Former Attorney-General of Australia's ACT accuses U.S. of hostage-taking Assange
Channel: Consortium News
Date: 06/03/2023

I was just thinking it's 57 years since I sat for my constitutional law exam in this great hall and 55 years since I received my degree on this stage. Then I really and truly believed we were building an exemplary country. I truly did. Being one of the postwar generation, we were creating a modern democracy. And then my law school, this university, descended into the Vietnam War protests. And life went on.

I've just peeled away every point I was going to make tonight as our wonderful speakers gave their addresses. And in fact, like Dean Yates, actually gave admissible evidence. Quite a few of the speakers tonight would make witnesses, and that's what the Belmarsh tribunal is about. It's a wonderful idea. And it's very clear to me that Julian is not a prisoner facing genuine judicial process. He is not.

I won't rehearse what our colleague from the United States and what Dean Yates said and what the other speakers have said. It's clear that Julian, in fact, fits precisely what I've been contemplating for the last few months, is the international definition of a hostage. And it's my proposition this evening that we commence moves to raise a motion through the support of sovereign states that are friendly on this issue or otherwise interested in the stir, that there'll be a UN General Assembly resolution.

And I'll tell you why.

In December 1979, the United States moved the United Nations General Assembly to support the then draft international convention against the taking of hostages. With very unusual alacrity, The United States government signed the treaty, the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, two days after it was tabled in New York. Britain had already signed. Australia got onto it in its usual leisurely pace.

But the reality is, I'll just read to you what the definition of a hostage is. Article one of that treaty pressed and now signed by 176 nations, quite a number of whom who should support a motion in relation to it, makes it an international criminal offense to seize and detain a person under any legal ruse (and read legal ruse about the sort of deceitful indictments) when the objective is to compel a third party, be it a state, a non-government organization, a judicial body, or quote, a group of persons (read WikiLeaks) to do an act, or abstain or refrain by explicit or implicit condition.

And if you go to the statements by the United States concerning Julian, they've made very clear that their pursuit of him is a conjoint enterprise to close down or otherwise limit the activities of WikiLeaks, which is a lawfully established body of persons, quote, in Iceland. The conduct of the United States with its fabricated series of offenses, which probably, I think it will never want to bring to trial (like the ones against me) fits precisely the definition of hostage taking the United States itself pressed upon the world in 1979.

And I want to call this evening for Ambassador Kennedy in Canberra to ensure that the transcript of the proceedings tonight, the relevant aspects are transmitted direct to President Biden, particularly before his visit, so that the United States can consider whether if we all resolve and asked interested states to agitate at the United Nations General Assembly, to hold the United States to account for hostage taking.

Now, not all of what has been done to Julian and not all of what isn't being done for Julian can be taking place without the complicity of senior bureaucrats. I won't repeat what we've already been told this evening, but in my view, there's not going to be a change in this country until we have more Robodebt type inquiries.

Hosted by Mary Kostakidis & Mark Davis.

Organised by Progressive International & Wau Holland foundation. Co-sponsored by the Search Foundation, Jacobin, PEN Sydney, PEN International, Declassified Australia, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Consortium News & The Walkley Foundation.

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