bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Public Morals Exception: A Failing by the Human Rights Committee and a Threat to International Human Rights Law
Authors: James Hannah
Published: August 2024

By way of its construction, the public morals exception located in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a function of international law which allows for restrictions on the most fundamental of our human rights. However, despite these implications, this justifying ground remains severely understudied and unexplained. This paper seeks to discuss the jurisprudence which surrounds the public morals exception from two angles: first, the requirements for ‘legitimacy’ of such exceptions and second, the broader interpretation of what is meant by the term ‘public morals’ in international human rights law. After analysing the work of the Human Rights Committee on these two concepts, the paper asserts that the level of clarity which has been provided by the body in terms of its discussions on the requirements of human rights exceptions has not been reflected in the Committee’s limited guidance concerning the larger concept of public morality — a complex yet vital part of the discussion surrounding the public morals exception. Due to this lack of clarity by the Human Rights Committee, the paper finds that the international recognition of human rights faces two major issues — a vacuous idea of ‘morality’ which often allows for excessive State discretion, and an overwhelming number of claims under the public morals exception which are clearly unlawful.
BORDERLINE JUSTICE: DIGNITY AND DECENCY OUTSIDE THE MARGINS
Authors: Burnside AO QC Julian
Published: August 2024

Australia’s immigration policy makes a mockery of human dignity through its dehumanisation of rightless refugees. This article narrates the story of a voiceless few who risked their lives in leaky vessels to find freedom in a just and decent society. Instead, what they found was years of emotional and dehumanising abuse brought about through mandatory detention. What does this say about the quality of our society? It is argued that though the social foundation is principally just, it can purge individuals of their self-respect and dignity.
MERCIFUL ACTS AND CRUEL OMISSIONS
Authors: Davis Colleen
Published: August 2024

Criminal law draws a clear distinction between positive acts that cause death, and omissions to do acts that would prevent death. Judges have relied on the differentiation between acts and omissions to determine whether a medical killing is unlawful. However, this act-omission distinction is not an appropriate criterion for determining the lawfulness of the actions of doctors who assist patients who want to die, particularly in cases where competent patients suffer from a medical condition that prevents them from actively killing themselves. This inconsistent application of the act-omission distinction is evident in cases of adult conjoined twins and patients who suffer from locked-in syndrome. Instead, the law should give effect to the rhetoric of respect for patient autonomy and dignity, and regard the consent of a patient of full capacity, in conjunction with the defence of necessity as a complete defence for doctors who help these patients to die a dignified and painless death.
RIGHT TO DIE: THE CORNERSTONE OF A DIGNIFIED SOCIETY
Authors: Spicer Tracey
Published: August 2024

On 25 October 1999 I tried to kill my mother. It would have been a mercy killing. Like many Australian families, we had discussed the issue at length: “If I lose control of my faculties, put me down like a dog”. But when Mum was in agony, dying from pancreatic cancer, the law was against us. Nurses and doctors refused to help for fear of litigation; palliation was ineffective. In this article, I explore the successful models of voluntary euthanasia around the world, and why Tasmania is Australia’s best hope. I counter the assertion by legal scholar and philosopher Professor John Finnis that ‘prohibition of intentional killing is the cornerstone of a civil, safe and functional society’ and instead argue that our current legal framework will prove increasingly inadequate with our ageing population. Fundamentally, the right to die is our greatest human right. It must be respected.
FOOD, ANIMALS, AND THE LAW: DO WE HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE SUFFERING THAT THE LAW DOES NOT?
Authors: Arbon Susan , Duncalfe Zach
Published: August 2024

The dominion of humans over animals imports an obligation to act morally and ethically, and our acceptance of this reflects on our dignity as humans. This paper examines Australian animal welfare laws and how they fail to protect animals used as a food source from unnecessary, unjustifiable, or unreasonable suffering. We must recognise our moral and ethical obligations to the welfare of animals; being in a position to dominate and oppress other creatures does not mean we should. The legacy of mankind should not be founded on the suffering of other creatures. It is a matter of dignity.
ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATIONS: RETHINKING THE NEED TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT LOCAL CONTEXTS IN LEGAL AND POLICY RESPONSES
Authors: Mesnard Adele de
Published: August 2024

The recent intensification of environmental degradations has raised awareness among the international community that their impact on the displacement of populations could be acutely exacerbated in the future. This article criticises the analogy made between traditional refugees and environmental migrants. A universal status specifically dedicated to environmentally induced migrants cannot adequately capture the diversity of migrations induced by environmental degradations. It is necessary to take into account the vulnerability of the most-affected and, above all, of Indigenous peoples. By studying the particular case of Tuvalu and how the terms “environmental refugee” and “migration” are perceived by Tuvaluans, this article illustrates how flexible regional and bilateral agreements could more effectively lead to respect and protection of ties to the land and community.
WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: AN ALTERNATIVE ORGANISING PRINCIPLE?
Authors: Keim SC Stephen
Published: August 2024

