despotism alone? In t…
Since the end of the Cold War, much international attention has been devoted to building democracies to replace authoritarian regimes. East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and last year’s Arab Spring are…
Despite their differences, both of our major parties profess to share a common approach to illegal boat arrivals: lock them up and send them somewhere – anywhere – else. But, after years of…
Leah Chishugi shares her harrowing and deeply courageous story of surviving the Rwandan genocide. Now finally settled in the UK, where she was granted asylum and has become a nurse, Leah has…
Julian Burnside has written on the High Court’s decision overturning the government’s Malaysian solution on the ABC’s The Drum. Here’s an excerpt of what he wrote:In the past 15 years, most boat…
In a post-conflict society, with a still fragile justice system, establishing respect for human rights is crucial to nation-building in East Timor. An estimated 10,000 civilians, including women and …
Across the globe, children are fleeing their homes – running from violence, poverty or war – and looking for a better life. Caroline Brothers is an experienced foreign correspondent who has taken up …
This is an extract from a report by Bridget Chappell in the 85th edition of Voiceworks, the quarterly magazine of Wheeler Centre resident organisation Express Media, out now.The guards of…
In a post-conflict society, with a still fragile justice system, establishing respect for human rights is crucial to nation-building and for East Timor’s future. An estimated 10,000 civilians…
Are the bold aims of human rights discourse too idealistic for the legal system to sustain in practice? How difficult is it to develop and enforce laws that promote a rights-based culture? What…
There are children’s books, and then there are children’s books that make a difference. The Boy and the Crocodile tells the story about East Timor’s national origins that doubles as a fable about…
