Members of regional parliaments are increasingly alarmed at the continuing violence in the Indonesian Papuan provinces and at the seeming inability of the Indonesian Government to administer these territories without a large military presence. The refusal of permission for journalists and many aid workers to enter the provinces is a growing cause of concern. On Read more
Burma is one of the most tightly-controlled countries in the world. Although elections last year replaced the military regime with a civilian one, the country still regularly ranks among the worst for human rights and corruption. Despite this, a group of New Zealanders has set up a successful microfinance charity providing small loans to the Read more
The Samoa government has endorsed a recommendation by the Law Reform Commission that the criminal libel offence be dropped but it has rejected recommendations that it abolish offences such as adultery and sodomy.
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Green Party candidate Keith Locke says any changes to royal succession laws must end all discrimination against Catholics. British Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed a change in royal succession law to remove the bias against female heirs and the disqualification on a heir who marries a Catholic. Locke said the Government should tell Cameron Read more
All Pacific nations recently completed their Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Cook Islands, Kiribati, PNG, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu all retain colonial-era anti-sodomy laws. Palau and Nauru have pledged to decriminalise homosexuality following the audit of their human rights as part of the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) review. But Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Read more
This account of living with disability highlights this month’s focus on respecting life. Sarah is in Year 4 at St Patrick’s Kilbirnie and her story tells of a danger many people with disability face, that of being known only for their condition rather than as people who live with a disability: “My condition is called Read more
Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, Richard Marles, was recently interviewed about the relationship between Australia and Fiji. He said that Australia’s beef is not with the the Fiji people, “in fact quite the opposite. We want to stand with the people of Fiji in what is a very difficult time for them.” He said Australia took issue Read more
Life is getting back to normal in Tripoli according to its Apostolic Vicar, Bishop Giovanni Martinelli. “Life begins to return slowly back to normality. There are no particular difficulties,” the bishop said. “In the past days Masses were celebrated without problems and safely,” he added. “Among the Catholics present in Libya I once again want Read more
China wants to cement in law police powers to hold dissidents and other suspects of state security crimes in secret locations without telling their families, under draft legislation released on Tuesday that has been decried by rights advocates.
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