National leaders often misuse the concept of terrorism as a political tool, making it an unsatisfactory concept around which to organise models of criminal law. It is particularly unsuited to a coordinated and worldwide law enforcement campaign, which has extended to invasion of sovereign countries; removal and execution of heads of state; the use of torture and killing of civilians. Terrorism is currently defined and prosecuted under criminal law, lending itself to both politicisation and becoming the basis of propaganda. This article seeks to offer alternative organising principles for the prosecution of terrorism — those of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity.
NATIONAL SECURITY REFORMS AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Authors: Hardy Kieran
Published: August 2024

In October 2014, the Abbott government introduced a ‘special intelligence operations’ (‘SIOs’) regime which provides immunity for Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (‘ASIO’) officers who commit unlawful acts in the course of specially-approved undercover operations. Attached to this regime is a secrecy offence, in s 35P of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cth), which prohibits the disclosure of any information relating to SIOs. This article considers the impact of s 35P on press freedom in Australia, and considers options for striking a more appropriate balance between secrecy and accountability. It suggests that a limited public interest exemption based on whistleblower protections in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) would provide the most viable solution for reducing the impact of s 35P on press freedom.
FINALLY BEING HEARD: THE GREAT BARRIER REEF AND THE INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS OF NATURE TRIBUNAL
Authors: Maloney Michelle
Published: August 2024

In January 2014, the newly created International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth (‘the Tribunal’) sat for the first time in Quito, Ecuador. The Tribunal, created by international civil society network ‘The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature’, admitted nine cases, including a claim on behalf of the Great Barrier Reef. Given the Tribunal has emerged from civil society rather than state-centred international law and given Australia’s legal system does not recognise the intrinsic rights of plants, animals, or ecosystems to exist, what possible benefit does this Tribunal offer the Great Barrier Reef? This article suggest that the Tribunal is a powerful alternative to advocate against environmental destruction, and has the potential to play a role in transforming existing law and contribute to the burgeoning field of Earth jurisprudence.
PRABOWO AND THE SHORTCOMINGS OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
Authors: Tan Nikolas Feith
Published: August 2024

On 9 July 2014, Joko Widodo became Indonesia’s seventh president, winning the election by around six percentage points. The man he defeated, Prabowo Subianto, is suspected of committing a range of human rights offences in Java in 1997–98. While Prabowo failed to win the presidency, his strong candidacy highlights the ongoing impunity for perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Indonesia. Despite a human rights court being legislated for in Indonesia, it is yet to prosecute past human rights abuses by state officials. This article explores Prabowo’s human rights abuses and how international criminal law has failed to achieve justice for these crimes. It concludes that Prabowo’s political rise threatens the aims of international criminal justice.
AUSTRALIA’S POWER TO DETAIN: A FOREIGN NATIONAL’S PLANNED REMOVAL OPERATION TO A THIRD COUNTRY
Authors: Ogawa Megumi
Published: August 2024

The removal operation of a detainee by the Australian Department of Immigration is surrounded by secrecy. This article considers a document revealing the Department’s intention to detain a Japanese national in Thailand during transit to the national’s home destination, Japan. The Japanese national in question is the author of this article, thereby presenting a first-hand account of her experience. The article discusses the legal issues arising from this situation, namely, the power of Australian Government officials to detain a foreign national in another country in the process of their removal from Australia. In doing so, it examines the relevance of various statutory provisions, common law principles, and bilateral agreements. Although the author’s planned removal did not eventuate, this article highlights the existence of a legal issue and calls for urgent law reform.
VOLUME 3(2) FULL ISSUE
Authors: * Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity
Published: August 2024

Full Issue
BLOOD ON ITS HANDS
Authors: Myers Robert
Published: August 2024

The actions of the Australian Federal Police, in providing to the Indonesian National Police the identity of eight Australian citizens, comprising eight of the Bali Nine, and the details of their intended crime, exposing them to the death penalty, can never be justified. This paper will argue that inferences and implications arising from Australian legislation and guidelines impose restrictions on cooperation with foreign nations, where such cooperation could lead to the death of an Australia citizen. Furthermore, it will be argued that the Australian Federal Police possessed more than sufficient evidence to justify the apprehension of those eight Australian citizens. The Australian Federal Police continue to contend that they would act, in similar circumstances, in the same way. Therefore, immediate steps must be taken to ensure that no Australian citizen is ever again exposed to the risk of the death penalty in similar circumstances.
THE ISLAMIC STATE AND THE QUESTION OF CHANGE IN SHARIA
Authors: Pargoo Mahmoud
Published: August 2024

