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Project SafeCom News and Updates 18 October 2005
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Project SafeCom
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Oct 17, 2005 15:39 PDT
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Project SafeCom News and Updates 18 October 2005
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1. Australia abstains from cultural diversity vote
2. Detention company fined over breaches
3. ChilOut's Unfinished Business
4. Commonwealth vetoes SIEV-X memorial for Canberra
5. Detainee free as a bird
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1. Australia abstains from cultural diversity vote
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ABC ONLINE NEWS
Tuesday, October 18, 2005. 7:00am (AEST)
More than 150 of the 191 member states of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have voted to approve a
convention to protect cultural diversity.
Australia abstained from voting on the resolution to adopt a 40-page text
reaffirming the "sovereign right of countries" to pursue policies aimed at
"protecting and promoting the diversity of cultural expressions on their
territory" and in international trade.
Most of UNESCO's members see the resolution as an important tool for
protecting local languages, arts and culture against English-speaking
globalisation and US "cultural imperialism".
However it is strongly opposed by the United States, which argues that the
text is vaguely defined and could be used by governments to suppress
freedom of expression and the interchange of ideas.
"We are extremely disappointed by the decision that has just been taken,"
US envoy Louise Oliver said.
Israel voted against adopting the convention, while Australia and the
Pacific island state Kiribati abstained.
The United States had submitted 20 amendments to the text, which would have
emptied the convention of much of its substance.
Supporters of the convention say that once ratified it would have legal
weight in negotiations at the World Trade Organisation over such issues as
cinema, publishing and the Internet.
- AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1484372.htm
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2. Detention company fined over breaches
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Sydney Morning Herald
October 17, 2005 - 4:48PM
Unregistered psychologists were used on 15 occasions to provide services at
the Baxter and Christmas Island immigration detention centres, in breach of
state and immigration laws.
GSL Australia, which operates the country's detention centres, broke South
Australian and West Australian laws when it employed psychologists who were
not registered in the state in which they provided services, the federal
government revealed.
GSL also breached its contract with the immigration department.
Acting Immigration Minister John Cobb said GSL had been slapped with hefty
fines as a result of the breaches.
He said GSL Australia had told him of 15 instances in which psychologists
provided services in breach of the contract between GSL and the immigration
department.
Mr Cobb revealed the breaches in answer to a question taken on notice from
Labor backbencher Carmen Lawrence.
"On 7 July 2005 the detention services provider (GSL Australia) advised my
department of a total of 15 instances in which visiting psychologists
providing services at the Christmas Island Immigration Reception and
Processing Centre and Baxter IDF had failed to comply with state mutual
recognition registration requirements while providing short term relief or
visiting services," he said.
Dr Lawrence's question followed a statement from former Citizenship
Minister Peter McGauran on April 26 in which he said all people working as
psychologists at immigration detention centres were trained and registered
with relevant agencies.
She asked Mr Cobb if he was aware that the South Australian Psychological
Board pursued the matter and found some psychologists working at Baxter
were not registered, in contravention of South Australian law, and further
breaches would be referred to the Crown Solicitor's office for prosecution.
Mr Cobb said investigations revealed two psychologists who provided
short-term relief services as Baxter were not registered in South Australia.
They have since obtained proper registration.
"The acting minister's statement was not intended to mislead," Mr Cobb said.
The minister said that after further requests for information, GSL said
there were 15 instances where psychologists failed to comply with
registration regulations.
"My department has made it clear to GSL that these breaches are totally
unacceptable," he said.
"Significant sanctions were imposed on GSL as a result of the breaches."
Mr Cobb said in all cases there had been no indication the psychologist
involved did not have appropriate skills and training to provide services.
But Dr Lawrence said it was not good enough for Mr Cobb to say it was a
technical breach because the law had been broken.
"They obviously consider it severe enough that breaches have resulted in
the imposition of fines against GSL," she said.
"That's been a continuing problem with the government and DIMIA
(immigration department), they don't monitor the performance of the contractor.
"In this case in the area of mental health, and that's how they became
unstuck with Cornelia Rau, they don't have a proper monitoring of the
compliance of contractors."
Ms Rau, an Australian resident, was wrongfully detained for 10 months until
February this year.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski visited the Baxter
facility on Monday to conduct a routine inspection of conditions at the centre.
He would not comment publicly on his visit, instead advising the
immigration department in writing of any human rights issues should that be
necessary.
© 2005 AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Detention-company-fined-over-breaches/2005/10/17/1129401189687.html
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3. ChilOut's Unfinished Business
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New Matilda
By Dianne Hiles
Wednesday 12 October 2005
As I listened to our beautiful 18-year-old ChilOut Ambassador, Nahid
Karimi, speaking at the Sydney launch of New Matilda's Human Rights Act
Campaign about the suicide attempts she witnessed during her eight months
detention at Port Hedland, I yet again felt a surge of anger that we as a
society could ever have accepted the arbitrary, indefinite detention of
children.