This paper is a response to An-Naʿim’s thesis opposing the notion of the Islamic state. It begins by critiquing the premises of his arguments and goes on to propose the thesis of underdetermination of Sharia rulings by their textual sources. My main criticism of An-Naʿim is that he overlooks the potential for change in Islamic law and considers it unable to accommodate new concepts of democracy, human rights, and gender equality. I argue, in contrast, that Sharia has the potential to diverge from what is considered the literal meaning of its textual sources and accommodate new theories, concepts, and values. My argument is based on a detailed exploration of the three-step exegetical procedure through which religious rulings are shaped. Throughout this procedure, there is extensive room for any jurist to insert their own personal preferences. Based on this, I conclude that sacred texts proper do not determine Islamic legal rulings and that extra-textual factors play a more important role than the text itself in determining the content of final rulings.
VOLUME 4(1) FULL ISSUE
Authors: Human Dignity Griffith Journal of Law and
Published: August 2024

Full Issue
Volume 4(2) Full Issue
Authors: Law and Human Dignity Griffith Journal of
Published: August 2024

Full Issue
The Story of a 'Left-Behind' Child of China
Authors: Lyu Juntao
Published: August 2024

In China today, there are an estimated 61 million children that have been separated from their parents — the so-called “left-behind” children of China. As one of the “left-behind” generation, I have experienced the poverty, separation, and struggles that characterise these hard times. On reflection, the strong influence of rural Chinese gendered and cultural norms are paramount to understanding my experience and those who grew up alongside me. My story is by no means universal — the challenges faced by Chinese “left-behind” children are wide-ranging, and as diverse and complex as China itself. After all, my story is just one story of millions, and it is one of privilege when considering the experiences of others. While China’s rural-urban move has brought significant financial improvements and opportunities for many, this comes at a price for those left behind.
Undertaking Forensic Procedures With, and Databasing DNA From, Young Offenders: Future Directions for Human Rights Protections
Authors: Baker Bethney , Dwyer Angela
Published: August 2024

Forensic procedures and DNA profiling are commonly used policing techniques employed to solve crimes and prosecute offenders. In more recent times, there has been a focus on the implications of these processes with alleged young offenders. This paper discusses the broader human rights issues for young offenders around these procedures and processes in relation to a specific case study: legislative frameworks in Queensland, Australia. First, the paper overviews what forensic procedures and DNA databases are, generally, and the types of information that can be gleaned from DNA collected through forensic procedures and subsequently databased. Second, the paper analyses Queensland legislative frameworks in terms of human rights issues raised by conducting forensic procedures and DNA databasing with alleged young offenders. The paper concludes by considering possible future directions around forensic procedures and DNA databasing with alleged young offenders, with reference to existing legislative frameworks.
Ag-Gag Laws: Corporate Attempts to Keep Consumers in the Dark
Authors: Potter Will
Published: August 2024

The only way we, as consumers, have begun to see behind the closed doors of factory farms is through the work of whistleblowers and undercover investigators. In recent years, the animal agriculture industry has been rocked by a series of exposés that have revealed the true story of our food. These investigations, led by non-profit animal protection organisations, have used photography and video cameras to document egregious acts of animal cruelty, along with standard industry practices. They have garnered international media coverage, prompted historic prosecutions, and most importantly, created a cultural shift in how consumers understand animal agriculture. Rather than condemn these abuses, change their policies, and respond to consumer demand, the agriculture industry has responded by attempting to shoot the messenger. The industry has labelled whistleblowers as “terrorists" and supported new laws to silence them. ‘Ag-gag’ laws — ‘ag’ is for ‘agriculture’, ‘gag’ is ‘to silence’ — are an explicit attempt that began in the United States to outlaw undercover investigations and whistleblowing if they negatively portray the industry. These proposals — introduced in 25 states, passed into law in six, and now spreading internationally, including Australia — eliminate the only meaningful oversight of this massive industry and allow it to continue operating without oversight or accountability.  The industry's efforts to restrict information in the United States has become an international model for corporate efforts to keep consumers in the dark.
The Real Socratic Method: At the Heart of Legal Education is a Misunderstanding of Why Socrates Asked So Many Questions.
Authors: Krook Joshua
Published: August 2024

In a true Socratic law school, I suggest, students would be instructed to ask questions of those in authority instead of answering them. Nothing and no one would be beyond a student’s questioning, especially by virtue of claims to authority or expertise alone. Students would be empowered to question the wisdom of professors, judges, politicians, and the law itself, unpacking the hidden values, ideological motivations, and philosophical foundations of legal principles. By questioning the origins of law, students would learn to refine their critical thinking and analytical skills to judge whether or not a law, in itself, is just.
Participation in Social Media by Potential Jurors
Authors: Barns Greg , Downey Kaylene
Published: August 2024

This article examines the issue of the impact media publicity in a criminal trial context given the unprecedented reach of pre-trial commentary on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The paper considers how courts have responded to these phenomena, with reference to a particular criminal trial in New South Wales in 2014 when a well-known actor was subjected to an extraordinary level media frenzy following his arrest for sexual offences.   Relevant to this and other high profile cases is whether jurors can act impartially in the face of relentless pre-trial commentary and publicity and whether courts should simply rely on selected jurors to remove themselves from participation in the trial if their impartiality is compromised. The question is posed as to whether it is timely to consider allowing the prosecution and defence to investigate juror participation in pre-trial social media commentary during the jury selection process.
John Marsden's Impatience and LGBTIQ Rights: The Ongoing Challenges for Equality
Authors: Kirby AC CMG Michael
Published: August 2024

A biennial lecture to commemorate a prominent lawyer and civil libertarian, John Marsden, takes as its theme his commitment to LGBTIQ equality. It collects some positive developments that have occurred in the world since John Marsden’s death in 2006, including judicial decisions and legislative reforms. Most significantly, the advance in the availability of marriage to LBGTIQ persons has been remarkable, although delayed in Australia by parliamentary indecision and by a postal survey. Negative developments are also recorded, most especially the widespread persistence of criminal laws originating in colonial times and a log-jam preventing their reform. The year 2016 saw the establishment of the mandate of the UN Human Rights Council for an Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. That mandate narrowly survived attempts to terminate or defund it in the UN General Assembly in late 2016; but the strength of the negative vote suggests the difficulties that still lie ahead.
Rape in South Korea: Breaking the Silence
Authors: Mattner Airdre
Published: August 2024

This article is a personal recount of being drugged, abducted, and raped in a foreign country. The expectation after reporting this horrific experience to the police was that justice would be served, following a thorough, effective investigation. However, this was not to be, as this article indicates. Because of the systemic difficulties encountered, I resorted to taking on both the investigation of my case and the police themselves in my pursuit of justice, leading to significant and unprecedented outcomes.
Pre-Planned Starvation and Advanced Dementia — Is There a Choice?
Authors: Davis Colleen
Published: August 2024

Canadian Margot Bentley’s thoughts on Alzheimer’s disease were quite clear. In a written statement of her wishes, she said, ‘I want it to be known that I fear degradation and indignity far more than death.’ She repeatedly made her wishes known to her family, verbally and in two written documents. However, judges refused to enforce Mrs Bentley’s directive that food and drink be withheld when the disease progressed to the point that she no longer recognised her family. The reasons for the court’s decision are relevant to Australians who want to pre-plan a death from starvation, in the event that they develop Alzheimer’s and the disease progresses to a pre-determined stage. This paper considers the legislative scheme in Queensland for health care decision-making for a person without capacity and concludes that the outcome in a case with facts similar to Mrs Bentley’s would probably be the same.
Defining Rape in War: Challenges and Dilemmas
Authors: Simić Dr Olivera , Collings Jean
Published: August 2024

This paper is an analysis of the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) decision in the case of The Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba, handed down in 2016. This case was the first at the ICC to deliver a conviction for the crime of rape during armed conflict and marks the most recent attempt to accurately and comprehensively define the crime of wartime rape. In assessing the ICC’s definition, we have drawn significantly from the case law in relation to wartime rape that emerged from the International Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. These international tribunals provided a space for significant development in this area of law and were the catalyst for rich feminist academic discourse. We argue that the ICC has inadequately addressed gender stereotypes that have dominated the process of criminalising wartime rape since it was first introduced into international law.  We base this argument on the ICC’s decision to adopt a definition of wartime rape that is over-reliant on a consideration of the surrounding circumstances of the act and does not link these circumstances to a consideration of the victim’s lack of consent. We identify three ways in which the Bemba definition has failed to challenge the generalising and over-simplification of gender roles in armed conflict. The first is that it has diminished female sexual agency by representing armed conflict as a zone in which consensual sexual penetration is a legal impossibility. Second, this has contributed to the perpetuation of the ideal victim archetype that plagues narratives of wartime rape and sexual violence. The representation of victims as powerless, female civilians or refugees creates a dangerous binary construct of the victim and perpetrator roles that only serves to flatten the complex and nuanced ways in which sexual agency is exercised during times of war. Finally, the perpetuation of the ideal victim/perpetrator archetype also threatens the ICC’s ability to appropriately protect the right of the accused to a fair trial and a presumption of innocence.
The Kapo on Film: Tragic Perpetrators and Imperfect Victims
Authors: Drumbl Mark A
Published: August 2024