ChilOut's thousands of members have railed for almost four years at the
inhumane practices of the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and
Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA), ACM (the privatised Australasian Correctional
Management) and latterly GSL (Global Solutions Limited, which has now taken
over from ACM). Children and families have, thankfully, been released from
behind the razor wire, but there are still many questions to be answered,
and further changes to be brought about.
You will find within the ranks of refugee advocacy groups many who will
welcome the advent of New Matilda's Human Rights Act Campaign. For years we
have been calling for Australia to pay more than lip service to the various
human rights instruments we have willingly signed. We particularly want the
principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention
on Civil and Political Rights ratified into our domestic law. If a Human
Rights Act can help achieve this, it is a welcome development.
It may now be widely accepted in the community that children should neither
be detained nor removed from their parents (possibly two of the more
abhorrent legalised human rights abuses we allowed to be perpetrated
against children in recent generations), but this has not come without a
campaign.
What change has been affected is the culmination of enormous effort on the
part of many groups, community and church leaders, health professionals,
journalists, conscientious MPs, and thousands upon thousands of caring
people, whose sense of justice compelled them to keep going in the face of
apathy, prejudice and deliberate misinformation from the government.
Slowly, slowly we all ground away. We had to galvanise ordinary people to
communicate to their parliamentarians that this practice was unacceptable,
or convince their local councils to become 'Refugee Friendly'.
The change, when it did come, came the only way it could in today's
political arena: through the good offices of a handful of Liberal
backbenchers. They were prepared to stand up for their principles and
threatened to introduce a Private Member's Bill to dismantle the
unconscionable practice of mandatory detention of innocent children and
their families.
However, we are far from winning the fight on refugees. The law has not
been changed to prevent this happening again. Our legislation is still in
breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are still
being detained, albeit in the community, and there are no safeguards to
prevent the razor wire or electric fencing being raised around children again.
The recent Palmer and Comrie Reports highlight the lack of accountability
in DIMIA and should raise widespread concerns about the power of the
Executive to detain - anybody. Not only should a series of checks and
balances be introduced as a matter of urgency, a framework should be put in
place to ensure no maverick piece of legislation can ever so routinely
contravene basic human rights again.
The need for vigilance concerning Human Rights is now stronger than ever. A
climate of widespread fear is being cultivated. While people are generally
aware that the proposed anti-terror legislation will erode human rights, it
is a price many are prepared to pay for greater (perceived) security.
However, once lost, the likelihood of ever getting those rights back is
negligible.
It will be a long and rocky road but we welcome the initiative of New
Matilda's Human Rights Act for Australia and wish the campaign team all the
commitment, sticking power and influence necessary to effect a change so
desperately needed.
To echo the sentiments of Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski, when
he launched his May 2004 report into children in detention, and again in
his press release when children moved into community detention at the end
of July 2005: 'Let no child who arrives in Australia ever suffer under this
system again.'
About the author
Dianne Hiles has been on the Co-ordination Team of ChilOut (Children Out of
Detention) since its inception in August 2001.
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=1010
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4. Commonwealth vetoes SIEV-X memorial for Canberra
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ABC ONLINE NEWS
Monday, October 17, 2005. 5:16pm (AEST)
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says he is disappointed the Commonwealth
Government has ruled out erecting a SIEV-X memorial on the shores of Lake
Burley Griffin.
A group of artists had approached the Federal Government with the idea of
building a memorial to the 353 asylum seekers who died when their boat sank
in the Java Sea four years ago.
Mr Stanhope says the memorial is more appropriate as a national, not a
local, project.
"One could argue if the Commonwealth is not prepared to support a SIEV-X
memorial, that one would I think not necessarily look to the ACT as a
location for such a memorial," he said.
"One would perhaps be looking more say to Darwin, or the Northern
Territory, or the planned point of landing of the SIEV-X."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1484192.htm
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5. Detainee free as a bird
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The Advertiser
17oct05
Detainee AUSTRALIA's longest serving detainee, Peter Qasim, was yesterday
treated to his first helicopter ride, courtesy of Dick Smith.
The adventurer and businessman - who actively campaigned for Mr Qasim's
release - flew over Sydney in the helicopter.
"A couple of months before he'd been locked up for seven years and here he
was, free at last," Mr Smith said.
Mr Qasim spent six years and 10 months in the Woomera and Baxter detention
centres in South Australia before being released in July.
He is now living in Perth and working as a poultry butcher.
The Federal Government issued Mr Qasim with a Removal Pending Visa when he
was released. The visa means he must leave Australia and return to Kashmir
when it is safe.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16939678%255E911,00.html
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-|| This is the Project SafeCom Newsletter - also published
-|| as the RAC-VIC Newsletter (Racvicnews) since July 2004 by agreement
-|| with RAC Victoria, which endorsed that their news service be
-|| managed by Project SafeCom. More information about us below.
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