The Nazis coerced and enlisted detainees into the administration of the labour and death camps. These detainees were called Kapos. The Kapos constitute a particularly contested, and at times tabooified, element of Holocaust remembrance. Some Kapos deployed their situational authority to ease the conditions of other prisoners, while others acted cruelly and committed abuse. This project explores treatment of the Kapo on film. This paper considers two films:  Kapò (1959, directed by Pontecorvo, Italy) and Kapo (2000, directed by Setton, Israel).  These two films vary in genre: Kapò (1959) is a feature fiction movie, whereas Kapo (2000) is a documentary. Both films nonetheless vivify themes of agency, blame, survival, shame, sacrifice, and recrimination. This paper interrogates how these creative works speak of victims who victimise others and the pain that results; how these works contribute to history, memory, and recollection; and didactically how they explain ‘what happened,’ ‘why,’ and ‘what to do now’. This paper additionally contrasts cinematographic accounts and criminal law’s accounts, in particular, those in Israel’s Kapo trials. In the 1950’s, the Knesset passed legislation — the Nazi and Nazi Collaboration Punishment Act — to criminally charge suspected Jewish Kapos who had immigrated to the state of Israel following the Holocaust. Authorities conducted approximately forty prosecutions. The trials were awkward, the language of judgment gnarly, the absolutes of conviction or acquittal crudely reductionist, and the judges ‘trembled’ at having to sentence. This paper contends that cinematographic depictions of victim-victimisers can sooth the criminal law’s anxieties by filling spaces it poorly serves.
West Papua Exposed: An Abandoned Non-Self-Governing or Trust Territory
Authors: McKinlay King Julian , Johnson Andrew
Published: August 2024

This paper examines the shift in legal status that should have occurred, under the United Nations (‘UN’) Charter, with the transfer of West Papua from the Netherlands to the United Nations in 1962 via the ‘Indonesia and Netherlands Agreement (with annex) concerning West New Guinea (West Irian)’. It advances that this agreement must be a Trusteeship Agreement shifting West Papua’s legal status from a Non-Self-Governing Territory of the Netherlands to a Trust Territory of the United Nations. As such, the United Nations via the Trusteeship Council was, and remains, responsible to ensure the West Papuan people attain self-government or independence as required under Article 76(b) of the Charter. The argument is based upon Chapters XI, XII, and XIII of the UN Charter governing decolonisation and is further supported by admissions contained in now-declassified secret American, Australian, and United Nations documents from the period. A legal path to assist the people of West Papua to attain their rightful independence is also advanced utilising the Rules of Procedure of the Trusteeship Council where any UN Member can add an agenda item, and inhabitants from the Territory or other parties can present petitions, to draw the Council’s attention to a breach of the International Trusteeship System. This will allow the Trusteeship Council to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice as available under Article 96 of the UN Charter and authorised by General Assembly Resolution 171(III) Part B. This legal opinion should also empower the World community to come to the assistance of the West Papuan people as encouraged under General Assembly Resolution 2621(XXV).
Made by Them, Followed by Us: Challenging the Perception of Law through the Deconstruction of Jurisprudential Assumptions
Authors: Twemlow Joy
Published: August 2024

The standard position within western thought is that the bulk of domestic law derives from, and is legitimised by, the local populous. Through the institution of democratic representation, it is rationalised that the resulting law produced reflects the social consciousness of the population at the time. While there are a number of limitations to this argument, this paper focuses on the juxtaposition of this stance with the public perception that law is inaccessible, complicated, and prestigious. By looking at the ways in which jurisprudential assumptions contribute to this dissonance between law and the public and exploring what accessibility to the law means, this paper argues that law must acknowledge and incorporate different perceptions — that, at its core, access to law is about being able to engage in a conversation.
Volume 6 Issue 2 Full Issue
Authors: Law & Human Dignity Griffith Journal of
Published: August 2024

Full Issue
FINANCIAL EQUALITY, THE IGNORED HUMAN RIGHT: HOW E-CURRENCIES CAN LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD
Authors: Abu-Meita Zeina , Inglis Nick
Published: August 2024

Digitisation of currency is inevitable as less people are using cash, and the reliance on plastic, apps, and online services is ever increasing. Anonymity/privacy, equal access to financial services, and monetary sovereignty are but a few issues that arise from digitisation. Because most e-financial services are provided through corporate means, anonymity/privacy have been eroded while also excluding those who are not target clients, creating a gap in financial equality. Governments could remedy the contention by enshrining in the law access to financial services as a human right for their citizens. The law and human rights would then drive the direction of the technology, rather than commercial interests.
EDITORIAL
Authors: Antal Vanessa
Published: August 2024

We have the ability to converse with robots through virtual assistants, and 3D print what comes to mind. We have taken the ideas from science fiction, and made them a scientific reality — creating innovation at a pace incomparable to any other industrial advancement s of our past. Of course, we don’t often think about what an amazing — and colossal — feat this actually is. On the contrary, we utilise its convenience as much as possible, without giving too much thought to the logistics of this paradigm. Notwithstanding the fact that we have been quick to reap the benefits of this, we are yet to give vital consideration to the influence these developments will continue to deliver; the vitual assistant in your mobile is not the climax of the innovation we've yet to see.
'Doing Her Time': A Human Rights Analysis of Overcrowding in Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre
Authors: Leach Erin
Published: August 2024

At the end of 2016, the Queensland Ombudsman released his report ‘Overcrowding at Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre’. This investigation, alongside reports from the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland and Crime and Corruption Commission Queensland reveal that, despite the best efforts of Queensland Correctives Services, there are a number of potential human rights violations that have arisen within Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre as a result of ongoing overcrowding. As of 27 February 2019, Queensland has become the third Australian state or territory  to pass a human rights Act, 14 years after the Australian Capital Territory introduced the Human Rights Act 2004, and 12 years after Victoria introduced the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006. In 2019, Australia remains to be the only Western democracy that is yet to introduce a national Act or bill of human rights. This article will consider the potential violations of female prisoners’ human rights inside Queensland’s largest female correctional facility, drawing on case law from Canada, Scotland, and the ECtHR to discuss their potential for recourse under Queensland’s new Human Rights Act 2019.
No! to Affirmative Consent: A Reply to Anna Kerr
Authors: Dyer Andrew
Published: August 2024

This is part of a four-piece conversation published in this issue, and a response to Anna Kerr’s ‘Cups of Tea, Joyriding and Shaking Hands – The Vexed Issue of Consent’.
Cups of Tea, Joyriding and Shaking Hands – the Vexed Issue of Consent
Authors: Kerr Anna
Published: August 2024

This manuscript is the first of a four-piece conversation between Anna Kerr and Andrew Dyer, on the topic of affirmative consent, published in this issue. Our Journal has been invested in the conversation surrounding a shift toward communicated consent, and the ‘Yes means yes’ movement. As a Board we felt that this reply series would be an important and timely contribution to consent laws in Australia.
The Dangers of Absolutes – and a Few Other Matters: A Response to Anna Kerr’s Reply
Authors: Dyer Andrew
Published: August 2024

This paper is not subject to peer-review and is the final instalment of this Right to Reply series, published in this issue.
Endangering Sacred Cows - Protecting Journalist Sources in War-Time
Authors: Levett Simon
Published: August 2024

Journalist source protection forms part of the public interest in protecting rights but it also involves secrecy which can harm the public interest. The secret nature of journalist source protection means that citizens are unable to make fully formed decisions on issues such as war and foreign policy. This is demonstrated by successive United States media-military policies, by which source secrecy contributed to a lack of information about the identities of actors in war, including potentially for war crimes and other serious violations of law. The Law – the United States Supreme Court, the International Criminal Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights - offers an alternative to source secrecy to different degrees; these bodies generally define the relevant public interest in terms of the right of the public to know in regards to the commission of a crime. It could also behove soft law mechanisms such as a media Code of Ethics to make a stronger statement in respect of the public’s access to information to make more fully formed decisions on issues such as war and foreign policy.
The right to a healthy environment in Australia
Authors: Pointon Revel , Bell-James Justine
Published: August 2024

While Australia does not have human rights enshrined in our Constitution, and only limited reflection through other federal laws, various states have introduced legislation that seeks to recognise and protect human rights. As the dialogue around legal protection of human rights in Australia grows, where does the right to a healthy environment sit in this discussion? The right to a healthy environment has been integrated into over 150 legal frameworks around the world; Australia remains one of only 15 countries without the right to a healthy environment enshrined in our federal laws or constitution. This article reviews how the right has been both characterized and put into practice overseas, with a view to determining how Australian jurisdictions could benefit from this right being legislated
A Model Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill
Authors: White Ben , Willmott Lindy
Published: August 2024

Voluntary assisted dying is a vexed and contested issue. Despite this complexity, over recent years there has been a shift in the national debate as successive governments put the issue of voluntary assisted dying on the political agenda. Reform is likely to be a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. As such, it is imperative now to consider carefully what shape reform should take rather than uncritically adopt the legislative model recently passed by the Victorian Government. In an attempt to widen the Australian debate, the authors offer this Bill and its Explanatory Notes for consideration. Since finalising the manuscript, the authors also note that the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 was passed by the Western Australian Parliament.
When Transparency Can Be Deadly: Reporting of Identifiable and Locatable Personal Information in AAT Couple Rule Decisions that Involve Domestic Violence
Authors: Sleep Lyndal Naomi , Gras Diaz Luisa
Published: August 2024

When a person discloses domestic or family violence, it is vital that identifying or locatable information be managed with appropriate protective factors in place. This is because there is a very real risk of perpetrators locating their victims and their children and inflecting further harm. It is also due to the sensitive nature of this information. Sleep found that one in five ‘couple rule’ decisions reported by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) involved domestic violence. Further, that these decisions report identifiable and locatable information about domestic violence victims and their children and are freely accessible to the public online. This puts victims and their children at increased risk of further abuse from their perpetrator.  This paper argues that more care should be taken when disclosing individual’s identifiable and locatable information in reporting of decisions by tribunals like the AAT, especially in situations that involve sensitive and/or risky information like ‘couple rule’ decisions that involve domestic violence. This is demonstrated through a content analysis of AAT ‘couple rule’ decisions that are publically available online and involve domestic violence.
Response to White and Willmott
Authors: Syme Rodney
Published: August 2024

The following article is a reply to ‘A Model Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill’ by Ben White and Lindy Willmott. The comments made were not subject to peer-review and reflect the opinion of Rodney and his critique of the Model Bill.
Queering Asian Values
Authors: Hou Erich
Published: August 2024

One of the often-raised arguments against the global same-sex marriage movement in Asia is the traditional ‘Asian values’ which deems Eastern communitarian values such as filial piety, loyalty towards family, corporation, government or nation more important than the Western individual freedom and sexual rights. This is evidenced in the recent speeches of the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad.This renewed interest in the ‘Asian values’ debate is ever more important when the call for personal freedom in the region seems to be escalating. Starting from the Bangkok Declaration (1993), Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations (1993) and Graham Allison’s Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides Trap? (2017), this paper intends to investigate the validity of ‘Asian values’ from an alternative viewpoint, Queer Legal Theory (QLT), a sexual minorities perspective of law and society.Using dialectic juxtapositions during the Asian values debate in the 1990s represented by Lee Kuan Yew and Kim Dae-jung, this paper also intends to explore the development of majoritarian rule, democracy and human rights in Asia. In short, it aims to answer the question, is a democracy based on human rights and dignity feasible in Asia despite of its presumably different values from the rest of the world?
Can Surfers Have Traditional Knowledge Intellectual Property?
Authors: Berry Todd , Lawson Charles
Published: August 2024

Various international agreements address traditional knowledge (TK), Indigenous Peoples and local communities. A distinction exists between the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and the traditional knowledge of local communities. The World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) is negotiating a text in anticipation of a Diplomatic Conference to agree on binding obligations about TK distinguishing between the TK of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This article reports on a pilot study assessing the TK of the surfing community of the Gold Coast, Australia in the context of a local community’s TK. Through semi-structured interviews of surfers and non-surfers the following hypotheses were tested: (1) that surfers exist as a local community; and (2) as a local community, surfers have special forms of knowledge and practices particular to their local community that might be characterised as TK. The results of this pilot study show that surfers are a local community and that they do have special forms of knowledge and practices that might be characterised as TK. If this is the intended reach of WIPO’s new form of intellectual property, then this will extend well into the economies of developed countries.
Democratizing International Agreements in the Context of Inter-State Hierarchies
Authors: Giurlando Philip
Published: August 2024

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on accountability and world politics by bringing to the discussion some of the insights of scholarship on international hierarchy. This literature goes beyond the well-known debate between realists and liberals, and explores status-based models which highlight how both material and normative factors constitute Great Powers. This elite class of states can help to make international agreements more accountable because they have the material means of enforcement, and because their divergent interests and diverse normative orientations help to broaden representation. When the world’s Great Powers cooperate to solve global problems, and their proposals include mechanisms for dispute resolution overseen by global governance institutions, agreements are more likely to generate ‘legitimacy’, a concept which refers to weaker states’ willingness to accept the decisions of the powerful because of the sense of fairness and the benefits which accrue to those impacted by the agreement. To illustrate an example, the paper will discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an approach to nuclear non-proliferation overseen by the world’s Great Powers and accepted by other members of the international community, strong and weak alike.
The Coronavirus: Old vs Young
Authors: Allan James
Published: August 2024

This paper makes a sceptical case against the way Australia’s government (and most other governments) invoked lockdowns to handle the coronavirus outbreak. This governmental response amounted to one of the biggest inroads into civil liberties in this country ever. It was based on modelling that has not stood the test of time. It significantly hurt those in the small business private sector but not those in public service or the politicians themselves. And most particularly, it was a response that differentially affected those who are young considerably more than those who are old. The author considers the morality of that and argues that this has been one of the worst public policy misfires of the last century.
The Potential of International Rights-Based Climate Litigation to Advance Human Rights Law and Climate Justice
Authors: Lewis Bridget
Published: August 2024

In recent years climate litigation has increasingly incorporated arguments based on human rights law. More recently, this trend has shifted to international and regional human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the UN human rights committees. This paper examines three contemporary complaints in which groups affected by climate change allege violations of their rights based on states’ failures to enact adequate mitigation and adaptation policies. It argues that, while the cases have yet to be decided, they present a number of issues which are in need of clarification and therefore have the potential to advance the application of human rights law to climate change. These issues include questions relating to standing and admissibility, the nature of states’ obligations in the context of climate change, and the apportionment of responsibility for cumulative and long-term climate harms. In particular, because the cases include children and Indigenous peoples, they offer an opportunity for judicial interpretation of states’ obligations towards groups who have specific experiences of climate change. In this way they have potential to advance the cause of climate justice, not only for the specific petitioners, but for marginalised groups everywhere.
Ideological Vandalism of Public Statues: Copyright, The Moral Right of Integrity and Racial Justice
Authors: Hadley Marie , Hook Sarah , Orr Nikolas
Published: August 2024

This paper considers the regulation of ideological vandalism by the Australian copyright and moral rights regimes in the context of the defacement of public art statues that occurred in Australia and overseas during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Statue vandalism is approached as a form of anti-racist or anti-colonial iconoclasm that contributes to discourse around previous and continuing racial inequities. Law is approached as a form of symbolic action that can consolidate the alienation and othering of vulnerable groups in public spaces. The authors investigate whether, when public statues are within the copyright term, intellectual property rights symbolically devalue anti-racist discourse by de-prioritising agonistic art encounters. It is identified that copyright’s exclusive rights do not render direct physical interventions with the statue unlawful, but that the moral right of integrity held by the statue’s creator is problematic. The moral right of integrity privileges the connection between the artist and their work as a matter of reputation, and any public interest in the graffitied counter-monument is irrelevant to a finding of infringement, which in our view justifies reform. The paper concludes that public spaces should be democratic spaces, and that intellectual property law in post-colonial states and states with a history of racial injustice should do more in support of this goal.
Inclusive Education in Tunisia: Expectations versus Reality
Authors: AYADI Mouna
Published: August 2024

The study aimed to investigate the barriers to the implementation of inclusive education practices in Tunisia. This study is distinguished by a focus on the psychological barriers to inclusive education. Second, it is distinguished by using speech act theory to investigate Tunisian inclusive education provisions. A mixed-methods research approach was used to achieve the study’s goal. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a stratified sample of forty-four English teacher. The qualitative data was collected by analyzing five legal provisions using the Speech Act theory. According to the findings, various issues such as inappropriate policy development, insufficient support and resources, and curriculum issues hampered the implementation of inclusive education. Furthermore, an examination of the provisions revealed that the actual outcomes fell short of the authorities’ expectations, highlighting the need for additional action and support to achieve true inclusivity in education. As a result, policymakers and educators must address these issues and provide comprehensive support to ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality education.
Tratamento da hiponatremia crônica em pacientes hospitalizados
Authors: Dias Milena da Nóbrega , Coelho Adalzira Andreina Cavalcanti de Miranda , Bonifácio Mariana Abrantes Maciel , Custódio Sanny Selma Ferreira , Costa Lucianne Maria Aguiar Machado de Almeida , Bastos Dhiny Dhoplim Santos , Mathias Gabriella Igreja Petitet , Bandeira Thiago Maio , Schiphorst Luana Vasconcellos Mendonça , Fernandes Jaqueline Giselle Farias , Júnior Raimundo Nogueira de Oliveira , Amaral Maria Luiza Megale Brandão Gurgel do , Correia Kharla Letticia de Castro Loiola , Martins Lívia Maria Bezerra , Neto João Aracaty Caldas
Published: August 2024

A hiponatremia crônica, comumente observada em pacientes hospitalizados, pode ser atribuída a diversas condições clínicas subjacentes, incluindo insuficiência cardíaca congestiva, cirrose hepática e síndrome nefrótica. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar as abordagens terapêuticas para a hiponatremia crônica, considerando as estratégias de tratamento atuais e suas eficácias. Realizou-se uma revisão integrativa utilizando as bases de dados Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO) e Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), com descritores em ciências da saúde como “hiponatremia crônica”, “tratamento”, e “pacientes hospitalizados”. Os resultados indicaram que as terapias incluem a restrição de líquidos, a administração de soluções hipertônicas e medicamentos como os antagonistas do receptor de vasopressina. As conclusões sugerem que a escolha do tratamento deve ser individualizada com base na etiologia e gravidade da hiponatremia